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HEADLINES: Republican Plan to Slash Medicaid Will Close Hospital Doors, Devastate Nursing Homes, and Rip Coverage Away from Millions

Today, House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee will debate legislation that slashes billions of dollars from Medicaid and rips health care away from millions of Americans, so they can pass tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. Through job loss penalties, prohibitive reporting requirements, and other funding cuts, Republicans will take lifesaving care away from children, seniors, people fighting addiction or cancer, and so many more. At the same time, House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee are taking away tax credits that lower premium costs for middle-class families and sabotaging the ACA, all of which will raise costs and make health care inaccessible and unaffordable for American families. This Republican budget is anything but moderate – Hospitals will close, sick people will go untreated, and working families will lose access to basic health care, all so Trump and Congressional Republicans can give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. 

The Washington Post: GOP’s scaled-back Medicaid plan still threatens coverage for millions

  • Republicans’ plans to cut health care as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and immigration agenda could strip Medicaid coverage from 8.7 million people and lead to 7.6 million more uninsured people over 10 years, according to an estimate from Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper in documents obtained by The Washington Post…Because Republicans aren’t aiming to change federal contributions to Medicaid, which is funded jointly by states and the federal government, the savings would largely come from people dropping out of the program.

NPR: Experts warn Congress cuts to Medicaid and addiction funding will mean more overdose deaths 

  • This comes as drug policy experts, hospitals and recovery clinics are also bracing for possible cuts to Medicaid funding. Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expanded rapidly and now provides much of the insurance coverage in the U.S. for people seeking medical treatment for addiction. “It’s a scary time. We’re terrified about the possibility of what might happen if Medicaid is diminished significantly,” said Dr. Stephen Taylor with the American Society of Addiction Medicine. “Our hope is to be able to convince policymakers and people who have control of things to not make changes we know would devastate the people we take care of.”

Politico: Hospital groups slam cuts to Medicaid in megabill 

  • Hospital groups argue that these changes will imperil health care facilities already struggling to keep their doors open, including those in low-income and rural areas that have a high number of Medicaid patients. “These hospitals, which already operate on thin margins, cannot absorb such losses without reducing services or closing their doors altogether,” said Bruce Siegel, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, which represents safety-net facilities.

The Washington Post: Nursing home and elder-care residents could be hit hard by potential Medicaid cuts 

  • Medicaid paid $255 billion for long-term care services in 2022, including $59 billion for stays in institutional facilities, a category that includes nursing homes, according to KFF, a health policy organization. More than 60 percent of nursing home stays nationwide are financed through Medicaid. “Their coverage will be at risk,” said Katie Sloan Smith, president and chief executive of LeadingAge, a Washington lobbying association for operators of nonprofit senior-care facilities. “Either the home itself will have to make up for that loss in some way or they will simply have to say, ‘We can no longer support people on Medicaid’ and close those beds.”

Bloomberg: Want to Keep Fighting Fentanyl? Don’t Cut Medicaid 

  • The committee draft likewise exempts people with “chronic” drug addiction from the new work mandates, but significant numbers of them could be ensnared anyway by the bill’s other new requirements on the expansion population. Those additional burdens will make it harder for people in drug treatment to get and keep the coverage they need, Orris says. 

The Washington Post: Now might be exactly the worst time to cut Medicaid and food stamps

  • This combination — top-heavy tax cuts financed by low-income benefit cuts — would add up to possibly the largest single transfer of wealth from poor to rich in U.S. history, according to back-of-the-envelope numbers from Bobby Kogan, a former Senate budget staffer and researcher at the Center for American Progress….This legislation, however, would add more bureaucratic roadblocks to enrollment in critical benefit programs (sound familiar?) while narrowing eligibility requirements. So we might be facing a perfect storm: an economy teetering on the edge of recession, but without the usual mechanisms kicking in to curb the pain and spur recovery. In fact, program enrollment might be falling just as people lose jobs, depending on when the cuts take effect. That means more pain in the near term — and a more protracted recession.

Newsweek: Millions Face Losing Health Insurance Under Republican Proposal 

  • The documents reveal that if enacted, the proposed subsidy rollback would strip coverage from millions, particularly hitting low-income adults who depend on enhanced premium tax credits to afford health plans under the ACA. The out-of-pocket costs for all privately insured Americans, including those with employment-based coverage, would increase by $450 for individuals and $900 for families as a result of the policy. The proposal could therefore have far-reaching implications for healthcare access and affordability, especially in states that did not expand Medicaid and where marketplace subsidies serve as a lifeline for lower-income residents.

Rolling Stone: Republican Medicaid Cuts Could Force Many Hospitals to ‘Close Their Doors’ 

  • Conservatives appear ready to eliminate a key funding mechanism, called provider taxes, that have allowed states to provide supplemental payments to hospitals, doctors, and other providers in order to make up for lower reimbursements from Medicaid. According to an April report from The Wall Street Journal, delays in the processing of such payments by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have already forced hospitals in several states to lay off staff and pause payments to suppliers as the agency slow-walks supplemental funding approvals. 

Fierce Healthcare: Report: Tax, Medicaid Cuts Largely Benefit High-Income Families

  • House Republicans have unveiled their plans to cut federal spending and extend tax cuts, but experts warn that funding the cuts by slashing Medicaid and other entitlements will largely benefit families with higher incomes. The House Energy & Commerce Committee released its budget reconciliation proposal late Sunday, after being tasked with identifying at least $880 billion in spending cuts. A preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would reduce the federal deficit by $912 billion, with $715 billion of that coming from cuts in healthcare.

