The Host
With solely a single vote to spare, the Home handed a controversial finances invoice that features billions of {dollars} in tax cuts for the rich, together with billions of {dollars} of cuts to Medicaid, the Inexpensive Care Act, and the meals stamp program — most of which is able to have an effect on these on the decrease finish of the revenue scale. However the invoice faces an unsure future within the Senate.
In the meantime, Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched a report from his fee to “Make America Wholesome Once more” that described threats to the well being of the American public — however notably included nothing on threats from tobacco, gun violence, or a scarcity of medical health insurance.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Anna Edney of Bloomberg Information, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
- Home Republicans handed their “massive, stunning” invoice 215-214 this week, with one Republican critic voting current. However the Senate could have its personal “massive, stunning” rewrite. Some conservative senators who fear about federal debt are involved that the invoice is just not totally paid for and would add to the finances deficit. Others, together with some red-state Republicans, say the invoice’s cuts to Medicaid and meals help go too far and would damage low-income Individuals. The invoice’s cuts would symbolize the most important reductions to Medicaid in this system’s 60-year historical past.
- Lots of the invoice’s Medicaid cuts would come from including work necessities. Most individuals receiving Medicaid already work, however such necessities in Arkansas and Georgia confirmed that folks typically lose protection below these guidelines as a result of they’ve bother documenting their work hours, together with due to technological issues. The nonpartisan Congressional Price range Workplace estimated an earlier model of the invoice would cut back the variety of individuals with Medicaid by not less than 8.6 million over a decade. The necessities additionally may add a burden for employers. The invoice’s work necessities are comparatively broad and would have an effect on people who find themselves 19 to 64 years previous.
- Individuals whose Medicaid protection is canceled additionally would now not qualify for ACA subsidies for market plans. Medicare additionally could be affected, as a result of the invoice could be anticipated to set off an across-the-board sequestration reduce.
- The invoice additionally would influence abortion by successfully banning it in ACA market plans, which might disrupt a compromise struck within the 2010 regulation. And the invoice would block funding for Deliberate Parenthood in Medicaid, though that federal cash is used for different care corresponding to most cancers screenings, not abortions. Previously, the Senate parliamentarian has mentioned that type of provision is just not allowed below finances guidelines, however some Republicans need to take the weird step of overruling the parliamentarian.
- This week, FDA leaders launched covid-19 vaccine suggestions in a medical journal. They plan to restrict future entry to the vaccines to individuals 65 and older and others who’re at excessive danger of great sickness if contaminated, they usually need to require producers to do additional medical trials to indicate whether or not the vaccines profit wholesome youthful individuals. There are questions on whether or not that is authorized, which merchandise could be affected, when this may take impact, and whether or not it’s moral to require these research.
- HHS launched a report on power illness beginning in childhood. The report doesn’t embody many new findings however is noteworthy partly due to what it doesn’t focus on — gun violence, the main reason for dying for youngsters and youths in the USA; tobacco; the shortage of medical health insurance protection; and socioeconomic components that have an effect on entry to wholesome meals.
Additionally this week, Rovner interviews College of California-Davis College of Regulation professor and abortion historian Mary Ziegler about her new guide on the previous and way forward for the “personhood” motion aimed toward granting authorized rights to fetuses and embryos.
Plus, for “further credit score,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week they suppose you must learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The Washington Publish’s “White Home Officers Wished To Put Federal Employees ‘in Trauma.’ It’s Working,” by William Wan and Hannah Natanson.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: NPR’s “Ailments Are Spreading. The CDC Isn’t Warning the Public Like It Was Months In the past,” by Chiara Eisner.
Anna Edney: Bloomberg Information’ “The Potential Most cancers, Well being Dangers Lurking in One Common OTC Drug,” by Anna Edney.
Sarah Karlin-Smith: The Farmingdale Observer’s “Scientists Have Been Learning Distant Work for 4 Years and Have Reached a Very Clear Conclusion: ‘Working From Residence Makes Us Happier,’” by Bob Rubila.
Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:
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