Viewpoints: Current Drug Pricing Policies Make Suckers Of Everyone; Congress Needs To Sign Bill, Help Out Veterans

The Hill: Here Is What Trump Should Do About The Drug Pricing Problem
In a 2017 press conference, President Donald Trump said that drug companies were “getting away with murder.” Later this week, he’s going to offer a program for making drugs cheaper. Which policies should he endorse? For branded drugs, patents exclude competitors and allow drug companies to set high prices. For generics, most pricing problems are also attributable to insufficient competition. When only a few companies make a drug, they can raise prices in tandem or play other pricing games. Our insurance-dominated payment system compounds these problems by eliminating any constraints on the prices drug companies can charge. To fix the generic market, we need to change the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policies on pricing. Congress should give the FDA the resources it needs to clear out the sizable backlog of applications from generic drug makers —  the median length of the FDA approval process for generics was 47 months as recently as 2016. (David A. Hyman and Charles Silver, 5/9)

Stat: Pharma Should Take Tip From The Chemical Industry To Stem Pricing Outrage
No one seems to know what President Trump will say when (or if — he has postponed before) he addresses the nation this week on drug pricing. But the content doesn’t matter nearly as much as the implications. The mere fact that drug pricing has become such a populist issue that this president is devoting a policy speech to it will almost certainly roil markets and raise the collective blood pressure of pharmaceutical company CEOs. When it comes to drug prices, an increasingly vocal majority of Americans now feel they’re being treated unfairly and that there is very little transparency about how prices are set. A recent PatientView study, for example, showed that only 13 percent of patients thought pharma companies effectively explain pricing policies. (Craig Martin, 5/10)

Stat: Games And Greed Delay The Market Entry Of Money-Saving Biosimilars
Biosimilar developers are trying mightily to bring these more affordable, lifesaving medicines to market in spite of the myriad obstacles. It’s true that the United States has a shorter history with biosimilars. But that isn’t the real problem behind their slow entry into the marketplace — schemes to prolong monopoly profits are to blame. (Christine Simmon, 5/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Congress’s Chance To Do Right By Veterans
More than once, as a candidate and as president, Donald Trump has promised that “we will not rest until all of America’s great veterans can receive the care they so richly deserve.” This month Congress will have an opportunity to help make this one step closer to reality by passing the VA Mission Act, which provides critical funding for care, new health-care capacity, and new tools to improve employee performance across the Department of Veterans Affairs system. Without this legislation, funding for the popular Veterans Choice Program would run out, making it harder for millions of veterans to receive the care they need. (Anthony Tersigni, 5/9)

The Hill: More Than 400 Abortion Restrictions Passed Since 2011 — States Working Overtime To Cut Access
Abortion and access to it, is a protected constitutional right. Throughout the country people recognize that fact and a clear majority of Americans want to keep it that way. This week, health care providers, state advocates, faith leaders and other concerned Americans from dozens of states will gather in Washington to make clear they want lawmakers to protect abortion access by supporting legislative solutions like the Women’s Health Protection Act. The renewed effort comes as states are passing harmful abortion restrictions at historically high rates, while a hostile White House is hastily finding ways to chip away at our fundamental reproductive rights. The courts have offered some protection, overturning or blocking egregiously unconstitutional state laws. But President Trump has been vocal about his commitment to undermining the rule of law by appointing Supreme Court justices who would ignore the settled precedent of Roe v. Wade and erase Americans’ fundamental right to access abortion. (Susan Inman, 5/9)

Seattle Times: FDA’s New Calorie-Labeling Rules Empower Consumers To Make Healthier Choices
Giving customers more information so they can make educated choices is empowering — and might even improve their health. And, as it turns out, that’s something Republicans and Democrats can agree on, even in today’s divided political environment. This week marks the start of new labeling rules from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, requiring thousands of restaurants, grocery stores and movie theaters to post calorie counts on their menus. The new rules, included as part of the Affordable Care Act, are now backed by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, President Donald Trump’s nominee, as well as by key lobbying groups for the restaurant industry. (5/9)

Axios: When A Rural Hospital Shuts Down
When rural hospitals close, their communities often lose their biggest employers and closest access to health care, struggling to stay afloat in the aftermath. And that's happening a lot as the health care industry keeps consolidating — 83 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, according to the North Carolina Rural Health Research ProgramThe impact: This is happening now in rural Missouri, where Community Health Systems is shuttering a 116-bed hospital. Axios spoke with some of the hospital employees who are losing their jobs. They are sad, angry and concerned about what will happen to their community. (Bob Herman, 5/10)

