Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Half A Million New Yorkers May See Their Unpaid Medical Bills Cleared
CBS News: New York City Looks To Clear $2 Billion In Unpaid Medical Bills For 500,000
New York City will purchase millions of dollars of medical debt and then erase it in effort to help as many as 500,000 residents, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday. The program involves partnering with a nonprofit organization, RIP Medical Debt, that buys unpaid medical debt from hospitals at a steep discount and then clears it. The city will invest $18 million to relieve more than $2 billion in medical debt for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, Adams said. (Gibson, 1/22)
The Roanoke Times: Secular Society Retires Over $12 Million In Southwest Virginia Medical Debt
The Blacksburg-based Secular Society announced Friday that it has purchased an additional $12.1 million in medical debt for 14,434 Southwest Virginia citizens — and that debt is now wiped out. The latest round of relief comes after the nonprofit has retired millions more of debt in the past. To be eligible for purchase and abolition, the debt must be owned by someone with a family income less than four times the federal poverty level or for whom a medical debt is 5% or more of their annual income, according to a Secular Society news release. (1/20)
On the high cost of drugs —
Axios: Unlikely Political Allies Take On Drugmakers’ Patent Tactics
An unusual bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is teaming up on drug pricing legislation, proving the issue may defy election-year partisanship as health care costs remain a top voter concern. The effort highlights the increased scrutiny some influential Republicans are giving an industry the GOP has long allied itself with. (Sullivan, 1/23)
Stat: Medicare Drug Price Lawsuits Could Be Good Politics For Biden
Pharmaceutical companies are doing anything they can to stop President Biden’s Medicare program from being able to negotiate prices for their products, including suing the government. Experts say their efforts might actually benefit Biden by reminding voters that he’s taking on big drug companies. (Wilkerson, 1/23)
Also —
Stat: White House Pharmacy Plagued With Problems, Investigation Finds
There’s a pharmacy in the White House — or, at least, there’s a sign that says “Pharmacy,” though the people in charge insist it isn’t one. Whatever they call it, the office has had enough internal complaints to warrant a government watchdog investigation. (Trang, 1/23)
