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Vaccination controversy puts politicians on the spot. The anti-vaccination movement has only gained strength in recent years, and the controversy over vaccines that played a role in the 2016 election is set to figure even more prominently in politics.

“The anti-vaccine lobby has grown from a fringe movement in the late ’90s, early 2000s to this massive media empire that has now hundreds of websites, amplified on social media. They have political action committees now, it’s become politicized,” said Peter Jay Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development. “This was never a problem up until a few years ago, but now it’s become this huge issue.”

There are numerous signs that the anti-vaccine movement has grown since the 2016 elections. The rate of children entering schools without vaccinations has climbed. The movement made the list of the World Health Organization’s top threats to global health in 2019. The U.S. has suffered an uptick in measles outbreaks, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to warn that the progress in eradicating many infectious diseases achieved over the course of decades is at risk. Pressure is growing for more politicians to weigh in.

“This debate is evidence of our polarized politics. If one side is against, the other says, ‘I’m going to be for,'” said Charles McCoy, assistant professor of sociology at State University of New York at Plattsburgh. “These new trends show that politics are becoming more polarized, so this issue will become more polarized.”

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21 states, DC sue Trump administration over rules cutting Planned Parenthood funding. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia are suing the Trump administration over new rules that would cut federal funding from Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide or discuss abortions. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, announced his decision on Monday to sue separately in a press conference and a coalition of 19 other states and the District of Columbia prepared to file their own suit Tuesday. The rule in dispute applies to a $286 million-a-year grant, known as Title X, that pays for birth control, testing of sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer screenings for 4 million low-income people. The Trump administration’s change to the rule requires the “physical and financial” separation of family planning services and abortion. It would also block providers from referring for abortions for the purpose of family planning or promoting the practice if they are receiving Title X grants.

Azar calls for more dialysis at home rather than in clinics. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar proposed Monday that Medicare funding should support at-home dialysis treatments, hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis, for patients with end-stage renal disease who do not receive the care they need at for-profit clinics. The government spent $114 billion treating Medicare beneficiaries with kidney diseases in 2016. Azar emphasized the need to allow for more opportunities to receive dialysis at home. In 1972, Congress passed legislation to extend Medicare coverage to those suffering from kidney disease. The Medicare end-stage renal disease program created powerful financial incentives for providers to send patients to outpatient dialysis centers. “It’s also more appealing for a dialysis company to add patients to a center where one machine can accommodate multiple patients than it is to provide new services to each patient at home,” Azar said. “But that isn’t providing the care patients deserve, and we have the power within HHS to test out significant payment changes to boost home dialysis.”

OxyContin maker considers bankruptcy as lawsuits pile up. Purdue Pharma, the drug company that makes the highly addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin, is considering filing for bankruptcy in response to thousands of lawsuits it faces for its role in the opioid crisis.

The news, reported by Reuters Monday, comes amid more than 1,000 lawsuits accusing Purdue and other drug companies of lying to doctors and patients about how addictive the drugs were. If Purdue were to file for bankruptcy, then the lawsuits would end and the company could negotiate legal claims with plaintiffs under the supervision of a bankruptcy judge. The company alternatively may choose to continue fighting the suits, and has a trial scheduled for May. Purdue company declined to comment on reports about bankruptcy in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.

Americans see Democratic healthcare positions more ‘in the mainstream’ than GOP ones. More Americans believe Democratic positions on issues such as climate change and healthcare are more “mainstream” than Republican stances, a new survey shows. Of 900 Americans surveyed in a new NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll, 56 percent said Democratic approaches to climate change and healthcare are mainstream. Twenty-nine percent said Republicans views on climate change are mainstream, compared to 41 percent who have that view of Republican healthcare positions. Democrats saw a small dip in the level of those who view their abortion views as mainstream. In 2015, 54 percent of Americans felt Democratic views on abortion were mainstream, but in the recent poll it dropped to 51 percent.

Verma urges hospitals to come up with their own solutions to surprise medical bills. Seema Verma, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, urged hospitals on Monday to implement practices that would reduce surprise medical bills patients face, particularly through price transparency and working more collaboratively with other parts of the healthcare system. “I ask you, as hospital providers, to set the bar…don’t make us do it,” she said. “Be a leader in empowering patients through interoperability and transparency in price and quality information. That way, if we ultimately reflect best practices in law or regulation, they will be the ones you have employed. Don’t be one of the stragglers caught flat-footed when it becomes required.”