The New York Times: Better Ways For Jeff Bezos To Spend $131 Billion
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is one of the most successful businessmen of all time. He has amassed an unfathomable fortune, reportedly $131 billion. This presents a predicament. Mr. Bezos commands far more money than any one person could possibly spend, far more than any one family dynasty could possibly spend. What should he do with all this money? Unfortunately, Mr. Bezos appears to have come up with a terrible response. (Harold Pollack, 5/9)

Charlotte Observer: Obamacare Premiums: Get Ready For Some Health Care Sticker Shock 
A bit of foreboding news you might have missed this week: Insurers in Maryland's individual Obamacare market have proposed an average 32 percent increase in health insurance premiums. The rate hikes range from 18 percent to a whopping 91 percent. This follows a similar announcement in Virginia, where insurers are proposing average rate hikes from 15 to 64 percent. States across the country, including North Carolina, can expect similar proposed hikes in coming months. Obamacare sticker shock is coming, and it's going to hit rural areas especially hard. Hold on. Aren't insurers mostly profitable in the Affordable Care Act's individual markets? Yes, they are. So what's happening? Exactly what insurers and health care experts predicted when Republicans sabotaged the Affordable Care Act last year. (5/9)

The Baltimore Sun: Health Insurance Down Payment Plan Should Be The Next Top Priority In Md.
The Affordable Care Act has brought health care coverage to more than 400,000 uninsured Marylanders, but this progress has been threatened as health insurance premiums in the individual market have skyrocketed under the Trump administration. Thankfully, Maryland is one of the states leading the nation in stabilizing premiums in its individual market. We commend the Maryland General Assembly and the Hogan administration for passing legislation that creates a reinsurance program to slow premium growth and that protects Marylanders from the Trump administration’s proposed rule that would further undercut insurance markets by expanding the sale of short-term plans with inadequate coverage and consumer protections. (Vincent DeMarco and Stan Dorn, 5/10)

Axios: Medicare Reverts To Bigger Payments For Equipment Suppliers
The Trump administration on Wednesday signed off on a regulation crafted during Tom Price's days that will revert to a system in which Medicare will pay medical equipment suppliers more money, starting June 1 and going through the end of the year. The bottom line: Companies that make oxygen tanks, scooters, insulin pumps and other medical equipment will get $360 million in additional revenue this year, with taxpayers and seniors footing the bill. (Bob Herman, 5/9)

Detroit News: Bullying No Way To Reform Medicaid
Senate Republicans driving an effort to get more Medicaid recipients working are so eager to pass the measure that they are now resorting to bullying tactics. That’s the wrong way to handle this legislation, not to mention an overstep of their authority. (5/9)

Kansas City Star: Kansas Medicaid Plan Too Harsh Even For The Trump Administration 
The Trump administration is all too willing to cut Medicaid benefits and the number of people receiving them. They’ve signaled this for one thing by allowing states to end retroactive eligibility and to impose work requirements. Their overall message is that states need maximum flexibility because states almost always know best. But remarkably, Kansas went too far even for this administration. This week, Kansas became the first and so far only state to be refused a Medicaid waiver under the current president. The federal government ruled that no, Kansas can’t kick people off Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans, just because they’ve been on it for three years. (5/9)

Des Moines Register: 'I Want People To Face Their Fears, Tear Off Their Masks And Be Real'
It's Mental Health Awareness Month, and this time Ross Trowbridge isn't running for cover, seeking anonymity or sleeping on the streets. He's organized, and advocating for people like himself. The 38-year-old who lives in Waterloo suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder, a fact he had felt the need to hide, to protect his standing and chance of finding a job. At one time, he earned close to $90,000 and had a wife and children. But as the illness took control, the lack of treatment options, the pressures of secrecy, and anger at the stigma itself became a vicious cycle. It led for three weeks in 2016 to his sleeping under Des Moines' Raccoon River Bridge. (Rekha Basu, 5/9)

New England Journal of Medicine: Revisiting Blood Safety Practices Given Emerging Data About Zika Virus
In August 2016, the FDA expanded its earlier guidance to include blood-donation screening throughout the continental United States. Consequently, all donated blood in the United States is now screened for ZIKV. In this issue of the Journal, results of the screening of more than 4,000,000 U.S. blood donations for ZIKV during a 15-month period in 2016 and 2017 are reported. The current U.S. strategy for ZIKV screening comes at a cost with an unclear gain. (Evan M. Bloch, Paul M. Ness, Aaron A.R. Tobian and Jeremy Sugarman, 5/10)