The Host
Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement that the federal authorities will cancel almost $500 million in mRNA analysis funding is unnerving not solely for many who develop vaccines, but additionally for public well being consultants who see the expertise behind the primary covid-19 photographs because the nation’s finest hope to fight a future pandemic.
And President Donald Trump is demanding that main pharmaceutical firms supply many American sufferers the identical costs obtainable to sufferers abroad. It isn’t the primary time he’s made such threats, and drugmakers — who scored a few wins towards Medicare negotiations within the president’s tax and spending regulation — are unlikely to volunteer to drop their costs.
This week’s panelists are Emmarie Huetteman of KFF Well being Information, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Name, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Publish.
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
- Explaining the choice to cancel some mRNA vaccine funding, a precedence for vaccine critics, Kennedy falsely claimed that the expertise is ineffective towards respiratory sicknesses. Researchers have been making headway into mRNA vaccines for maladies comparable to chicken flu and even most cancers, and the Trump administration’s opposition to backing vaccine improvement weakens the prospects for future breakthroughs.
- Trump’s insistence that big-name drugmakers voluntarily decrease their costs underscores how few instruments the presidency has to ship outcomes on this vital pocketbook situation for a lot of Individuals. Medicare’s potential to barter drug costs took a success underneath Trump’s huge tax-and-spending regulation, which included two provisions advocated by the pharmaceutical business that will delay or exclude some costly medicine from the dealmaking course of.
- A 12 months after Trump promised on the marketing campaign path to safe protection of in vitro fertilization, the White Home reportedly shouldn’t be planning to compel insurers to pay for these expensive reproductive providers — a change that will require an act of Congress and will elevate prices total.
- And with Congress again dwelling for its August recess and a late September deadline looming, the annual authorities funding course of is in progress — however unlikely to resolve shortly or cleanly. Senate appropriators are additional alongside of their work than common, however the Home of Representatives has but to launch its model, which is predicted to chop deeper and hit social points like abortion tougher.
Plus, for “additional credit score” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn (or wrote) this week that they assume you must learn, too:
Emmarie Huetteman: KFF Well being Information’ “New Medicaid Federal Work Requirements Mean Less Leeway for States,” by Katheryn Houghton and Bram Sable-Smith.
Sarah Karlin-Smith: Slate’s “Confessions of a Welfare Queen,” by Maria Kefalas.
Sandhya Raman: CQ Roll Name’s “Sweden’s Push for Smokeless Products Leads Some To Wonder About Risks,” by Sandhya Raman.
Lauren Weber: The New York Occasions’ “‘Hot Wasps’ Found at Nuclear Facility in South Carolina,” by Emily Anthes.
Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:
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