Becker’s Hospital Review: ‘Cuts Of This Magnitude Cannot Be Absorbed’: Hospitals Slam Republicans’ Medicaid Proposal

  • House Republicans on May 11 floated a bill that would impose up to $715 billion in Medicaid and ACA cuts over the next decade — reductions that hospital leaders warn would leave millions without coverage and put essential hospitals at risk of closure. The 160-page bill outlines several Medicaid provisions aimed at curbing federal spending, including: Implementing stricter eligibility requirements.

CBS News: Medicaid recipients could face work requirements under GOP bill. Here are the details

  • Some policy experts who study Medicaid, food stamps and other social safety net programs say that there’s little evidence that work requirements increase employment, partly because most people who receive such aid and who are able to work are already doing so. About 92% of people under 65 years old who aren’t receiving disability benefits were working full- or part-time in 2023, or else unable to work because of duties such as attending school or caregiving obligations, according to a recent analysis from heath publication KFF. The remaining 8% were either retired, couldn’t find work or weren’t working for another reasons. 

Axios: Why work requirements for Medicaid “don’t work” 

  • Typically the idea behind work requirements is to make sure people aren’t free-riding off of cash benefits — choosing not to work, and living off food stamps or welfare checks. The thing is: You can’t live off health insurance — it doesn’t pay the bills or provide food. There’s little evidence that people are somehow free-riding on Medicaid. 64% of adults with Medicaid work full time or part time, according to an analysis of census data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Another 32% are taking care of home or family, are ill or disabled, attend school, or are retired. 2% could not find work. And there’s another 2% in an “other” category.

MSNBC: The GOP’s plan could throw millions off Medicaid — and that’s just the start

  • Republicans frame these mandates as a way to encourage people to work. But work requirements fail to increase employment, while only succeeding at tossing millions of people off Medicaid. And that’s exactly what Republicans in Congress are banking on. Work requirements — or paperwork requirements, more accurately — are little more than a bureaucratic cudgel. They impose layers of complex red tape on Medicaid enrollees, forcing them to clear administrative hurdles and prove their employment status or that they qualify for an exemption (such as caregiving or attending school). The primary result is health care coverage being taken away from eligible Americans.
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“The Fight Has Begun”: Energy and Commerce Democratic Leadership Denounce “Extreme” Republican Plan To Rip Health Care Away From Millions

Watch the Full Event Here.

Washington, D.C. — Today, House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06), Ranking Member on Health Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO-01), and Vice Ranking Member Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX-07) joined Protect Our Care for a press conference to call out Republicans’ plan to make the largest cuts to Medicaid in history. Tomorrow, Republicans in the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees will pass legislation to raise health care costs and rip away coverage from millions to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. 

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released the text of their budget proposal, putting pen to paper on their plan to kick millions off their health care by enacting the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, raising costs on low-income families, closing rural hospitals, and enacting burdensome work requirements designed to deny people coverage. Their plan would rip health care from millions of Americans, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get insurance through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents. In addition to draconian Medicaid cuts, Republicans are raising premiums and out-of-pocket costs for tens of millions of people who buy coverage on their own. These Republican price hikes will force millions of middle-class families to lose their coverage altogether. 

“Don’t tell me that this is a moderate bill,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06). “This is worse than what Brett Guthrie and the Republicans on our committee originally proposed because they are literally kicking people off of their coverage. They are reducing services. They are making it much more difficult for people to get health care. The fight has begun now.”

“13.7 million Americans will lose their health insurance and that is not a small number,” said Ranking Member on Health Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO-01). “Any time you kick over 13 million people off of insurance, it’s extreme. They’re going to lose their Medicaid in order for Donald Trump and the Republicans to give tax cuts for Elon Musk and his billionaire friends.”

“Cutting this funding for Medicaid isn’t going to save money. It’s just going to shift the costs,” said Vice Ranking Member Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX-07). “One of the things they want to do is shift costs to the states. One of the things they want to do is just shift people completely off of Medicaid. That means that people will wind up not getting care when they need it and not getting preventative care. While we’re hearing that these are such reasonable provisions, they’re not and they’re going to impact people across the country. ”

“The Republican push to gut Medicaid is indefensible and the same draconian plan they have had all along,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “In their outrageous crusade to hand out more tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, Republicans are betraying their voters and the millions of people who count on Medicaid, including seniors in nursing homes, children with disabilities, veterans, and hard-working families. Medicaid is not an ATM to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. It’s shameful that Republicans would even contemplate ripping away health care from millions to give another tax break to Donald Trump and his wealthy friends. Every dollar Republicans try to steal from Medicaid is a direct attack on people’s lives — and they know it.”

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Trump’s War on Health Care: Public Health Watch

“It’s all cronyism going forward.” – HHS under RFK Jr’s rule

Welcome to Public Health Watch, a weekly roundup from Protect Our Care tracking catastrophic activity as part of Donald Trump’s sweeping war on health care. From installing anti-vaccine zealot RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS to empowering Elon Musk to make indiscriminate cuts to our public health infrastructure, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, Donald Trump is endangering the lives of millions of Americans. Protect Our Care’s Public Health Watch will shine a spotlight on the worst of the Trump/RFK/Musk war on vaccines, science and public health and serve as a resource for the press, public and advocacy groups to hold them accountable. 

What’s Happening In Public Health?