Verma calls ‘Medicare for all’ the ‘greatest threat to the American healthcare system.’ Verma said that the proposal to expand Medicare to every person living in the U.S. would “ruin the program for the seniors it was created to serve, and it would decrease the quality of care that we, as Americans, have come to expect as the world’s leader in innovative healthcare.” She warned that such a system would mean rulemaking would take years, that technologies would be approved more slowly, that patients couldn’t see doctors when they wanted, and that hospitals would need to accept reimbursement rates Congress calculates.

Medicare for All may struggle to gain traction. Medicare for All may struggle to gain traction in the House as Democratic lawmakers appear more eager to make repairs to the struggling Obamacare law. “If you eliminate private insurance, what does that mean?” Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., the House Budget Committee chairman, said in an interview. “All of those things have budgetary implications. It would be wonderful but what does it cost and what does it mean in other areas?” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the lead architect of Obamacare and a staunch defender of the law, last week appeared skeptical of converting the nation’s healthcare system to a single-payer program like the one proposed by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. One problem, Pelosi said in a Feb. 27 Rolling Stone interview, is the high cost of a single-payer plan, which is projected to top $30 trillion over a decade. Pelosi also explained that the current Medicare program is not all-inclusive. Jayapal’s proposal would provide far more robust coverage and benefits. “People have to understand this,” Pelosi said in the interview.

FDA calls out Walgreens, Walmart, 7/11 and others for selling e-cigarettes to minors. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday called out tobacco retailers, including Walgreens and 7/11, for illegally selling tobacco products, especially e-cigarettes, to minors. The FDA identified 15 retail chains whose violation rates for illegal sales to minor exceed 15 percent, including major gas station chains, convenience stores, and retailers. The agency specifically faulted Walgreens for having 1,800 violations in total nationwide, and said that it had requested a meeting with Walgreens leadership to discuss the issue. The FDA said that 22 percent of Walgreen’s 6,350 stores have illegally sold tobacco products to minors, a fact it called “disturbing.” Gottlieb, a Trump appointee, has led a crackdown on e-cigarette sales meant to curb what he has called an epidemic of e-cigarette use by minors. Many adult smokers use e-cigarettes to cut down on regular cigarettes, which are far more harmful. But Gottlieb has said that he fears that the popularity of Juul and other forms of vaping among high schoolers and college students could lead to a major increase in tobacco dependency.

Suicides and substance abuse-related deaths hit a record high in 2017. Suicides and drug- and alcohol-related deaths are rising and together hit an all-time high in 2017, according to a new report published Tuesday that concludes that people struggling with mental illness lack mental healthcare and related resources. Well Being Trust and Trust for America’s Health, two nonprofit groups, found that between 2016 and 2017, the rate of deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide increased about 6 percent from 43.9 to 46.6 deaths per 100,000, based on 2018 mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report calls for updating the healthcare system to improve mental healthcare and resources for those with substance abuse problems. “We have not done a good job as a nation with addressing pain,” said Benjamin Miller, chief strategy officer of the Well Being Trust. “Not just tissue and nerves pain, it comes down to emotions, too.” A particular problem, Miller said, is that many people who suffer from mental illness, including addiction, have less access to care because they live in isolated locations. Many people would have to drive hundreds of miles to get to the nearest clinic, a problem that Miller said must be addressed by dedicating funding to place healthcare professionals in those remote areas.

Eli Lilly will introduce a cheaper version of insulin after mounting pressure from lawmakers to lower prices. Eli Lilly is introducing a new version of insulin at half the list price as pharmaceutical manufacturers are under increasing pressure to lower the costs of their drugs. The product is a so-called authorized generic version of the Humalog insulin, which means the medicine is identical to the brand-name treatment and will be made at the same plant, but carries a different label. Known as Lispro, the medication will sell for $137.35 a vial, while the list price of a five-pack of KwikPens will be $265.20. The average list price for insulin nearly tripled between 2002 and 2013, according to the American Diabetes Association. More than 30 million Americans have some form of diabetes.

Local officials commit to providing healthcare to reduce recidivism. The National Association of Counties and the National Sheriffs’ Association on Monday announced they were forming a joint task force to examine the Medicaid Inmate Exclusion Policy, which strips federal health and veterans’ benefits from people when they are admitted to jail, a practice they say increases recidivism. “Stripping federal health benefits from those jailed but not convicted, and are presumed innocent, is a violation of their constitutional rights,” NACo Executive Director Matthew Chase said in a statement. “By providing continuity of healthcare to those most in need, counties can help break the cycle of recidivism exacerbated by untreated physical and mental illnesses and substance use disorders.” Members of the new task force will explore how federal policies impact recidivism and health outcomes, and will focus on people with mental health or substance abuse disorders, as well as other chronic illnesses.

RUNDOWN

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