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Happy New Year! Welcome to 2019 and the 116th Congress! I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful break, because now the fun (or something in that neighborhood) starts again.
Democrats are raring to go now that the new class has been sworn in and Nancy Pelosi has retaken the House gavel. They’re setting the stage to put Republicans in the political hot seat with a vote to formally intervene in the Affordable Care Act lawsuit currently moving through the courts.
I’m pretty sure everyone at this point realizes that vowing to protect preexisting conditions was (and will be) a winning issue on the campaign trail. The Democrats’ move will (and, let’s be honest, is designed to) put the GOP in the awkward position of voting against those popular provisions.
The Washington Post: The New Congress: Pelosi Retakes House Gavel As Shutdown Continues
The Washington Post: House Democrats Vote to Defend ACA in Court — and Jam Republicans
Then on the states’ side of things, the attorneys general leading the defense of the health law have filed an appeal against the federal judge’s ruling (from December, I know it feels ages ago) that the ACA can’t stand without the individual mandate penalty. The filing was, obviously, completely expected, but it does continue to move the case down a long legal path likely to end at the Supreme Court.
The Wall Street Journal: Democratic-Led States Appeal Ruling Invalidating Affordable Care Act
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Stories about excessive human waste piling up in national parks are grabbing headlines, but when it comes to the shutdown the issues go much deeper than that for Native Americans. Because of treaties, tribes receive a significant amount of the funding they need to provide basic services (like running health clinics) from the federal government. So, the shutdown cuts deeper for them than in other places in the country.
“The federal government owes us this: We prepaid with millions of acres of land. We don’t have the right to take back that land, so we expect the federal government to fulfill its treaty and trust responsibility,” said Aaron Payment, the chairman of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe, in The New York Times’ coverage.
The New York Times: Shutdown Leaves Food, Medicine and Pay in Doubt in Indian Country
P.S. If you’re confused about the shutdown and what health programs are affected, 1) you’re not alone, and 2) read KHN’s roundup, which, without bias, is the most comprehensive health-related breakdown I’ve seen. Cliff notes, though: Most big-ticket items (like Medicaid and Medicare) were already funded by Congress earlier in the year and are insulated from the standoff’s dramatics.
Kaiser Health News: How The Government Shutdown Affects Health Programs
Bristol-Myers Squibb kicked off the year with a huge $74 billion deal with Celgene. The experts at Stat break down exactly what the acquisition means for the industry. A big takeaway is that one of the sector’s largest companies will essentially cease to exist. The deal could also spark more megamergers and further consolidation of the biotech landscape — which, as you can imagine, will not be good for drug prices.
Stat: 9 Big Takeaways From the $74 Billion Bristol-Celgene Deal
Next week, movers and shakers in the biotech industry will be flocking to San Francisco for the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. It’s the place to see and be seen, but some attendees want to be anywhere but there. Why? The location.
Stat: Will San Francisco’s Issues Push People Away From J.P. Morgan?
Adding work requirements to Medicaid has proven to be the honey it takes to make expanding coverage more palatable to Republican states. But, in Arkansas — the testing ground for what exactly those rules look like in practice — thousands of residents are getting kicked off the Medicaid rolls. A picture of confusion, flawed technology and basic human error is emerging as advocates try to figure out what is going wrong.
Politico: Conservative Health Care Experiment Leads to Thousands Losing Coverage
If you managed to tune out a bit from the news over the holidays, here are some developments you should know about:
A second migrant child died in U.S. custody, prompting President Donald Trump to attempt to shift blame to the Democrats. The administration has been under ever-increasing scrutiny for the quality of care the young migrant children are receiving.
The New York Times: Trump Blames Democrats Over Deaths of Migrant Children in U.S. Custody
Hospitals were handed a major victory when a judge blocked cuts to the 340B drug program, which requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to sell drugs at discounts to hospitals serving large proportions of low-income and vulnerable people, such as children or cancer patients. The judge said the administration overstepped its authority in its push to try to lower drug prices.
Stat: Judge Blocks Trump Administration Cuts to 340B Hospital Payments
A damning investigation into the nation’s major hospital watchdog found that more than 100 psychiatric hospitals have remained fully accredited by the commission despite serious safety lapses, some of which were connected to the death, abuse or sexual assault of patients.
The Wall Street Journal: Psychiatric Hospitals With Safety Violations Still Get Accreditation
And in my miscellaneous file:
• The old and powerful veteran advocacy groups — aka the “Big Six” — have been major players on Capitol Hill for years. But their power is diminishing as leaner, more efficient and more tailored groups chip away at the establishment and reflect the priorities of a new generation of veterans.
• The prominent Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has not been having a good fall. That’s in part due to the fabulous reporting done by The New York Times and ProPublica, which revealed conflicts of interest among the organization’s leaders. If you haven’t kept up with the story, this offers a great overview on how this ethical morass is playing out not only there but across the country as well.
The New York Times: Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Season of Turmoil
• Does medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction simply replace one drug with another? Or is it necessary to stop a relentless and sweeping epidemic that has claimed far too many victims? That’s the raging debate as experts try to get their arms around the crisis.
The New York Times: In Rehab, ‘Two Warring Factions’: Abstinence Vs. Medication
• An outbreak of cancer in children is pitting families deep in Trump Country against the president’s agenda to roll back health and environmental restrictions.
The New York Times: A Trump County Confronts the Administration Amid a Rash of Child Cancers
• Between salmonella in turkeys and E. coli in romaine lettuce, the country was beset with foodborne illness outbreaks last year. But one of the biggest recalls is one you probably haven’t even heard about.
Apparently, New Year’s resolutions won’t bring you joy (whether you achieve them or not), but if one of yours is to switch up your diet, check out the newly released rankings from U.S. News & World Report.
