Biden pleas for BBB

Jan 25, 2022

Presented by Humana

With Erin Banco, Alice Miranda Ollstein, Adam Cancryn and David Lim

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Quick Fix

— The president today will press for social spending prioritieswhile touting boosted health coverage.

— We're still in the thick of the pandemic, even if we're tired of hearing it, Anthony Fauci tells POLITICO.

— FDA limits some antibody treatments amid growing evidence they don't work against the Omicron variant.

WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE — I'm still not back on my game. I want to make Wordle jokes you probably already did, and I haven't watched any of "The Bachelor" yet. Please tell me what's cool at sowermohle@politico.com.

A message from Humana:

In 2022, older Americans are getting more out of Medicare Advantage. Many Americans turning 65 or who are new to Medicare have access to plans that provide supplemental benefits tailored to address key social health needs like food security, transportation, and in-home support services. Learn more about how Medicare Advantage plans are helping address members' whole health.

Driving the Day

BIDEN MAKES SOCIAL SPENDING CASE — President Joe Biden will speak today at a health care–focused conference hosted by the progressive advocacy group Families USA, touting the actions that he's taken during his first year in office and rallying support for the path ahead.

In a video address, the president will take credit for enrolling millions of people in newly subsidized Obamacare plans and allowing Medicaid to cover more people longer after they give birth, Alice reports.

The president in his speech will give a single call to action for executing the rest of his agenda: pushing Congress to pass the social spending bill derailed late last year by the more conservative members of the Democratic party.

"We need the Senate to pass my Build Back Better Act, which will lower premiums for more than 9 million Americans, cover 4 million Americans in states that have failed to expand Medicaid, lower prescription drug costs, and bring down the price of insulin from $1,000 a month to $35 a month," he said. "We have to get this done. We have to get it done together. And we will."

Stay tuned: Alice will also be speaking at the conference Wednesday about the outlook for BBB, abortion rights and more.

FAUCI: WE STILL AREN'T CONTROLLING COVID — The world is a long way from moving the pandemic into a new chapter of eliminating and eventually eradicating the virus, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci told Erin in an interview last week.

"If you want to look at where we are, we're not at a level of control," Fauci said. "You would have to get enough people vaccinated and boosted and enough people infected who recovered, either vaccinated or not, so that the level of protection in society is low enough that it doesn't disrupt you and dominate what you do."

The variant cycle may not be over. "There's a best-case scenario, and a worst-case scenario," the longtime director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.

"The best-case scenario is … that we know there will be another variant, but the variant will be such that it isn't one that completely bumps off the protection from the underlying community immunity," he said. "The worst-case scenario is that when Omicron goes down, we get another very different variant that actually eludes the community immunity that's been built up."

And we're not done with boosters just yet. Fauci said the U.S. doesn't know how third shots will hold up.

"We don't know that after the third shot, even though the antibody level will inevitably go down, whether that third shot gives you a degree of durable memory B cell and T cell immunity that the durability of protection would go well beyond the laboratory data of the antibody going down."

FDA LIMITS ANTIBODY TREATMENTS AMID OMICRON — The Food and Drug Administration on Monday restricted the use of two monoclonal antibodies, made by Regeneron and Eli Lilly, that are thought to be ineffective against the Omicron variant.

The agency revised the emergency use authorizations for those treatments, limiting them to coronavirus strains that could be countered by those antibodies, POLITICO's Lauren Gardner reports.

But: Federal officials estimate that Omicron is responsible for more than 99 percent of U.S. cases as of mid-January. GlaxoSmithKline and Vir's sotrovimab is the only antibody cocktail shown to be effective against the variant.

The FDA noted that other therapeutics and treatments for Covid are available, including two antiviral pill regimens and remdesivir, an intravenous drug whose use regulators expanded on Friday to include non-hospitalized Covid patients at risk of developing severe illness. But that treatment must be administered in a clinical setting, and the antiviral drugs are plagued by supply constraints and logistical challenges, making it difficult for many Americans to access them.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed the federal government to continue shipping all authorized monoclonal antibodies, arguing people are still falling ill with the Delta variant that pummeled his state last summer and fall.

Around the agencies

N95 MASK GIVEAWAY ROLLING OUT — A nationwide distribution of N95 masks kicked off at a Hy-Vee in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, according to a Biden administration official. The first set of federally qualified health centers is scheduled to receive the more protective masks this week and next.

"Last week, masks began shipping and arriving at pharmacies and grocers around the country," the official said. "We expect that throughout the week the number of stores and N95s arriving to scale up significantly."

