Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Small Businesses Play By Much Different Rules Than Big Pharma
Las Vegas Sun: Build Back Better Helps Small-Business Owners
Economists estimate the COVID-19 pandemic caused 200,000 more small businesses than usual to shut their doors, never to reopen. As the owner of Expo Ease, a tradeshow services provider, I experienced the effects of the pandemic personally. I’m grateful that my business survived, but it’s a long road to get back to where we were before the pandemic. President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act, passed by House Democrats, is an important step forward. This package is jam-packed with measures like more affordable health care, paid leave and accessible child care that will improve life for millions of people, no matter where they work or where they live. Many of those policies would help small-business owners like me be more competitive, retain staff and increase flexibility to juggle work, family and other priorities. But the impact of this bill would be much greater than just the sum of the individual policies. (Peter Frigeri, 1/9)
The Washington Post: Bipartisanship Is Out For Biden. It’s About Time
President Biden continues to work on untangling supply chains and cracking down on monopolistic pricing. His ability to influence inflation is minimal, but what is within his control is the ability to remind voters that Republicans oppose things that would reduce health-care, child-care and prescription drug costs. He should stress to Americans that he has held down health-care insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have tried to destroy. (Jennifer Rubin, 1/10)
Penn Live: Greedy Old Propagandist Politicians Won’t Lift A Finger To Help The Poor
People around here often vote against their own interests, hurting themselves and others. They vote for politicians who consistently hurt local people. The Build Back Better bill is paid for by taxing those who earn more than $400,000 and taxing the huge corporations that don’t pay locals what their work is worth. So we taxpayers subsidize those workers’ food, housing, and healthcare with our tax dollars. Greedy old propagandist politicians don’t care about local people. (Christine M. Adams, 1/9)
Charleston Gazette-Mail: We Need Control On Drug Prices
On the first day of 2022, pharmaceutical companies increased prices on 460 medications, with most prices up 5% to 6% on average, according to the research firm 46brooklyn. I guess that journalists reporting on prescription drug price increases only need to paste in the latest increase to the same headline year after year. This year’s price increases were comparable to last year’s. The number of drugs that had January price increases by year: 629 (2021); 385 (2020); 359 (2019); 538 (2018); and 494 (2017). (Kathleen Stoll, 1/8)
