KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Abortion Politics Front and Center

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Abortion, an issue that has mostly been simmering under the surface lately, is taking center stage in fights at the Supreme Court, in Congress and in the states, as the fate of legalized abortion in the United States hangs in the balance.

Meanwhile, Congress flirted with disaster as it appeared unlikely to meet deadlines to approve a series of budget bills, including an extension of the federal government’s lending authority. But lawmakers found ways to extend programs long enough to continue negotiating through the fall.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Johns Hopkins, Yasmeen Abutaleb of The Washington Post and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

• As Democratic lawmakers seek to reduce the cost of the president’s $3.5 trillion plan to boost health and other domestic programs, they are wrestling with whether to cut the number of programs they fund but still give them full support or to keep a wider range of initiatives but fund them for fewer years or at lower levels. Supporters of the latter proposal contend that getting the programs started is important and, if they have a constituency, it will be hard for Congress in the future to cut the programs.
• Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who has been at the center of the negotiations because he was refusing to support the package if it stayed at $3.5 trillion, has called for new initiatives to be means-tested so that benefits don’t go to higher-income Americans. Past experience suggests that can lower the popularity of the programs because it creates more bureaucracy to oversee the benefits and sometimes creates problems with getting voters to buy into the need.
• As the negotiations drag on, it seems less likely that the Democrats will agree on a plan to rein in prescription drug prices. Leaders haven’t come to terms on how they would like to address the issue, and drugmakers have beefed up their advertising campaign to oppose any action that could threaten their profits.
• Manchin may also throw a wrench into the negotiations if he goes forward with plans to seek a provision in the legislative package that makes the so-called Hyde Amendment permanent. The Hyde Amendment, which is commonly added to annual health spending legislation, bars most federal dollars from being spent on abortions. Progressive Democrats strongly oppose the Hyde Amendment, and they would like to remove it from the annual spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services.
• Pfizer on Thursday announced it is seeking authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for a covid vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. The agency has scheduled an advisory committee meeting already and a decision could come around Halloween. A decision on vaccines for children under 5, however, seems unlikely before the end of the year.
• The recent controversy over whether the U.S. should authorize so-called vaccine boosters has focused attention on the lack of good national data on covid’s effects. Much of the argument for those additional shots was based on studies from Israel and Britain because U.S. health officials have not been collecting the same level of data about covid cases and outcomes. That is partly a reflection of the decentralization of the U.S. health system.
• The Biden administration announced this week it is reversing a federal Title X rule that denied funding to organizations that counseled people about abortion or referred them to abortion providers. Planned Parenthood left the program after the Trump administration implemented that rule.
• Abortion is teeing up to be a big issue before the Supreme Court this term. The justices had already agreed to hear a case opposing a Mississippi law restricting most abortions after 15 weeks, but cases involving a controversial Texas law that denies abortions after six weeks appear bound for the high court soon, too.
• Abortion opponents are hoping the court will overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the procedure. But that could also set the court up for a major backlash and complaints about its politicization.
• Biden has another key health opening in his administration: the director of the National Institutes of Health. But it doesn’t seem likely to be as difficult to fill as the head of the FDA, which the White House has still not offered a nominee for.

Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Aneri Pattani, who reported the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature about two similar jaw surgeries with two very different price tags. If you have an outrageous medical bill, you’d like to send us, you can do that here.

Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read too:

Julie Rovner: The New York Times’ “A ‘Historic Event’: First Malaria Vaccine Approved by W.H.O.,” by Apoorva Mandavilli

Joanne Kenen: Vox.com’s “Why Merck’s Covid-19 Pill Molnupiravir Could Be So Important,” by Umair Irfan

Yasmeen Abutaleb: The Wall Street Journal’s “Why It’s So Hard to Find a Therapist Who Takes Insurance,” by Andrea Petersen

Sarah Karlin-Smith: The Washington Post’s “70 Years Ago, Henrietta Lacks’s Cells Were Taken Without Her Consent. Now, Her Family Wants Justice,” by Emily Davies

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