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| By Krista Mahr and Daniel Payne |
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With help from Lauren Gardner and Daniel Lippman
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Abortion opponents are taking their fight to the pharmacies. | Brennan Linsley/AP Photo |
ANTI-ABORTION ACTIVISTS PLAN ACTION AGAINST CVS, WALGREENS — Fresh off winning their decadeslong battle to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion-rights opponents are going after two of the nation's biggest pharmacy chains, POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein and Lauren Gardner report. Anti-abortion advocates plan demonstrations outside CVS and Walgreens in at least eight cities in early February in response to the firms' plans to take advantage of the Food and Drug Administration's decision allowing pharmacies to stock and dispense abortion pills in states where they're legal. The protests will coincide with a call-in campaign and a planned national boycott of the chains. The big picture: The upcoming protests are a piece of a broader strategy that, if successful, could further fray the national patchwork of abortion access. Abortion pills have become the most popular method for terminating a pregnancy in the U.S. and a key way for people to access abortion in states where it's restricted. Today, members of the new House Republican majority will put forward a bill, first shared with POLITICO, that would expand the rights of pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for the drug. In addition, conservative advocates also threaten legal action against pharmacies that opt to dispense the pill while other pending lawsuits seek to ban their use nationwide. A Walgreens spokesperson declined to comment on the protests. CVS did not respond to a request for comment. WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE — Prince Harry's new book, "Spare," has given a boost to psychedelic therapy, after he wrote that he used the substances in therapy to deal with grief over his mother's death. Not everyone is convinced they work. Do you? Send your thoughts, news and tips to kmahr@politico.com and dpayne@politico.com. TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, Alice Miranda Ollstein talks with Adam Cancryn about his report that senior Biden officials are targeting an end to the Covid-19 emergency designation, which would trigger a complex restructuring of major elements of the federal response.
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| A message from PhRMA: Costly out-of-pocket expenses tied to deductible and coinsurance requirements are a leading concern for patients with commercial insurance. These harmful practices put in place by insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are even causing patients to abandon their medicines. New IQVIA data break down how insurers and their PBMs are impacting how patients access and afford their medicines. |
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Nursing homes across the nation are chronically short on staff. | Eric Risberg/AP Photo |
84 PERCENT OF NURSING HOMES SHORT ON STAFF — A new survey released Monday by the American Health Care Association underscores the severe and persistent staffing shortages that nursing homes face three years into the pandemic. The survey of 524 facilities across the nation found that 84 percent of them face high levels of staffing shortages, and nearly half said those shortages have worsened since the middle of last year. Almost all the nursing homes surveyed said they're having difficulty hiring staff, despite increasing wages or offering bonuses. More than two-thirds said they're worried about having to shut down because of the shortages. The AHCA launches a nationwide campaign today to address staffing shortages by helping job seekers learn about the opportunities in long-term care and helping nursing homes recruit new caregivers.
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| STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. |
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SANDERS BLASTS MODERNA COVID VAX PRICE — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), slated to lead the Senate HELP Committee this Congress, sent a letter to Moderna's CEO on Tuesday urging him to rethink any price increase to the company's Covid-19 shot. As noted in yesterday's Pulse, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company is considering pricing the vaccine from $110 to $130 per dose once it shifts from government contracts to commercialization and private insurers begin picking up the tab for the lifesaving intervention. The senator from Vermont warned that the price increase — more than quadruple what the federal government currently pays per dose — would lead to premium hikes by private insurers and burden the budgets of public insurers like Medicare and Medicaid, which must continue covering the vaccine at no cost to patients. Meanwhile, the un- and under-insured likely won't be able to afford to keep up with the shots, Sanders said. "How many of these Americans will die from Covid-19 as a result of limited access to these lifesaving vaccines?" he wrote. " In the midst of a deadly pandemic, restricting access to this much needed vaccine is unconscionable."
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NEW YORK'S $1 BILLION MENTAL HEALTH PLAN — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul outlined on Tuesday a sprawling $1 billion plan to overhaul the state's approach to mental health, POLITICO's Maya Kaufman reports. The state would create thousands of new housing units for New Yorkers with mental illness and open 1,000 hospital beds for psychiatric patients, Hochul said during her State of the State address. If the plan is approved by the state legislature, it would direct community hospitals to restore the 850 inpatient psychiatric beds that went offline during the Covid-19 pandemic but remained licensed to run. The state will introduce legislation to enable the Office of Mental Health to fine hospitals up to $2,000 a day for each licensed psychiatric bed they fail to keep operational. Another 150 beds would be added to state-operated psychiatric hospitals, which treat patients for longer stays. One hundred of those would be in New York City. Reality check: Hochul already pledged in February to restore more than 1,000 community hospital beds for psychiatric patients that were taken offline due to the pandemic, including 600 in New York City. Months later, about 850 of those were still offline statewide, according to news reports.
