With Megan Messerly and Katherine Ellen Foley
A GOP ‘PRO-LIFE AGENDA’ — Extra folks on Medicaid. Simpler entry to contraception. Complete intercourse ed. These are simply among the insurance policies many Republicans nationwide are pushing within the last weeks of their legislative classes.
It might sound just a little unorthodox, however the fall of Roe v. Wade has upended the normal political battle traces in favor of a brand new “pro-life” agenda, prompting Republicans to embrace insurance policies that Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves admitted make them “philosophically uncomfortable.”
Reeves and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon just lately signed 12-month extensions of Medicaid postpartum advantages into legislation.
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds is pushing laws to permit pharmacists to dispense hormonal contraceptives. The state Senate has handed the invoice, and it’s transferring by way of the Home.
The trail is trickier for 2 complete sex-ed payments launched this yr in Indiana and South Carolina — which each have an abstinence-focused sex-ed curriculum. The payments haven’t acquired hearings, however South Carolina Republican state Sen. Tom Davis plans to convey his sex-ed laws ahead as an modification to a different education-related invoice.
“If we need to scale back undesirable pregnancies and, by that, scale back the variety of abortions, we have to do a greater job of offering factually right scientific data that’s age-appropriate,” he advised POLITICO.
WELCOME TO THURSDAY PULSE, the place we’re involved by the information that cockroaches are mutating to keep away from poisons used to kill them.
One factor we received’t keep away from: suggestions from our readers. Drop us a line at [email protected] and [email protected].
TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, host Ruth Reader talks with Katherine Ellen Foley concerning the FDA’s approval of Narcan, the primary over-the-counter opioid overdose reversal nasal spray, and the way it would possibly positively affect the opioid overdose epidemic within the U.S.
PLANS OF THE GIANTS — It’s uncommon that hospital, insurance coverage, doctor and authorities leaders get collectively — and agree on one thing.
However late Wednesday afternoon, a few of them did. Plenty of the largest gamers in well being care introduced plans to take classes discovered from the pandemic into the long run.
The hassle, led by Kaiser Permanente, appears to be like to cease the boom-bust cycle of public well being, particularly in moments of disaster just like the pandemic, and is split into three objectives:
— Enhance coordination of efforts and clearly outline duties amongst America’s Well being Insurance coverage Plans, the American Medical Affiliation, the American Hospital Affiliation, the Alliance of Group Well being Plans and public well being leaders
— Keep and develop connections made between well being techniques and communities in the course of the pandemic, a process that can be led by community-based organizations and the CDC Basis
— Develop a analysis agenda in collaboration with AcademyHealth to tell higher evidence-based public well being practices
The efforts come as hopes of latest federal funding to organize for the subsequent pandemic are low and because the Biden administration is anticipated to raise the Covid public well being emergency.
“One of many issues that makes this method particular is it isn’t merely heading over to Capitol Hill and asking for money,” Ceci Connolly, president and CEO of the ACHP, advised Pulse, saying the coalition’s work largely depends on the assets and efforts of the teams themselves.
The Biden administration welcomes the hassle, too, with Ashish Jha, the White Home Covid-19 response coordinator, saying at yesterday’s launch that he was “someplace between excited and gleeful” when he first heard concerning the effort.
“That is what the nation wants proper now,” he mentioned of makes an attempt to raised combine public well being and well being care — a sentiment echoed by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, additionally in attendance.
THE $$ QUESTION: HOW MUCH WILL OTC NARCAN COST? On Wednesday, the FDA mentioned that Narcan, an inhaled model of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone, was clear on the market with no prescription, Katherine studies. Emergent BioSolutions, the corporate that makes Narcan, mentioned it anticipates its over-the-counter model of Narcan could be accessible at fuel stations and on grocery, comfort and different retailer cabinets someday this summer season.
Nevertheless it’s not clear how a lot a two-pack of the drug will price: Matt Hartwig, an Emergent spokesperson, advised Katherine that the corporate wasn’t discussing pricing presently but it surely was in talks with retail companions.
At present, a two-pack of Narcan prices about $70, although which will range with particular person retailer markup and insurance coverage reimbursement. Because the drug shifts to OTC standing, it’s unclear whether or not insurers will cowl the drug for sufferers. Bruce Alexander, the director of the workplace of communications for the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies, mentioned the company encourages payers to advertise inexpensive entry to naloxone.
However Medicare, for instance, doesn’t cowl OTC medication by way of its Half D program except they’re a part of a remedy protocol or drug-use administration. State Medicaid protection varies.
“What number of merchandise do you see that price $50 on the shelf of a nook bodega or fuel station?” mentioned Nabarun Dasgupta, the innovation fellow for the college of public well being at UNC chapel hill and the board chair of the Treatment Alliance, a nonprofit that distributes free variations of naloxone. “Whenever you do see these merchandise, they’re often locked behind glass. That is sort of the equal of top-shelf liquor.”
The federal government may take actions to make sure that some folks on the most danger of overdosing — those that use inhaled or intravenous medication — like shopping for in bulk and distributing the drug to sure teams without cost, mentioned Lorraine Marchand, a pharmaceutical guide and professor on the Katz Faculty of Science and Well being at Yeshiva College in New York.
VOTE MORE, LIVE LONGER — Counties with higher entry to civic infrastructure like parks, faculties and libraries and better civic participation are, on common, more healthy than these with much less entry, in line with a brand new report from the College of Wisconsin Inhabitants Well being Institute.
Their 2023 County Well being Rankings & Roadmaps report discovered that counties rating within the prime 10 % for well being outcomes, measured by the size and high quality of life, have better-than-average faculties, broadband web, libraries, native newspapers, parks and leisure amenities. The healthiest 10 % of counties even have considerably greater charges of voter turnout and census participation than the least wholesome counties.
Behind the numbers: The report examined how counties with structural obstacles to good civic life — together with gerrymandering, legal guidelines that make it more durable to vote and low funding in civic infrastructure — impacts international locations’ well being. It discovered that life expectancy in states with probably the most structural obstacles was 75.4 — greater than three years shorter than in counties with fewer obstacles.
Counties within the West, Midwest and Northeast within the U.S. are typically faring higher, whereas counties alongside the U.S.-Mexico border, the Black Belt Area, American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal areas and Appalachia — which have lengthy histories of discrimination and underinvestment leading to underresourced civic infrastructure — have worse well being outcomes.
DOCTORS: MISINFORMATION … THERE’S A LOT OF IT — Greater than 70 % of medical doctors within the U.S. say misinformation makes it more durable to deal with sufferers with Covid-19 and has negatively impacted sufferers’ well being, in line with a brand new ballot from Morning Seek the advice of and the de Beaumont Basis.
Within the nationwide on-line ballot performed in December, medical doctors additionally reported that 44 % of the Covid-19-related data their sufferers repeat to them is inaccurate. They usually’re seeing the identical drawback in the case of therapy for weight reduction, psychological well being and different vaccinations.
Greater than 90 % of medical doctors mentioned the Covid vaccine was secure and efficient in contrast with 65 % of the general public surveyed in the identical ballot. Medical doctors additionally had higher confidence within the pandemic’s toll: Whereas 92 % agreed that Covid had killed greater than 1 million People, solely 67 % of the general public agreed.
The New York Instances studies on the anti-trans legislation in Kentucky that overrode the governor’s veto.
Kaiser Well being Information checks in on the hospital price-transparency rule.