Catastrophic Cuts Are Creating Chaos And Endangering Americans’ Health And Scientific Innovation

Stat: NIH grant terminations under Trump have totaled at least $1.8 billion, analysis finds It has been hard to quantify the scope of grants canceled by Trump administration health agencies, but in a paper published Thursday, researchers are putting forth one topline number: $1.8 billion in grants from the National Institutes of Health terminated in just over one month, including $544 million that had not yet been spent. The figure is imperfect and is likely an undercount, outside researchers noted, but points to an unprecedented disruption to science in the U.S.  The authors did not analyze grants by topic because there is no standardized way to do so. Instead they looked at the type of funding program the grants were a part of and the NIH institute or center awarding them. That analysis highlights the administration’s focus on grants it deems related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities saw the largest percent of its portfolio cut —  29.6% of the dollar amount of active grants — followed by 13.4% for the National Institute of Nursing Research, which awards many grants related to treating marginalized patients.  The study also found that 139 of 694 of the terminated grants were training grants, which support early-career researchers and are sometimes intended to promote diversity in the sciences.

CBS: National Institutes of Health lays off hundreds more staff, including at cancer research institute The National Institutes of Health has laid off hundreds more staff, multiple current and laid-off employees of the health agency told CBS News, including at its cancer research institute. Around 200 employees began receiving layoff notices Friday evening, said three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The move surprised NIH officials, since the department previously claimed no further cuts were planned at the agency.  “We thought the worst was behind us, and we were transitioning into this new phase, and the rug was just pulled out from underneath us,” one laid-off employee said.

CNN: Trump policies at odds with ‘Make America Healthy Again’ push At first glance, Trump appears to have fully embraced the MAHA movement championed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. From proclaiming in his congressional speech a goal to “get toxins out of our environment” to launching a new commission to study cancer and other ailments, Trump has vowed to end what he calls an epidemic of chronic disease. But even as he extols MAHA, Trump has unleashed a slew of policies likely to make Americans less healthy. He’s slashing 20,000 full time positions from HHS and cutting more than $4 billion in indirect costs related to health research grants, including studies into treatment for Alzheimer’s and cancer. He also supported a GOP plan likely to kneecap Medicaid, a joint federal-state program that covers about 72 million Americans. The contradictions raise doubts about the sincerity of Trump’s support for the MAHA agenda and his administration’s commitment to making a dent in chronic disease — conditions that afflict about 133 million Americans and account for roughly 90% of the $4.5 trillion spent annually in the U.S. on health care.

Politico: RFK Jr., DOGE gutted legally required offices. Courts may undo it all. The Trump administration’s purge of the health department is cutting so deep that it has incapacitated congressionally mandated programs and triggered legal challenges. The administration insists the cuts are a lawful “streamlining” of a “bloated” agency, but federal workers, Democratic lawmakers, state officials and independent legal experts say keeping offices afloat in name only — with minimal or no staff — is an unconstitutional power grab. While agencies have some discretion over how to fulfill Congress’s demands, the upheaval inside the Department of Health and Human Services has claimed a host of programs the agency is required by Congress to maintain — cuts that are especially vulnerable to lawsuits and could upend Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of slimming down a workforce he has repeatedly said is rife with waste, fraud and abuse.

Health Impacts:

Local Impacts: 

Public Resistance:

Chaotic Firings and Re-Hirings:

Cruel, Destructive, and Corrupt Policy Changes:

The FDA Is Being Dismantled – Stalling Drug Development And Leaving Us Vulnerable To Food-Borne Illness 

CBS: FDA’s top inspector abruptly retires The Food and Drug Administration’s top official overseeing drug and food safety inspections told staff on Monday he has decided to leave the agency, and multiple federal health officials told CBS News it comes amid frustration from inspectors with the FDA’s new commissioner. Michael Rogers had worked for the FDA for more than three decades, culminating in a role as the agency’s associate commissioner for inspections and investigations. Colleagues said they were surprised to learn that his final day in the office will be May 14.

Inside Health Policy: Makary Sets Low Expectations On COVID Booster Shots For Kids FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is sending signals that FDA will likely not authorize a COVID-19 booster vaccine this year for children, and perhaps not for the general population as a whole, saying he “cannot, in good faith” recommend booster vaccination for children.

Additional FDA News: 

RFK Jr. Is An Extreme MAGA Anti-Vaxxer Who’s Breaking His “Assurances” To Key Republicans To Get Confirmed And Mis-Managing HHS 

The Daily Beast: RFK Jr. Spews Wild Anti-Vax Theories As Measles Cases Surge As measles cases surge past quadruple digits for the first time in three decades, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been defending religious vaccine refusal and spreading pseudoscience on Fox News. “The MMR vaccine that we currently use has millions of particles that were created from aborted fetal tissue, millions of DNA fragments,” RFK Jr. told Fox News host Bret Baier in a report aired on Thursday. It’s a wildly misleading statement. The rubella component of the MMR vaccine is grown in a lab-cultured cell line originally derived from fetal tissue in the 1960s, but no actual tissue cells are present in the vaccine. Trace DNA fragments are non-functional and regulated to be safe.

Reuters: Exclusive: Kennedy aide and vaccine critic questions recent expert recommendations An aide to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is seeking more information about three vaccines recommended by a panel of outside experts last month, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and two sources familiar with the situation. The advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had made recommendations regarding the use of separate shots approved to help protect against RSV, meningitis and chikungunya. The CDC is not required to adopt their recommendations, but when it does, they become guidelines for medical practitioners to follow. Dr. William “Reyn” Archer III joined the Health and Human Services Department, which oversees CDC, as a counselor in the secretary’s office after Kennedy took over in February, HHS records show. A critic of vaccines on social media for the past several years, Archer served as Texas state health commissioner in the late 1990s. Archer’s hiring and activity at HHS have not previously been reported. His role reviewing the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations is the latest indication of how Kennedy, who has spent decades raising doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, is reshaping U.S. policy.

