The Host
Early Thursday afternoon, the Home authorised a finances reconciliation invoice that not solely would make everlasting lots of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, but in addition impose deep cuts to Medicaid, the Reasonably priced Care Act, and, not directly, Medicare.
In the meantime, these appointed by Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a key vaccine advisory panel used their first official assembly to forged doubt on a preservative that has been utilized in flu vaccines for many years — with research displaying no proof of its hurt in low doses.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Maya Goldman of Axios, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet.
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
- This week the GOP steamrolled towards a serious constriction of the nation’s social security internet, pushing by Trump’s tax and spending invoice. The laws accommodates important adjustments to the way in which Medicaid is funded and delivered — particularly, by imposing this system’s first federal work requirement on many enrollees. Hospitals say the adjustments can be devastating, doubtlessly ensuing within the lack of providers and amenities that might contact all sufferers, not solely these on Medicaid.
- Some proposals in Trump’s invoice have been dropped throughout the Senate’s consideration, together with a ban on Medicaid protection for gender-affirming care and federal funding cuts for states that use their very own Medicaid funds to cowl immigrants with out authorized standing. And for all of the speak of not touching Medicare, the laws’s repercussions for the deficit are anticipated to set off spending cuts to this system that covers these over 65 and a few with disabilities — doubtlessly as quickly as the subsequent fiscal yr.
- The newly reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met final week, and it regarded fairly completely different from earlier conferences: Along with new members, there have been fewer staffers readily available from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention — and the notable presence of vaccine critics. The panel’s vote to reverse the advice of flu pictures containing a mercury-based preservative — plus its plans to evaluation the childhood vaccine schedule — trace at what’s to return.
Plus, for “additional credit score,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week that they assume you must learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The Lancet’s “Evaluating the Impact of Two Decades of USAID Interventions and Projecting the Effects of Defunding on Mortality up to 2030: A Retrospective Impact Evaluation and Forecasting Analysis,” by Daniella Medeiros Cavalcanti, et al.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Instances’ “‘I Feel Like I’ve Been Lied To’: When a Measles Outbreak Hits Home,” by Eli Saslow.
Maya Goldman: Axios’ “New Docs Get Schooled in Old Diseases as Vax Rates Fall,” by Tina Reed.
Sarah Karlin-Smith: Wired’s “Snake Venom, Urine, and a Quest to Live Forever: Inside a Biohacking Conference Emboldened by MAHA,” by Will Bahr.
Additionally talked about on this week’s episode:
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