A message from Humana:

In Congress

FIRST IN PULSE: HOUSE LAWMAKERS WANT 'UNSUSTAINABLE' NURSE-STAFFING RATES PROBED — Nearly 200 House members are asking the White House to investigate the nurse-staffing industry that aids hospitals in need of additional personnel. They warn that some companies are taking advantage of the Omicron surge to charge "exorbitant" rates.

The bipartisan group, led by Reps. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), cited concerns that some agencies are charging two or three times more than they did before the pandemic — while not passing that extra amount on to the nurses assigned to the hospitals.

"We urge you to enlist one or more of the federal agencies with competition and consumer protection authority to investigate this conduct to determine if it is the product of anticompetitive activity and/or violates consumer protection laws," they wrote to White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients.

The letter doesn't identify specific staffing agencies. But it accuses some in the industry of inflating prices during the initial Covid-19 wave in 2020 and again during Omicron, as hospitals have struggled to keep their workforce healthy.

"The situation is urgent and the reliance on temporary workers has caused normal staffing costs to balloon in all areas of the country," the lawmakers wrote.

TELEHEALTH BILLS ROLL IN WITH RELIEF GAP — More than 30 million Americans will see higher bills for virtual health care visits because a temporary payment allowance passed in 2020 is expiring next month, POLITICO's Ben Leonard reports.

What's happening: A provision in the CARES Act relief package that expired Dec. 31 allowed certain high-deductible health plans to cover telehealth access before patients met their deductible. Without it, covered patients will have to pay more for virtual care as the Omicron variant rips through the country at record levels.

Experts say it was unlikely lawmakers who wrote the language anticipated the pandemic to last nearly two years. The temporary spending patch is set to expire Feb. 18, so the groups are now eyeing the next spending package to avert a government shutdown as a vehicle to address the issue.

The impact: The Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that more than 30 million Americans were enrolled in high-deductible plans in 2021, or about one in five of the total enrolled in employer-based insurance. The expiration of the language marked the first significant loss for telehealth advocates, who have seen access to virtual care broadly expand during the pandemic.

Backers including the American Telemedicine Association and the Alliance for Connected Care made an unsuccessful pitch to renew the provision before it expired.

AROUND THE NATION

NJ LAWMAKER AIMS TO COMBAT TX ABORTION LAW — State Assemblymember Lisa Swain introduced a bill that would block punishment for New Jersey residents who help pregnant Texan residents obtain an abortion under a controversial Texas law.

"Basically, Texas can't come after our New Jersey residents for helping individuals in Texas obtain an abortion," Swain said in a phone interview with POLITICO's Matt Friedman on Monday.

Context: The Texas law, which the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block while a challenge wends its way through federal courts, bars abortions after six weeks. The law makes no exceptions for rape or incest and makes only narrow exceptions involving the mother's health.

What makes the Texas law unique is its enforcement mechanism that allows ordinary citizens to sue people who have had abortions and lets anyone who helped them obtain an abortion sue to collect $10,000 bounties.

MEANWHILE IN TEXAS: Planned Parenthood last week abandoned a lawsuit against an ordinance in Lubbock that outlaws abortion within its city premises. Planned Parenthood representatives told local news outlets that advocacy groups can't expect the courts to protect abortion access in these cases while the so-called heartbeat bill that bans abortions past six weeks, is still tangled in court battles.

Names in the News

I AM ALS tapped Laura Dalle Pazze to serve as CEO. Dalle Pazze previously was president and COO at Charley's Fund.

What We're Reading

Noom markets itself as a new approach to weight loss but encourages some of the same deprivation as age-old diet trends, Buzzfeed's Scaachi Koul writes.

Yes, there is a new version of Omicron. No, don't freak out yet, The Washington Post's Lenny Bernstein writes.

Early data suggests that even modest cash aid for poor mothers could fuel better brain development for their young children, though more research is needed, The New York Times' Jason DeParle reports.

A message from Humana:

Medicare Advantage plans are evolving to meet the needs of Americans turning 65 or who are new to Medicare. With food insecurity and a lack of transportation making it difficult for many older Americans to seek care, supplemental benefits like transportation support and meal assistance can make a real difference in their lives. In 2022, more Medicare Advantage plans are providing meal assistance and transportation help, and the number of Medicare Advantage plans offering in-home support services doubled from 2021. Learn more about why 40% of people eligible for Medicare choose Medicare Advantage and how Medicare Advantage plans are supporting older Americans beyond the doctor's office.