The Host
Incoming President Donald Trump’s inauguration is Monday, but the brand new GOP-led Congress is already speeding to work his priorities into laws, eyeing cuts to Medicaid to pay for brand new tax and immigration priorities. However even in its waning days, the Biden administration continues to make large coverage strikes, together with a potential order for tobacco corporations to dramatically lower the quantity of nicotine in cigarettes.
In the meantime, the fires in Los Angeles are drawing new consideration to the well being risks of not simply smoke from natural matter, but additionally poisonous substances launched by burning plastic and different man-made supplies — in addition to the risk posed to each air and water high quality.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Anna Edney of Bloomberg Information, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins College Bloomberg College of Public Well being and Politico Journal, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Name.
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
- Republican lawmakers are weighing choices to chop federal spending on Medicaid, the almost $900-billion-a-year authorities program that covers 1 in 5 People. They might use the financial savings to bolster Trump priorities, equivalent to extending the 2017 tax cuts. The GOP made splashy however unsuccessful makes an attempt to chop Medicaid when Trump first took workplace and the occasion held a bigger Home majority — although the occasion appears extra aligned with Trump at this time than it was then.
- Congress has gotten all the way down to enterprise on messaging payments: It superior laws this week that may ban trans athletes from ladies’ faculty sports activities and, individually, a measure to detain and even deport immigrants who’re dwelling within the U.S. with out authorized standing and have been charged with, although not convicted of, minor crimes equivalent to shoplifting.
- The Supreme Court docket has agreed to listen to a case later this 12 months in regards to the U.S. Preventive Companies Job Power — an unbiased physique of specialists that points suggestions in illness prevention and medication. A ruling towards its authority might strip protection for key preventive well being providers from not simply these with Inexpensive Care Act protection, but additionally these on employer-sponsored well being plans. The query stands: If not this process pressure, who would make the determinations about what preventive care ought to be lined?
- And the outgoing Biden administration issued a slew of well being rules this week, together with a ban on the dye Purple No. 3 in meals and different ingested merchandise, in addition to an early regulation limiting the quantity of nicotine in tobacco merchandise. The incoming Trump administration might upend these and extra rules, although some do align with its coverage pursuits.
Additionally this week, Rovner interviews Harris Meyer, who reported and wrote the most recent KFF Well being Information “Invoice of the Month” characteristic, a couple of colonoscopy that got here with a a lot bigger price ticket than estimated. In case you have a mystifying or outrageous medical invoice you’d wish to share with us, you are able to do that right here.
Plus, for “further credit score,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn (or wrote) this week that they assume you need to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: KFF Well being Information’ “Can Medical Faculties Funnel Extra Medical doctors Into the Main Care Pipeline?” by Felice J. Freyer.
Anna Edney: Bloomberg Information’ “It’s Not Simply Sunscreen. Poisonous Merchandise Line the Drugstore Aisles,” by Anna Edney.
Joanne Kenen: The Atlantic’s “A Secret Manner To Struggle Off Abdomen Bugs,” by Daniel Engber.
Sandhya Raman: Nature’s “New Weight problems Definition Sidelines BMI To Give attention to Well being,” by Giorgia Guglielmi.
Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:
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