Despite Coverage Gains, Costs May Mask Biden’s Health Care Efforts

Axios: Health Costs Threaten To Overshadow Biden's Historic Insurance Gains
President Biden has come closer than any of his Democratic predecessors to reaching the party's long-standing goal of universal health coverage, but unaffordable care costs may overshadow the achievement. (Owens, 5/14)

Bloomberg: Sanders Urges Denmark To Pressure Novo Nordisk On Drug Prices
Bernie Sanders urged Denmark to force its most valuable company, Novo Nordisk A/S, to lower its drug prices, in a letter submitted by the US senator to one of the Nordic country’s largest newspapers. Sanders, who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called on Danes to pressure Novo to “significantly reduce the outrageously high prices for Ozempic and Wegovy in the US and other parts of the world,” according to the letter, published by the Politiken newspaper on Monday. (Wienberg, 5/13)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Private Medicare Plans May See Slimmer Benefits Next Year
Last year, looking to capitalize on a booming Medicare Advantage business, health insurer Aetna offered new perks for seniors. It would reimburse the purchase of hiking boots and national parks fees, for instance, it told clients. Now, Aetna is rolling back its promises. New instructions from federal regulators said insurers couldn’t reimburse for such items, the company said in memos issued to insurance brokers in recent weeks. (Merrilees, 5/13)

KFF Health News: Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Decried As Biased Against Disabled People
Jacqueline Saa has a genetic condition that leaves her unable to stand and walk on her own or hold a job. Every weekday for four years, Saa, 43, has relied on a home health aide to help her cook, bathe and dress, go to the doctor, pick up medications, and accomplish other daily tasks. She received coverage through Florida’s Medicaid program until it abruptly stopped at the end of March, she said. (Chang, 5/14)

AP: Feds Accuse Rhode Island Of Warehousing Kids With Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities 
Rhode Island violated the civil rights of hundreds of children with mental health or developmental disabilities by routinely and unnecessarily segregating them at Bradley Hospital, an acute-care psychiatric hospital, federal prosecutors said Monday. Zachary Cunha, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, said the multi-year investigation found that ... the state left them hospitalized at Bradley for months and in some cases for more than a year. (LeBlanc, 5/14)

In other news —

Reuters: US Reclassification Could Drive Fresh Research Funding Into Pot Sector
The U.S. pot sector could see an influx of medical research funding from healthcare investors amid renewed interest from pharmaceutical firms, should a proposal to reclassify cannabis as a lower-risk substance be approved, industry experts said. The current classification as a Schedule I substance has limited research into cannabis due to restricted access to cannabis products, regulatory hurdles and funding limitations. (Roy, 5/14)

NPR: MAPS Psychedelics Research For MDMA Therapy Comes Under Scrutiny
In a matter of months, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide whether the drug commonly known as ecstasy can be used as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. An approval by the agency would represent an enormous milestone for the movement to bring psychedelics into the mainstream of mental health care. An FDA rejection of MDMA, the abbreviation of the drug's chemical name, would deal a major setback to the effort. (Stone, 5/13)

Also —

AP: Supreme Court Denies California’s Appeal For Immunity For COVID-19 Deaths At San Quentin Prison 
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from California corrections officials who sought immunity from lawsuits claiming they acted with deliberate indifference when they caused a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at one of the world’s most famous prisons four years ago. The justices turned down the appeal without comment or dissent. (Weber, 5/14)

Side Effects Public Media: CDC Tool Determines How Zip Code, Medications Factor Into To Heat Risk
Roughly 2,300 people in the U.S. died due to extreme heat in 2023. That risk is likely not going away soon, as scientists say climate change is causing more intense and frequent heat waves. To address that, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new tools to help people plan for higher temperatures across the country. (Thorp, 5/13)

Stat: H5N1 Bird Flu Outbreak Response Could Be Hampered By USDA, FDA Turf War
On a bright June day in 2018, one of the nation’s top regulators waved groceries in the air, quizzing the secretary of agriculture on which agency is charged with monitoring different types of food. Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration at the time, grinned widely as he held liquid egg whites and a carton of eggs. The former is under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food safety purview. The eggs, under the FDA’s. The mood was jovial, winkingly acknowledging the complexity, and at times absurdity, in the way the government regulates food. (Zhang, Lawrence and Florko, 5/14)

CIDRAP: CDC Reports 41% More Imported Malaria Cases In 3 Southern Border Cities In 2023 Than 2022
A higher proportion of people who trekked through at least one country with endemic malaria on their way to three southern US border cities arrived with cases of the mosquito-borne illness—nearly a third of them with severe disease—in 2023 than in 2022, finds a study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health departments conducted enhanced imported malaria case investigations from January to December 2023. (Van Beusekom, 5/13)