New York Times: Scientists Hail This Medical Breakthrough. A Political Storm Could Cripple It. To scientists who study it, mRNA is a miracle molecule. The vaccines that harnessed it against Covid saved an estimated 20 million lives, a rapid development that was recognized with a Nobel Prize. Clinical trials show mRNA-based vaccines increasing survival in patients with pancreatic and other deadly cancers. Biotechnology companies are investing in the promise of mRNA therapies to treat and even cure a host of genetic and chronic diseases, including Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. But to some state legislators, mRNA therapies are “weapons of mass destruction” and a public health threat. They argue that these vaccines are untested and unsafe, and will be pumped into the food supply to “mass medicate” Americans against their will. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has falsely called the mRNA shots against Covid “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” Short for messenger RNA, mRNA exists naturally in every cell of every living organism — its discovery in 1961 was also celebrated with a Nobel Prize. But its association with Covid has thrust it to the center of a political storm, buffeted by vaccine hesitancy and misinformation, anger over lockdowns and mandates, and the ascendance of the Make America Healthy Again movement in the Trump administration. States and federal health agencies are playing on public wariness about vaccines to cancel research into mRNA more broadly, indicating how much the lingering politicization of Covid is fueling the new attacks on science.

Other MAHA Activities:

RFK’s Autism Plans Draw Widespread Condemnation And Calls For His Resignation 

CNN: HHS to build Medicare, Medicaid database on autism, other chronic illnesses The US Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday unveiled a pilot program for the National Institutes of Health to tap into Medicare and Medicaid data in its search for the root causes of autism. The database — which HHS said will draw from insurance claims, medical records and data from wearable technology such as smartwatches — is one of the first steps in HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid to find the causes of autism “by September.” Early signals from health officials that they would build a database to track autism were met with swift rebuke from advocacy organizations and doctors.

Stat: RFK Jr. wants Americans’ health records to study autism. It’s not that easy to get them As health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. prepares to investigate vaccine complication rates, chronic diseases, and autism, real patients’ health records have emerged as a coveted resource.  Food and Drug Administration commissioner Marty Makary said in an interview with Megyn Kelly that “massive electronic health record data” could be used to monitor for vaccine injury. National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya announced the research agency would build a “transformative real-world data initiative” pulling in many streams of data, including private EHRs, to study autism and chronic disease. On Wednesday, the NIH said it would start that work by linking claims data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  This isn’t a new idea: Real-world data researchers and health data companies have been building similar platforms for years, often focusing on a single disease at a time. The NIH’s recent history is littered with efforts to build banks of health records and link them with other data in an effort to supercharge medical research.  But all those projects have been dogged by the same questions: Who owns the data? Who will profit from it? How do you keep it safe? And how do you get records from many organizations — with their own, often-inscrutable reporting differences — to play nice so researchers can trust their collective findings?

The Guardian: ‘A slippery slope to eugenics’: advocates reject RFK Jr’s national autism database Autism researchers and advocates are pushing back against the creation of an autism database – meant to track the health of autistic people in a major research study – and pointing to the ways such databases could be misused. While the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) denies it’s a registry, the agency did confirm a sweeping database of autistic people will power a $50m study on autism. The health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said last week that he plans to announce results from the study within months. A petition against the registry gained thousands of signatures in a single day, jumping from 2,500 to nearly 35,000 signatures within 24 hours. “I’m a quiet person who likes to just be in the background,” said first-time petition creator Ryan Smith, a parent of two neurodiverse children living in Idaho. He also didn’t want to make himself a target. “But I feel really, really, really strongly about this, and I have to speak up for my kids who can’t speak for themselves.”

More fallout from RFK Jr.’s autism plans:

Disastrous, Dangerous Appointments

Associated Press: Donald Trump taps wellness influencer close to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for surgeon general President Donald Trump is tapping Dr. Casey Means, a physician-turned-wellness influencer with close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as his nominee for surgeon general after withdrawing his initial pick for the influential health post. Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that Means has “impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials” – referring to the “ Make America Healthy Again ” slogan – and that she will work to eradicate chronic disease and improve the health and well-being of Americans. “Her academic achievements, together with her life’s work, are absolutely outstanding,” Trump said. “Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History.” In doing so, Trump withdrew former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat from consideration for the job, marking at least the second health-related pick from Trump to be pulled from Senate consideration. Nesheiwat had been scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Thursday for her confirmation hearing.

Los Angeles Times: Trump’s pick for surgeon general quit medical residency due to stress, former department chair says President Trump’s choice of Dr. Casey Means, a Los Angeles holistic medicine doctor and wellness influencer, as his nominee for surgeon general appears to mark another attempt to defy establishment medicine and longstanding federal policy. Trump portrayed Means — a 37-year-old Stanford medical school graduate and author who describes herself on LinkedIn as a “former surgeon turned metabolic health evangelist” — in his announcement as fully in sync with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mission to “Make America Healthy Again.” “Casey has impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials, and will work closely with our wonderful Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans,” Trump said in a statement on Truth Social. Some have raised questions about Means’ credentials. Although she graduated from medical school, she is not an active doctor licensed to practice medicine.

