Hiya, Trump. Bye-Bye, Biden. – KFF Well being Information

The Host

Incoming President Donald Trump’s inauguration is Monday, but the brand new GOP-led Congress is already dashing to work his priorities into laws, eyeing cuts to Medicaid to pay for brand spanking new tax and immigration priorities. However even in its waning days, the Biden administration continues to make huge coverage strikes, together with a attainable order for tobacco corporations to dramatically lower the quantity of nicotine in cigarettes. 

In the meantime, the fires in Los Angeles are drawing new consideration to the well being risks of not simply smoke from natural matter, but additionally poisonous substances launched by burning plastic and different man-made supplies — in addition to the menace posed to each air and water high quality.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Anna Edney of Bloomberg Information, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins College Bloomberg College of Public Well being and Politico Journal, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Name.

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• Republican lawmakers are weighing choices to chop federal spending on Medicaid, the practically $900-billion-a-year authorities program that covers 1 in 5 Individuals. They may use the financial savings to bolster Trump priorities, equivalent to extending the 2017 tax cuts. The GOP made splashy however unsuccessful makes an attempt to chop Medicaid when Trump first took workplace and the social gathering held a bigger Home majority — although the social gathering appears extra aligned with Trump as we speak than it was then.
• Congress has gotten right down to enterprise on messaging payments: It superior laws this week that may ban trans athletes from ladies’ faculty sports activities and, individually, a measure to detain and even deport immigrants who’re residing within the U.S. with out authorized standing and have been charged with, although not convicted of, minor crimes equivalent to shoplifting.
• The Supreme Courtroom has agreed to listen to a case later this 12 months concerning the U.S. Preventive Providers Job Drive — an impartial physique of consultants that points suggestions in illness prevention and medication. A ruling in opposition to its authority might strip protection for key preventive well being providers from not simply these with Reasonably priced Care Act protection, but additionally these on employer-sponsored well being plans. The query stands: If not this process pressure, who would make the determinations about what preventive care ought to be lined?
• And the outgoing Biden administration issued a slew of well being laws this week, together with a ban on the dye Crimson No. 3 in meals and different ingested merchandise, in addition to an early regulation limiting the quantity of nicotine in tobacco merchandise. The incoming Trump administration might upend these and extra laws, although some do align with its coverage pursuits.

Additionally this week, Rovner interviews Harris Meyer, who reported and wrote the most recent KFF Well being Information “Invoice of the Month” function, a few colonoscopy that got here with a a lot bigger price ticket than estimated. When you’ve got a mystifying or outrageous medical invoice you’d wish to share with us, you are able to do that right here.

Plus, for “further credit score,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn (or wrote) this week that they assume you must learn, too: 

Julie Rovner: KFF Well being Information’ “Can Medical Colleges Funnel Extra Docs Into the Major Care Pipeline?” by Felice J. Freyer.

Anna Edney: Bloomberg Information’ “It’s Not Simply Sunscreen. Poisonous Merchandise Line the Drugstore Aisles,” by Anna Edney.

Joanne Kenen: The Atlantic’s “A Secret Means To Struggle Off Abdomen Bugs,” by Daniel Engber.

Sandhya Raman: Nature’s “New Weight problems Definition Sidelines BMI To Deal with Well being,” by Giorgia Guglielmi.

Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:

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