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Even with the new omicron variant of the covid virus spreading in the U.S., Republicans on Capitol Hill are pushing to cease President Joe Biden from requiring staff to both be examined recurrently or vaccinated. The effort is prone to finish in failure — even when it reaches Biden’s desk, he has vowed to veto it. But apparently Republicans suppose the effort will increase their reputation with their base.
Meanwhile, Congress can be shifting to dam scheduled Medicare cuts, and the Supreme Court heard two well being circumstances that aren’t about abortion.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Rachel Cohrs of Stat News.
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
Congress is predicted to cross a invoice shortly that can defend Medicare reimbursements for hospitals and medical doctors, who confronted some automated pay cuts primarily based on earlier legal guidelines that sought to rein in federal spending. Some physicians had been a ten% lower in funds.Republican and Democratic leaders agreed this week so as to add to that Medicare invoice a sophisticated scheme that can permit Congress to approve an extension of the federal debt restrict. The measure will give the Senate a one-time choice to cross the debt ceiling invoice by a easy majority and never face the risk of a filibuster.Public well being officers say preliminary information means that the latest covid-19 variant, omicron, could also be extra contagious than delta however maybe might trigger much less extreme signs. Still, extra infections may create issues for the already-straining well being care system.Senate Republicans — with the assist of two Democrats — launched an assault on Biden’s vaccination mandates at work and handed a invoice that might repeal that regulation. That effort is an indication of how the political opposition to the effort to pressure vaccines is rising. It’s an outgrowth of different efforts by conservatives to oppose public well being measures designed to battle the pandemic, together with masks mandates and enterprise shutdowns.A profitable effort to cease covid requires sturdy testing, however on this nation getting fast exams to the public has been missing. Overseas, these exams typically are ubiquitous and low-cost. But right here, they’re comparatively costly and sometimes exhausting to seek out. Biden’s efforts to assist customers by requiring insurers to cowl the prices remains to be a month from beginning and might be cumbersome to arrange. It will assist solely those that have non-public insurance coverage as a result of the requirement doesn’t apply to individuals who don’t have insurance coverage or are lined by Medicare or Medicaid.Often ignored final week in the hype about the Supreme Court arguments on the Mississippi abortion legislation had been two current circumstances about federal hospital funds. Both are complicated circumstances, one coping with administrative guidelines about hospital funding for poor sufferers and the different regarding a drug low cost pricing program.The extremely publicized trial of Elizabeth Holmes, former head of the now-defunct firm Theranos, factors to a federal regulatory difficulty. Both the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have authority over diagnostic lab testing, however neither apparently made a lot of an affect in stopping what prosecutors allege was a fraudulent scheme by Theranos to check individuals for maladies by analyzing a couple of drops of blood.Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who’s being lauded this week after his demise Sunday, was a robust Republican. But that by no means meant he wouldn’t work with individuals from the Democratic Party. For him, points had been about coverage and weren’t private. It was an period far completely different from as we speak.
Plus, for additional credit score, the panelists advocate their favourite well being coverage tales of the week they suppose you need to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: NPR’s “Inside the Growing Alliance Between Anti-Vaccine Activists and Pro-Trump Republicans,” by Geoff Brumfiel
Joanne Kenen: Slate’s “We’re Not Going Back to ‘Before Roe,’” by Dahlia Lithwick.
Sarah Karlin-Smith: Axios’ “Documents Reveal the Secrecy of America’s Drug Pricing Matrix,” by Bob Herman.
Rachel Cohrs: Stat News’ “Biogen’s Reckoning: How the Aduhelm Debacle Pushed a Troubled Company and Its Fractured Leadership to the Brink,” by Adam Feuerstein and Damian Garde.
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