Axios: RFK Jr. picks controversial doctor as top vaccine regulator Vinay Prasad, a hematologist-oncologist known for at times scathing social media critiques of public health policy, will be the Food and Drug Administration’s new top vaccine regulator, according to an email viewed by Axios. Why it matters: The University of California San Francisco physician will succeed Peter Marks, who abruptly resigned as director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in March, citing disagreements with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Driving the news: Prasad is an outspoken skeptic about COVID-19 vaccine mandates for kids, though he’s called the vaccine itself a “a miraculous, life-saving advance.” FDA commissioner Marty Makary wrote in an email to FDA staff that Prasad had published more than 500 academic articles, done extensive research in the field of oncology and presented at hundreds of scientific and medical conferences. “He brings a great set of skills, energy, and competence to the FDA and I know that he is eager to begin immersing himself in the important work of CBER and the agency as a whole.”

More on Trump’s terrible appointment choices: 

GOP State Policymakers Are Following RFK Jr.’s Lead Attacking Vaccines And Proven Public Health Measures

Politico: States loosen vaccine rules — even as measles outbreak rages he U.S. is on track to surpass 1,000 measles cases this year as the viral illness — once so rare that most young doctors don’t recognize the telltale rash — makes an alarming comeback. The outbreak, which has spread to 29 states as of May 1 and claimed three lives, hasn’t stopped some local lawmakers from considering or implementing policies that could make it even easier for parents to opt out of school vaccination requirements for their children.

NPR: Meet the Florida group chipping away at public benefits one state at a time As an Arizona bill to block people from using government aid to buy soda headed to the governor’s desk in April, the nation’s top health official joined Arizona lawmakers in the state Capitol to celebrate its passage. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said to applause that the legislation was just the start and that he wanted to prevent federal funding from paying for other unhealthy foods. “We’re not going to do that overnight,” Kennedy said. “We’re going to do that in the next four years.” Those words of caution proved prescient when Arizona’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, vetoed the bill a week later. Nevertheless, state legislation to restrict what low-income people can buy using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits is gaining momentum, boosted by Kennedy’s touting it as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” platform. At least 14 states have considered bills this year with similar SNAP restrictions on specific unhealthy foods such as candy, with Idaho and Utah passing such legislation as of mid-April. Healthy food itself isn’t largely a partisan issue, and those who study nutrition tend to agree that reducing the amount of sugary food people eat is a good idea to avoid health consequences such as heart disease. But the question over the government’s role in deciding who can buy what has become political. The organization largely behind SNAP restriction legislation is the Foundation for Government Accountability, a conservative policy think tank in Florida, and its affiliated lobbying arm, which has used the name Opportunity Solutions Project. FGA has worked for more than a decade to reshape the nation’s public assistance programs. That includes SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, which federal data shows helps an average of 42 million people afford food each month. It also advocates for ways to cut Medicaid, the federal-state program that connects 71 million people to subsidized health care, including efforts in Idaho and Montana this year.

Public Health Threats

Politico: Measles hits 1,000 cases — for the second time in 30 years The measles outbreak has surpassed 1,000 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Friday, a grim milestone that has only been achieved twice in the last 30 years. Three people have died in the outbreak, according to the CDC, including two school-aged children in Texas. Children under 5 account for roughly one-third of the 1,001 cases, the majority of which have been recorded in Texas. Nearly all patients — 96 percent — were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.

Stat: RSV sent fewer babies to the hospital last winter, after new treatment and vaccine arrived A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows there was a substantial drop in hospitalizations for respiratory syncytial virus this winter among very young children, who are at the highest risk of becoming severely ill if they contract RSV. This past winter was the first during which new options for protecting babies from the virus became widely available in the United States, though the products were first introduced in a limited way in advance of the 2023-2024 season.  The study, published in the CDC’s online journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, cannot prove that the new tools are the reason for the drop in hospitalizations among children under 7 months old, the age group targeted for these interventions. But a rise in hospitalizations among slightly older children — still at risk but too old to be eligible for the products — shows the decline occurred in the context of a severe RSV season. RSV is the No. 1 cause of hospitalizations of infants, with seriously ill babies struggling to breathe.

New York Times: Flu Killed 25 Children in New York This Season, the Most in Many Years Amid dropping vaccination rates, 25 children in New York State died from influenza during the 2024-25 flu season — more than in any recent flu season, state health authorities said on Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that more than 47 million people nationwide caught the flu between fall and spring and that more than 600,000 have been hospitalized. The hospitalization rate for flu is the highest it has been in 15 years. A number of factors have probably contributed to influenza’s heavy toll. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, more people have chosen not to be vaccinated against the seasonal flu. And some researchers believe that the mix of strains circulating this year tend to be associated with more intense flu seasons.

Public Health Threats Around The World:

Opinion and Commentary

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In News

STATEMENT: Trump Executive Order Nothing But A Distraction As GOP Works to Raise Costs and Rip Away Health Care 

Washington, D.C —  In a meandering press event, Donald Trump issued a meaningless executive order on drug pricing that contained no policy specifics and was designed to distract Americans from the Republican assault on health care. In response, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement: 

“Don’t be fooled: Trump has no real intention of lowering drug prices for the American people. This is all smoke and mirrors to disguise the fact that Republicans are working right now to rip away health care from millions of families in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations – including drug companies. While Trump’s record on lowering drug prices includes failure after failure, Democrats have actually delivered lower drug costs, and they are working to lower them even more and for more Americans.”

Background 

President Trump’s latest executive order is nothing more than a distraction from the fact that Republicans are ripping away health care from millions and raising costs for working Americans to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and corporations.

