The Slicing Continues – KFF Well being Information

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Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is already appearing on his anti-vaccine views, ordering an finish of analysis into why individuals turn out to be vaccine-hesitant and requesting new analysis on the long-debunked concept that vaccines could cause autism in kids. Coincidentally, the Trump administration on the final minute pulled the nomination of former GOP congressman and vaccine skeptic Dave Weldon to go the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, maybe signaling that Republicans within the Senate are rising uncomfortable with the difficulty.

In the meantime, Congress continues to ponder easy methods to lower as a lot as $880 billion in spending — presumably from Medicaid — at a time when extra beneficiaries of the federal government well being program for these with low incomes and disabilities have turn out to be Republican voters.

 This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Anna Edney of Bloomberg Information, Shefali Luthra of The 19^th, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• The Trump administration’s last-minute determination to tug the nomination of Dave Weldon to go the CDC — shortly earlier than his affirmation listening to earlier than the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee was set to start Thursday morning — has fueled hypothesis that Weldon’s anti-vaccine views meant he didn’t have sufficient Senate help to win affirmation. Weldon, a doctor and former Florida congressman, has superior debunked theories about vaccines and autism.
• Senate Democrats threatened to vote towards a seamless decision, or CR, to fund the federal government by means of Sept. 30. The measure handed narrowly within the Home, with only one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, voting for it. Senate Democrats oppose the stopgap spending invoice on many fronts, together with its proposed cuts to medical analysis and its lack of a “repair” to forestall cost cuts to medical doctors who settle for Medicare sufferers. The Democrats suggest a 30-day authorities funding invoice to permit negotiations on a bipartisan measure. The Home adjourned after passing the CR on Tuesday and isn’t scheduled to return to Washington till March 24.
• The Medicaid program could also be garnering extra help as Republicans proceed to debate easy methods to lower federal spending to finance a significant tax lower package deal. The influence of Medicaid funding cuts on rural hospitals and on the Medicaid enlargement inhabitants that gained protection as a part of the Inexpensive Care Act are two areas of debate as Home Republicans deliberate.
• Continued staffing reductions at federal businesses are stoking considerations about decrease ranges of service to constituents and worsening psychological well being within the federal workforce. If federal staff are dismissed for poor efficiency — a cost many federal workers have referred to as false as a result of they obtained optimistic job efficiency critiques — then they don’t obtain severance and can’t acquire unemployment. With 8 in 10 federal staff employed exterior the Washington, D.C., space, the sweeping impacts of reductions within the federal workforce are being felt far past the Beltway.
• The Trump administration’s determination to cancel $250 million in Nationwide Institutes of Well being grants to Columbia College is the newest in an ongoing marketing campaign to chop federal analysis funding. The uncertainty in federal funding has brought about a number of faculties to freeze hiring and rescind some graduate pupil admissions, elevating considerations that the Trump administration’s insurance policies are disrupting scientific analysis. Latest strikes from HHS to permit new guidelines and rules with out public remark and new restrictions from the Nationwide Most cancers Institute on what subjects require evaluation earlier than publication (vaccines, fluoride, and autism are actually on the listing) are elevating considerations that politics is taking part in a bigger position in federal well being coverage.

Additionally this week, Rovner interviews Jeff Grant, who lately retired from CMS after 41 years in authorities service.

Plus, for “further credit score,” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn this week they suppose it is best to learn, too:

Julie Rovner: NBC Information’ “‘You Lose All Hope’: Federal Employees Gripped by Psychological Well being Misery Amid Trump Cuts,” by Natasha Korecki.

Shefali Luthra: The New York Occasions’ “15 Classes Scientists Realized About Us When the World Stood Nonetheless,” by Claire Cain Miller and Irineo Cabreros.

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The Atlantic’s “His Daughter Was America’s First Measles Demise in a Decade,” by Tom Bartlett.

Anna Edney: Bloomberg Information’ “India Commerce Group Blasts Examine Linking Medication to Security Dangers,” by Satviki Sanjay.

Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:

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