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HEARING AIDS LINKED TO LOWER DEMENTIA RATES — Using a hearing aid may lower older adults' risk of dementia, a new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found. The results, published in a research letter in JAMA on Monday, found that the prevalence of dementia among the participants with moderate or severe hearing loss was 61 percent higher than those who had normal hearing. Interestingly, those participants with moderate or severe hearing loss who used hearing aids had a 32 percent lower prevalence of dementia.
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DOD ENDS VACCINE MANDATE — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rescinded two 2021 orders on Tuesday that mandated members of the armed forces and National Guard and reserve to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by President Biden on Dec. 23, required the mandate be repealed within 30 days of becoming law. The bill doesn't prevent Austin from issuing a new mandate should he deem it necessary in the future, though it would set up a fight with the GOP lawmakers who fought for the mandate's termination on Capitol Hill. EEOC TACKLES PREGNANT WORKER PROTECTIONS — On Tuesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission unveiled its enforcement priorities for the next four years, including the implementation of newly enacted protections for pregnant workers, reports POLITICO's Nick Niedzwiadek. As part of the year-end spending deal, Congress tacked on an amendment requiring employers to provide "reasonable accommodations," such as bathroom breaks and seating options, for pregnant individuals. The legislation tasked the EEOC with enforcing those rights for workers, as it does with other landmark anti-discrimination laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act. EPA ANNOUNCES ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE GRANTS — EPA said on Tuesday it would take applications for $100 million in grants to address pollution in low-income areas and communities of color, POLITICO's Alex Guillén reports. The money is the largest amount ever spent on environmental justice, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. About $30 million of the funds will be dispersed through a cooperative agreement program with nonprofit organizations called the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Program. The remaining $70 million will go to EPA's Environmental Justice Government-to-Government Program. The agency is also developing plans to spend the remaining $3 billion in environmental justice money included under the Inflation Reduction Act.
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| A message from PhRMA:   |
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ADMIN SAYS ACA MARKETPLACE ENROLLMENT UP 13 PERCENT — The Biden administration announced today that a record 15.9 million people have signed up for a health plan through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace since the open enrollment period started in November. Just over 3 million, or about 20 percent of those who've signed up, are new to the program. The enrollment period closes on Jan. 15. Meanwhile, an updated analysis released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that at least 5 million uninsured Americans are eligible for low- or no-cost insurance coverage under the ACA. While ACA Marketplace enrollment has reached record highs, 28 million people went uninsured in 2021, according to KFF, even though most would qualify for assistance through Medicaid or ACA subsidies. KFF's estimate doesn't include uninsured people who previously fell into the "family glitch" and may now qualify for free plans, which means the actual number might be slightly higher.
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| JOIN TUESDAY TO HEAR FROM MAYORS AROUND AMERICA: 2022 brought in a new class of mayors leading "majority minority" cities, reshaping who is at the nation's power tables and what their priorities are. Join POLITICO to hear from local leaders on how they're responding to being tested by unequal Covid-19 outcomes, upticks in hate crimes, homelessness, lack of affordable housing, inflation and a potential recession. REGISTER HERE. |
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Josh Jorgensen is now associate director of legislative affairs at the Alliance of Community Health Plans. He previously was government affairs and policy director at the National Rural Health Association. Lauren Reddington is joining Leidos as press secretary for the health group. She previously was deputy comms director for Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).
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The international attention on mpox is over, but the outbreak is not, Stat reports. Despite new testing requirements imposed on Chinese travelers, the WHO said on Tuesday that Europe doesn't face an immediate threat from the outbreak in China, The Associated Press reports. Black medical resident trainees carry more debt than their non-Black colleagues, according to a large new study reported on in MedPage Today.
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| A message from PhRMA: Every day, patients at the pharmacy counter discover their commercial insurance coverage does not provide the level of access and affordability they need. New data from a study by IQVIA reveal the harmful practices of insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) can lead to significantly higher out-of-pocket costs for medicines — causing some patients to abandon their medicines completely. Learn more. |
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