  • Republicans are making the largest cut to Medicaid in history, threatening coverage for the more than 70 million Americans who rely on the program. Under the Republican scheme, millions of Americans could lose coverage, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get insurance through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents. 
  • Republicans are raising premiums and health care costs for 24 million Americans by taking away critical tax credits from working families. If Republicans take away these tax credits, they’ll be taking away health care. Costs will skyrocket by an average of $2,400 for millions of families, and 5 million people will lose their health care altogether.
  • Republicans are doing Big Pharma’s bidding, increasing costs for seniors and taxpayers and lining the pockets of big drug companies by weakening Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices and handing Big Pharma their biggest win in decades.

President Trump has always been all talk and no action when it comes to drug prices. President Trump had four years to lower drug costs during his first term and accomplished nothing. 

  • Drug prices soared under President Trump. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that list prices for 20 of the top 25 drugs covered by Medicare Part D saw price increases between three and nine times the rate of inflation in 2017. A report from AARP found that the annual cost for 267 brand-name medicines commonly used by seniors increased by 5.8 percent in 2018, more than twice the rate of inflation. In 2019, more than 4,000 drugs saw price increases averaging 21 percent according to Rx Savings Solutions. And in 2020, prices increased faster than inflation for half of the drugs covered by Medicare. 
  • President Trump installed Big Pharma executives in key administration posts and handed out huge tax breaks to big drug companies. President Trump installed a former Eli Lily executive, Alex Azar, as his secretary of Health and Human Services, and his appointment of Scott Gottlieb at the FDA was described as “music to pharma’s ears.” Other pharma lobbyists who led Trump’s health policy included chief of staff at FDA, Keagan Lenihan, who joined the administration after lobbying for the drug distribution giant McKesson, and former Gilead lobbyist, Joe Grogan, who served as a senior advisor on health policy and now heads the foremost conservative health policy think tank the Paragon Institute. During his first term, Trump handed out tax breaks to drug companies that cut Big Pharma’s effective tax rate by 40 percent but his administration did nothing to lower drug prices.
  • President Trump’s actions in office did nothing to lower drug prices. President Trump repeatedly promised that he would allow Medicare to use its buying power to negotiate drug prices directly with suppliers, but after meeting with pharmaceutical executives early in 2017, Trump abandoned that pledge, calling it “price fixing” that would hurt “smaller, younger companies.” In 2018, Trump released a “blueprint” to lower drug prices, but the main proposals were put on hold or blocked by the courts. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Trump’s rule to require drugmakers to disclose prices in television ads. Trump also announced that drug makers agreed to participate in a voluntary program to limit insulin costs for certain Medicare beneficiaries, which officials acknowledged could actually result in higher premiums for beneficiaries and taxpayers. Trump signed four executive orders aimed at reducing drug costs, but experts pointed out that the measures were very limited and none were immediately enforceable. Pharma CEOs themselves said they were “not expecting any impact” from these executive orders. 
  • President Trump’s April 2025 executive order to lower drug prices is overly friendly to the drug industry and includes one of their top legislative priorities. Trump’s April 15 Executive Order instructs Congress to side with big drug companies and undermine Medicare drug prices negotiation, giving drug companies four additional years to charge as much as they want for certain drugs before they can be selected to have a lower price negotiated. 

This executive order is more of the same meaningless fluff.

  • President Trump asked pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily reduce their prices in his first term, and it never worked. These drug companies are driven by profit and greed.
  • It is unclear how such a plan would be operationalized or legal. The executive order includes no detail on the authority the administration would use to execute the plan.
  • This executive order is more about padding Big Pharma’s profits abroad than it is about lowering costs in America.

Americans deserve real progress to lower drug prices, that expand Medicare’s authority to negotiate lower drug prices.

  • By passing the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats lowered drug prices for people with Medicare without a single Republican vote. They gave Medicare the authority to negotiate lower prices for drugs for the first time ever, which will save seniors $1.5 billion and taxpayers $6 billion in the first year alone. The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program is hugely popular and has the support of nearly nine in ten voters. It also capped the monthly cost of insulin at $35, capped annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for people with Medicare, and penalizes drug companies for raising prices faster than inflation. Find the facts on the state-level impact of the Inflation Reduction Act here. 
  • While Democrats are fighting to negotiate lower prices for more drugs and expand lower drug costs to more Americans, Republicans are fighting to raise drug costs by limiting Medicare’s power to negotiate lower costs. 63 percent of voters, including 55 percent of Republicans, want Congress to expand Medicare price negotiation by covering more drugs and people. President Trump’s plan is to deliver a major blow to Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices by giving drug companies the ability to charge as much as they want for certain drugs for an additional four years before they can be selected to have a lower price negotiated. This change will cost taxpayers about $10 billion or more while raising out-of-pocket costs for seniors and padding profits for big drug companies. In granting this giveaway to drug companies, Republicans want to raise out-of-pocket costs for some of the most popular and profitable drugs in America, including drugs like Eliquis and Ozempic.
  • Americans deserve leaders that are not in the pocket of Big Pharma. Republicans are making it crystal clear they are in Big Pharma’s pocket, and will put corporate profits ahead of seniors’ lives every time. No matter what they say, their actions speak louder than their words. Republicans are slipping a huge giveaway to Big Pharma into a reconciliation package already loaded with tax breaks for CEOs and greedy corporations like drug companies, meaning Big Pharma’s multimillion-dollar investments at Mar-A-Lago are paying off big time. Their scheme to exempt drugs that treat rare disease from negotiation creates a major loophole for drug companies to exploit to extend their monopolies and continue price gouging the seniors who rely on these drugs. Republicans are selling out seniors, boosting Big Pharma’s profits, and giving drug companies huge tax breaks. 
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TOMORROW: Rep. Brett Guthrie to Determine How Republicans Will Dismantle Medicaid to Cover Billionaire Tax Breaks

House Energy and Commerce Committee Is Planning to Slash Medicaid and Rip Health Care From Millions 

Tomorrow, Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Representative Brett Guthrie (KY-02) will meet with his colleagues to advance the GOP budget, which includes the largest Medicaid cuts in history and will rip coverage away from millions of Kentuckians, all to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Instead of representing 210,000 of his constituents who count on Medicaid, Rep. Guthrie is set to cave to Trump and give billionaires and corporate elites tax breaks, even though it means taking health care away from Kentuckians, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get coverage through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents.

