The Host
The Biden administration continued a bipartisan, decades-long effort to make sure that medical health insurance treats psychological sicknesses the identical as different illnesses, with a brand new set of rules aimed toward making certain that companies are literally out there with out years-long waits or extreme out-of-pocket prices.
In the meantime, two extra committees in Congress accredited payments this week aimed toward reining within the energy of pharmacy profit managers, who’re accused of maintaining prescription drug costs excessive to extend their backside strains.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Anna Edney of Bloomberg, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being and Politico, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet.
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
- The Biden administration’s new guidelines to implement federal psychological well being parity necessities embody no risk of sanctions when well being plans don’t comply; noncompliance with even essentially the most minimal federal guidelines has been an issue courting to the Nineteen Nineties. Enhancing entry to psychological well being care shouldn’t be a brand new coverage precedence, nor a partisan one, but it stays tough to realize.
- With the anniversary of the 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline, extra individuals are turning into conscious of find out how to entry assist and get it. Challenges stay, nevertheless, such because the hotline service’s lack of ability to attach callers with native care. However this system seizes on the ability of an preliminary connection for somebody in a second of disaster and provides a lifeline for a nation experiencing excessive charges of melancholy, anxiousness, and suicide.
- In information concerning the so-called Medicaid unwinding, 12 states have paused disenrollment efforts amid considerations they aren’t following renewal necessities. A serious consideration is that the majority people who find themselves disenrolled would qualify to acquire cheap and even free protection via the Inexpensive Care Act. However reenrollment may be difficult, significantly for these with language boundaries or housing insecurity, as an example.
- With a flurry of committee exercise, Congress is revving as much as go laws by 12 months’s finish focusing on the position of pharmacy profit managers — and, primarily based on the ads blanketing Washington, PBMs are nervous. It seems laws would enhance transparency and inform policymakers as they ponder additional, extra substantive modifications. That may very well be a troublesome promote to a public crying out for reduction from excessive well being care prices.
- Additionally on Capitol Hill, far-right lawmakers are pushing to insert abortion restrictions into annual authorities spending payments, threatening yet one more authorities shutdown on Oct. 1. The difficulty is inflicting heartburn for much less conservative Republicans who don’t need extra abortion votes forward of their reelection campaigns.
- And the injury to a Pfizer storage facility by a twister is amplifying considerations about drug shortages. After troubling issues with a manufacturing unit in India induced shortages of vital most cancers medicine, decision-makers in Washington have been maintaining a tally of the rising points, and a response could also be brewing.
Additionally this week, Rovner interviews KFF Well being Information’ Céline Gounder concerning the new season of her “Epidemic” podcast. This season chronicles the profitable public well being effort to eradicate smallpox.
Plus, for “additional credit score,” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn this week that they suppose it’s best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The Nation’s “The Anti-Abortion Motion Will get a Dose of Put up-Roe Actuality,” by Amy Littlefield.
Joanne Kenen: Meals & Atmosphere Reporting Community’s “Can Biden’s Local weather-Good Agriculture Program Reside As much as the Hype?” by Gabriel Popkin.
Anna Edney: Bloomberg’s “Mineral Sunscreens Have Potential Hidden Risks, Too,” by Anna Edney.
Sarah Karlin-Smith: CNN’s “They Took Blockbuster Medication for Weight Loss and Diabetes. Now Their Stomachs Are Paralyzed,” by Brenda Goodman.
Additionally talked about on this week’s episode:
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