Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Parsing Policy: Suboptimal Care Could Stem From Medicare Fee Changes; GOP's Big Tax Cuts Spell Bad News For Health Care
The Washington Post: Proposed Medicare Change For Patients Visit Reimbursements Is Bad For Patients, Doctors Say.
For those of you who are 65 or older and covered by Medicare, medical care may soon change for the worse, as many doctors see it. Every year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) presents proposed adjustments to the fee schedule expected to take effect Jan. 1. A recent plan that CMS is considering lays out the most significant changes in over two decades in how much the agency reimburses doctors for office visits. (Orly Avitzur and Ralph L. Sacco, 10/20)
St. Louis Post Dispatch: Predictably, Republicans Hint That Tax-Plan Deficit Justifies Entitlement Cuts
So it begins. As congressional Republicans ushered in last year’s big tax cuts, saying they would pay for themselves with economic growth, analysts predicted they would instead spike the deficit, giving Republicans an excuse to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Now that the deficit has in fact spiked, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is testing the waters for entitlement cuts. (10/21)
The Washington Post: The Hidden Costs Of The GOP’s Deficit Two-Step
A truly gifted con artist is someone who pulls off the same scam again and again and keeps getting away with it. Say what you will about Republicans and conservatives: Their audacity when it comes to deficits and tax cuts is something to behold, and they have been running the same play since the passage of the Reagan tax cuts in 1981. (E.J. Dionne, 10/21)
Cincinnati Enquirer: Trump Didn't Sabotage Obamacare
Accusing President Trump of "sabotaging" Obamacare may be therapeutic for its supporters. A quick look at the evidence shows that the law has proven more than capable of imploding on its own. (Sally Pipes, 10/19)
The Star Tribune: Blocking VA Documents Release Protects 'shadow Rulers' — Not Vets
U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie doesn’t want any sunlight on his agency’s “shadow rulers.” By blowing off a recent congressional document request, Wilkie is blocking the public from determining whether a secretive trio of outsiders is calling the shots at the VA. (10/19)
The Hill: Publicized Drug Prices Will Be Meaningless To The Average Consumer
Many Americans would likely agree that prescription drug prices are too high. Unfortunately, the Department of Health and Human Services’ recent proposed rule requiring pharmaceutical companies to include drugs’ list prices in advertising is one of those strange cases that may lead to greater information and transparency without much real value to the health-care consumer. As several news outlets have documented, the list price to be shown in advertisements, according to the proposed rule, would not match the price that most patients would have to pay. That is due to differing prescription drug insurance plans and negotiated arrangements between drug companies and some pharmacy benefit managers.The publicized prices will be meaningless to the average consumer. (Todd Ruppar, 10/22)
USA Today: Trump Health Agenda: Transparent Drug Prices, Lower Insurance Costs
When it comes to health care, price transparency, competition and choice are free market forces that are being restored under the Trump administration. They should help bring prices down and drive quality up. (Marc Siegel, 10/22)
The New York Times: Trump Cannot Define Away My Existence
On Sunday, news broke that the Trump administration seeks to narrowly define gender as an immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth. About 1.4 million Americans who identify as transgender would find that identity eradicated by the federal government. I admit that I’m reluctant to react to this latest cruelty, which is obviously just one more cynical move clearly designed to stir the pot ahead of the election. Trans people are the latest conservative whipping girl, like African-Americans in the 1950s, or gay people in the 1990s and 2000s. Nothing is more dependable now than the passion the heartless display when trans people’s humanity is offered up for mockery. (Jennifer Finney Boylan, 10/22)