Rep. Guthrie and House Republicans’ budget will have a devastating impact not only on those who rely on Medicaid for lifesaving care and coverage, but on the local economies, doctors and nurses, and hospitals and clinics that count on Medicaid to stay open. 

90 percent of Kentucky voters in the 2nd district oppose cutting Medicaid. Rep. Guthrie continues to lie about his Medicaid cuts because he knows they are cruel and unpopular and wants you to believe that Republicans in Washington can slash Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars without hurting people, which the nonpartisan CBO has repeatedly proved to be untrue. 

“Congressman Brett Guthrie will be in the driver’s seat as Republicans make the largest cuts in Medicaid history,” said Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse. “Medicaid is life and death for people. And Rep. Guthrie and his colleagues are gearing up to kick millions off their coverage, including children, seniors in nursing homes, people with disabilities, people fighting cancer and serious illnesses, and more. Communities in Kentucky and across the country are going to feel the consequences of Republicans’ cruel and life-threatening scheme to make cuts to Americans’ health care to fund tax breaks for the rich. Rep. Guthrie is trading Americans’ health care for billionaires’ tax breaks and putting the interests of Donald Trump and the wealthiest Americans and corporations over his constituents.”

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TOMORROW: Rep. Tom Kean Jr. to Determine How Republicans Will Dismantle Medicaid to Cover Billionaire Tax Breaks

House Energy and Commerce Committee Is Planning to Slash Medicaid and Rip Health Care From Millions 

Tomorrow, Representative Tom Kean Jr. (NJ-07) will meet with his colleagues on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to advance the GOP budget, which includes the largest Medicaid cuts in history and will rip coverage away from millions of New Jerseyans, all to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Instead of representing 70,000 of his constituents who count on Medicaid, Rep. Kean is set to cave to Trump and give billionaires and corporate elites tax breaks, even though it means taking health care away from New Jerseyans, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get coverage through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents.

Rep. Kean and House Republicans’ budget will have a devastating impact not only on those who rely on Medicaid for lifesaving care and coverage, but on the local economies, doctors and nurses, and hospitals and clinics that count on Medicaid to stay open. 

91 percent of New Jersey voters in the 7th district oppose cutting Medicaid. Rep. Kean continues to lie about his Medicaid cuts because he knows they are cruel and unpopular and wants you to believe that Republicans in Washington can slash Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars without hurting people, which the nonpartisan CBO has repeatedly proved to be untrue. 

“Congressman Tom Kean will be in the driver’s seat as Republicans make the largest cuts in Medicaid history,” said Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse. “Medicaid is life and death for people. And Rep. Kean and his colleagues are gearing up to kick millions off their coverage, including children, seniors in nursing homes, people with disabilities, people fighting cancer and serious illnesses, and more. Communities in New Jersey and across the country are going to feel the consequences of Republicans’ cruel and life-threatening scheme to make cuts to Americans’ health care to fund tax breaks for the rich. Rep. Kean is trading Americans’ health care for billionaires’ tax breaks and putting the interests of Donald Trump and the wealthiest Americans and corporations over his constituents.”

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TOMORROW: Rep. John James to Determine How Republicans Will Dismantle Medicaid to Cover Billionaire Tax Breaks

House Energy and Commerce Committee Is Planning to Slash Medicaid and Rip Health Care From Millions 

Tomorrow, Representative John James (MI-10) will meet with his colleagues on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to advance the GOP budget, which includes the largest Medicaid cuts in history and will rip coverage away from millions of Michiganders, all to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Instead of representing 183,000 of his constituents who count on Medicaid, Rep. James is set to cave to Trump and give billionaires and corporate elites tax breaks, even though it means taking health care away from Michiganders, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get coverage through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents.

Rep. James and House Republicans’ budget will have a devastating impact not only on those who rely on Medicaid for lifesaving care and coverage, but on the local economies, doctors and nurses, and hospitals and clinics that count on Medicaid to stay open. 

91 percent of Michigan voters in the 10th district oppose cutting Medicaid. Rep. James continues to lie about his Medicaid cuts because he knows they are cruel and unpopular and wants you to believe that Republicans in Washington can slash Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars without hurting people, which the nonpartisan CBO has repeatedly proved to be untrue. 

“Congressman John James will be in the driver’s seat as Republicans make the largest cuts in Medicaid history,” said Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse. “Medicaid is life and death for people. And Rep. James and his colleagues are gearing up to kick millions off their coverage, including children, seniors in nursing homes, people with disabilities, people fighting cancer and serious illnesses, and more. Communities in Michigan and across the country are going to feel the consequences of Republicans’ cruel and life-threatening scheme to make cuts to Americans’ health care to fund tax breaks for the rich. Rep. James is trading Americans’ health care for billionaires’ tax breaks and putting the interests of Donald Trump and the wealthiest Americans and corporations over his constituents.”

