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WHITE HOUSE READY FOR CONGRESS TO GET GOING ON DRUG PRICES: The White House is throwing its weight behind the bipartisan Senate Finance Committee bill to lower drug prices, and wants Congress to reach a deal soon, a top Trump administration official said Friday.
“We are working very hard to get that done and to get that moving,” Joe Grogan, assistant to the president and director of the Domestic Policy Council, said at an Alliance for Health Policy event.
The legislation, the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act, advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee in July by a 19-9 vote, with only Republicans voting against. The bill would cap what people on Medicare pay for drugs at $3,100 a year beginning in 2022 and would cap drug costs by forcing drug companies to give rebates to Medicare if they increase their prices above inflation, among more than two dozen other provisions.
The inflation cap is what has made a lot of Republicans uncomfortable, and Grogan acknowledged that the idea had not originated from the White House but called it a “route to a bipartisan compromise” to bring Democrats along. He reiterated that the White House would not be backing Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s partisan drug pricing bill that would let Medicare negotiate between 25 and 250 expensive drugs, which he called “unworkable.”
He acknowledged there might be some tweaks that could happen as the Senate works to get to 60 votes, but thought it was too late to add rebate reform to the legislation, saying “we are out of time for ideas” on that specific issue. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConell still hasn’t made any commitment to bring the bill to the floor.
“We need solutions right here right now,” Grogan said. “This package needs to be wrapped up in the next few weeks.”
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TRUMP TO MAKE PRICE TRANSPARENCY A BIG PART OF HIS CAMPAIGN: The White House is planning a major announcement on price transparency this month, Grogan revealed in an interview with the Washington Examiner. Campaigners say they expect the rules to apply to insurers and other parts of the system, as well as hospitals. Grogan said transparency had the potential to transform patients’ experience of healthcare, driving down costs and extending choice. “The foot is not off the accelerator on transparency,” he said. “We are really fired up about it. I think one of the reasons it hasn’t been confronted by other administrations before is that it’s hard, and it’s going to offend a lot of special interest groups.”
At the Alliance for Health Policy event, Grogan didn’t have an estimate to share about how much the rules in November would save the healthcare problem. He added, too, that the transparency problem “won’t be solved in one fell swoop.” “It would be revolutionary if we had true transparency in the healthcare system,” Grogan said. The idea should be part of efforts on lowering drug prices and ending surprise medical billing, among other areas, he said.
GROGAN SHARES HOW HE REALLY FEELS ABOUT THE VAPING ISSUE: “It sucks,” he said of how much time the Food and Drug Administration is spending trying to solve the problem of youth vaping. Grogan, who was speaking for himself and not the White House, said he didn’t even think that FDA should be regulating tobacco at all, given that the agency otherwise focuses on products meant to help people and that tobacco “has no redeeming qualities.” Asked which agency should be regulating instead, he replied, “I don’t know.”
Hard to say when the flavor ban will land. Grogan declined to share a timeline or details about how rigorous the ban would be, but he said the administration did think that e-cigarettes could still be a good alternative to traditional cigarettes. “We really want to make sure we are data-driven on this and striking the right balance between adult choice and protecting kids,” he said.
Trump teased the release of the vaping ban to come out next week. The president told reporters on the White House lawn Friday morning that guidance for his vaping flavor ban is coming next week. “We’re going to be coming out with an important position on vaping,” President Trump said. “We have to take care of our kids, most importantly, so we’re going to have an age limit of 21 or so.”
“We have a lot of people to look at, including jobs, frankly, because it’s become a pretty big industry,” he said.
A clue? Juul pulls mint pods from the market. Juul Labs announced Thursday they would stop selling the most popular flavored pod, which accounts for about 70% of the company’s sales, “in light of the studies released this week relating to the 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey.” That may mean Juul is positioning itself for a flavor ban that excludes menthol.
