Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Benefits Of The Build Back Better Plan; Should Abortion Pill Be OTC?
Newsweek: The Build Back Better Plan Is A Win For America's Home Care Workers
COVID-19's resurgence at the hands of self-interested politicians is threatening workers' lives and stalling our recovery. Jobs have been slow to return, especially for service workers. But there's reason to be optimistic. We have a chance to turn home care, the fastest-growing job in America, from poverty-wage employment into a good union job. It could be a real turning point—and an incredibly popular one—in our movement to win unions for every worker and create the most inclusive middle class this nation has seen. (Mary Kay Henry, 9/9)
NBC News: Texas' Abortion Crisis Proves The Abortion Pill Needs To Be In Every Drug Store
If it wasn’t clear before the Supreme Court’s decision greenlighting Texas’ draconian abortion ban, it’s certainly clear now that we are in the middle of a safe abortion care crisis. And it’s only going to get worse as other conservative state legislatures aim to follow Texas' lead. (Dr. Daniel Grossman, 9/9)
The Washington Post: The Best Way To Fight The Texas Abortion Law
The Supreme Court’s decision last week to allow Texas’s ban on most abortions to take effect raised many questions about legal procedure and the future of abortion in the United States. The most pressing is how to limit the damage that Texas’s plainly unconstitutional law will do to women’s constitutional rights. Many ideas involving the use of Justice Department powers or the raising of private funds are surfacing. But the overriding goal must be for the courts to strike down the Texas law, officially and for good. Unfortunately, it’s hard to see how that can happen without a Texas abortion provider allowing itself to be hauled into court. (9/9)
Bloomberg: Spending Prescription Painkiller Settlement Cash
Makers and sellers of prescription painkillers will soon begin paying out billions of dollars to settle lawsuits that have accused them of fueling the opioid epidemic. Most recently, more than 40 states have agreed to accept $26 billion from Johnson & Johnson and three big drug distributors, to be paid out over 18 years. (9/9)
Stat: Online Pharmacies Could Save Medicare Billions On Generic Drugs
Public outcry about the shockingly high cost of brand-name drugs and a demand for new laws to rein in the cost of these medicines has persisted for years. But more than 90% of all prescriptions — almost 4 billion a year — are filled with generic drugs. Little attention has been paid to how much insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers, and pharmacies charge to fill these generic prescriptions. Yet the difference between the highest and lowest price being charged for the same generic drug is so large that many billions of dollars could be saved each year by having prescriptions filled at the lowest-cost pharmacies. (Alfred Engelberg, 9/10)