BACKGROUND

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TOMORROW: Rep. Gabe Evans to Determine How Republicans Will Dismantle Medicaid to Cover Billionaire Tax Breaks

House Energy and Commerce Committee Is Planning to Slash Medicaid and Rip Health Care From Millions 

Tomorrow, Congressman Gabe Evans (CO-08) will meet with his colleagues on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to pass the GOP budget, which includes the largest Medicaid cuts in history and will rip coverage away from millions of Coloradans, all to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Instead of representing 163,000 of his constituents who count on Medicaid, Rep. Evans is set to cave to Trump and give billionaires and corporate elites tax breaks, even though it means taking health care away from Coloradans, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get coverage through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents.

Rep. Evans and House Republicans’ budget will have a devastating impact not only on those who rely on Medicaid for lifesaving care and coverage, but on the local economies, doctors and nurses, and hospitals and clinics that count on Medicaid to stay open. 

92 percent of Colorado voters in the 8th district oppose cutting Medicaid. Rep. Evans continues to lie about his Medicaid cuts because he knows they are cruel and unpopular and wants you to believe that Republicans in Washington can slash Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars without hurting people, which the nonpartisan CBO has repeatedly proved to be untrue. 

“Congressman Gabe Evans will be in the driver’s seat as Republicans make the largest cuts in Medicaid history,” said Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse. “Medicaid is life and death for people. And Rep. Evans and his colleagues are gearing up to kick millions off their coverage, including children, seniors in nursing homes, people with disabilities, people fighting cancer and serious illnesses, and more. Communities in Colorado and across the country are going to feel the consequences of Republicans’ cruel and life-threatening scheme to make cuts to Americans’ health care to fund tax breaks for the rich. Rep. Evans is trading Americans’ health care for billionaires’ tax breaks and putting the interests of Donald Trump and the wealthiest Americans and corporations over his constituents.”

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Rep. Newhouse Needs to Stand Up for His Constituents as Republicans Seek Devastating Health Care Cuts

The Pressure Is On Rep. Dan Newhouse to Protect The 1,779,850 Washingtonians on Medicaid and Reject House Republicans’ Scheme to Make Health Care Cuts to Fund Tax Breaks for the Wealthy 

Tomorrow, Republicans in the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees will attempt to pass legislation that will raise health care costs and rip away coverage from millions so Trump and the GOP can fund tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations. Last night, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released their budget proposal, revealing their devastating plan to make the largest Medicaid cuts in history and kick millions off their coverage. Their proposal would raise costs on low-income families, shutter rural hospitals, and impose burdensome work requirements designed to deny people coverage. Millions of Americans would lose coverage, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get insurance through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents. 

In addition to draconian Medicaid cuts, Republicans are raising premiums and out-of-pocket costs for tens of millions of people who buy coverage on their own. These Republican price hikes will force middle-class families to lose their coverage altogether. 

“Not a single dollar should be taken from health care to fund tax breaks for billionaires. The pressure is on Rep. Dan Newhouse to stand up and ensure his Republican colleagues’ don’t rip health care away from millions just to line the pockets of their billionaire friends and donors,” said Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse. “House Republicans are set to make the largest cuts to Medicaid in history and hike premium costs on people who buy coverage on their own. Communities in Washington and across the country would feel the consequences of Republicans’ cruel and life-threatening scheme to gut Medicaid and the ACA. Rep. Newhouse must decide: Will he fight for the health and well-being of his constituents, or will he cave to Donald Trump and rip health care away from millions, just to give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and corporations?”

This Republican budget makes drastic health care cuts – cuts that will throw working families off coverage and into medical debt, take critical long-term care away from seniors and people with disabilities, and leave millions of children uninsured. Poll after poll after poll – even Trump’s own pollster – has found the majority of Americans, including 91 percent of Washington voters in the 4th district, don’t support cuts to Medicaid or Affordable Care Act plans. Rep. Newhouse has lied about his support for Medicaid cuts before, and if he doesn’t stand up now, he will be putting the interests of Donald Trump and the wealthiest Americans over his constituents. 

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Republicans in Key Committees Set to Slash Health Care to Fund Tax Breaks for the Wealthy

Republicans’ War on Health Care Will Raise Health Care and Drug Costs, Slash Medicaid, and Rip Health Care From Millions to Fund Tax Breaks for the Wealthy

Tomorrow, Republicans in the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees will pass legislation to raise health care costs and rip away coverage from millions so Trump and the GOP can fund tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations. Last night, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released the text of their budget proposal, putting pen to paper on their plan to kick millions off their health care by enacting the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, raising costs on low-income families, closing rural hospitals, and enacting burdensome work requirements designed to deny people coverage. Millions of Americans could lose coverage, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get insurance through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents. 

In addition to draconian Medicaid cuts, Republicans are raising premiums and out-of-pocket costs for tens of millions of people who buy coverage on their own. These Republican price hikes will force middle-class families to lose their coverage altogether. 

“Not a single dollar should be taken from health care to fund tax breaks for billionaires,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “Now is the time for so-called Republican moderates to stand up for their constituents. House Republicans are planning to betray their own voters and make health care more expensive with the largest Medicaid cuts in history. Such drastic health care cuts will throw working families off coverage and into medical debt, take critical long-term care away from seniors and people with disabilities, shutter rural hospitals, and leave children uninsured. This Republican budget will hurt people — all so Trump and the GOP can give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.”

Republicans in Congress continue to lie about the devastating impact their budget will have on people and communities across the country because they know how cruel and unpopular their war on health care is. Poll after poll after poll – even Trump’s own pollster – has found the majority of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, oppose any cuts to Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act. Yet, this Republican budget will give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the medical care and financial stability of everyone else.

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