Meanwhile, vaping injuries surpass 2,000. The number of vaping-related lung injuries has reached 2,051 people, and deaths have also climbed to 39, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
TRUMP ‘CONSCIENCE RULE’ HITS A SECOND ROADBLOCK: Federal Judge Stanley Bastian of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, a nominee of Barack Obama, became the second judge this week to place an injunction on the Trump administration’s “conscience rule.” The rule would have provided an enforcement mechanism against employers who force their workers to participate or refer to abortion, sterilization, or medically assisted suicide, when doing so violates their faith or morals.
HILLARY CLINTON SAYS ‘MEDICARE FOR ALL’ IS A NONSTARTER: Asked Thursday by Andrew Ross Sorkin whether “Medicare for all” will ever be enacted, Hillary Clinton said, “No, I don’t. I don’t… But the goal is the right goal.”
Clinton said she supports a public option plan like those proposed by Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden, which would allow the public to keep their private plans or buy into a government plan. “I believe the smarter approach is to build on what we have. A public option is something I’ve been in favor of for a very long time,” Clinton said.
ROMNEY ON WARREN’S ‘MEDICARE FOR ALL’: “Prof. Warren’s Medicare for All fails the test: Countries with socialized medicine make their numbers work through limits on care, cost sharing, and higher middle class taxes,” Mitt Romney tweeted Thursday morning. “Pretending otherwise is inauthentic and disingenuous.”
2020 DEMOCRATS ACCEPT CASH FROM JUUL EMPLOYEES AHEAD OF VAPING BAN: More than half of 2020 Democratic candidates have collectively accepted over $26,000 in donations from Juul employees. Campaign finance reports show Biden, Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and Bernie Sanders have all accepted funds from employees at the embattled e-cigarette maker.
RURAL DWELLERS ARE MORE VULNERABLE TO PREVENTABLE DISEASES: Those who live in rural areas are more prone to preventable deaths by cancer, heart disease, and smoking, among others, than their counterparts in cities, and the disparity is getting worse. For example, in large cities, deaths from cancer that were considered preventable fell from 17.9% in 2010 to 3.2% in 2017. But in very rural areas, the corresponding death rates fell only from 28.7% in 2010 to 21.7% by 2017.
TEXAS HHS HIT WITH HEFTY FINE FOR HIPAA VIOLATION: Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights imposed a penalty of $1.6 million on the Texas Health and Human Services Commission after the state’s Department of Aging and Disability Services revealed a breach in 2015 causing the private information of 6,617 people, including names, addresses, social security numbers, and treatment information, went public on the internet. OCR also knocked the Texas agency for failing to conduct a risk analysis or take any steps to prevent a similar breach from happening in the future.
VETERANS IN PAIN HAVE A HIGHER RISK OF SUICIDE, AND SOME BLAME THE VA: Veterans who experience severe pain are at a higher risk of dying by suicide, according to a recent study in the Journal of Pain. “This close correlation between pain intensity and suicide risk and death rates suggests that reducing pain, or the perception of pain, can help prevent Veteran suicide,” Dr. Lisham Ashrafioun, a researcher at the VA Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, said in a VA blog post. For instance, Ryan Trunzo, a 26 year-old Army veteran, committed suicide in 2014 after he tried and failed to get painkillers from the VA to treat pain caused by fractures in his back. “I feel like the VA took my son’s life,” Trunzo’s mother told the Star Tribune.
The Rundown
Detroit Free Press Scams heat up during Medicare open enrollment
Associated Press New York judge sets opioid crisis trial for January
Boston Globe Senate leaders to offer antidote for high drug costs
The New York Times What if the road to single-payer led through the states?
The Atlantic What your Facebook posts say about your mental health
Calendar
FRIDAY | Nov. 8
House in recess.
Nov. 7-8. Renaissance Washington. World Anti-Microbial Resistance Congress. Brochure.
WEDNESDAY | Nov. 13
8 a.m. 1099 14th Street NW. Axios event on “Healthcare in 2020” including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Details.
