Opioid Bill Gives Endangered Republicans A Health Care Talking Point On The Trail
Republicans have been put on the defense over their attacks on the health law and popular provisions, such as preexisting conditions protections, but the massive bipartisan opioid package that each chamber has passed versions of allows gives them a victory to highlight. Meanwhile, health groups are worried bills in that package threaten Medicare discounts.
Politico:
Republicans Cast Opioid Bill As Their Health Care Achievement
Endangered Republicans are running ads defending their achievements on health care — but it’s opioids they are boasting about, not the toxic fight about Obamacare and pre-existing conditions. GOP incumbents in Kentucky, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania have run advertising recently focused on their efforts to bolster access to treatment, prevent overdoses and stamp out lethal synthetic painkillers like fentanyl. The conservative American Action Network has chipped in $5 million worth of digital and television ads in battleground districts, touting the GOP's commitment to fighting the epidemic. (Demko and Ehley, 9/22)
The Associated Press:
Groups Say Medicare Discounts Threatened In Opioids Bill
Consumer and health care groups are scrambling to block what they say is a move by the pharmaceutical industry to commandeer must-pass opioids epidemic legislation as a vehicle for rolling back drugmaker discounts to Medicare beneficiaries with high prescription costs. Republicans said Friday nothing has been decided in behind-the-scenes discussions. But Henry Connelly, a spokesman for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, called the effort a "Republican attempt to hijack a bipartisan effort on opioids funding to ram through a multibillion-dollar handout to Big Pharma." (9/21)
In other national health care news —
The Washington Post:
Trump Administration Diverts Nearly A Half-Billion Dollars To Migrant Children In Custody
Federal health officials are reshuffling nearly a half-billion dollars this year to cover the expense of sheltering a record number of migrant children in the department’s custody, according to government documents and officials. In a recent letter to several members of Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the department is moving “up to $266 million” to house children from other countries who are on their own, diverting money originally intended for biomedical research, HIV/AIDS services and other health-care purposes. (Goldstein and Moore, 9/21)
The New York Times:
The Couple Who Helped Decode Dyslexia
By now, Sally and Bennett Shaywitz might have retired to a life of grandchild-doting and Mediterranean-cruising. Instead, the Shaywitzes — experts in dyslexia at Yale who have been married to each other for 55 years — remain as focused as ever on a research endeavor they began 35 years ago. Sally, 76, and Bennett, 79, both academic physicians, run the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity. (Hafner, 9/21)
The New York Times:
Tiny Device Is A ‘Huge Advance’ For Treatment Of Severe Heart Failure
Almost two million Americans have severe heart failure, and for them even mundane tasks can be extraordinarily difficult. With blood flow impeded throughout their bodies, patients may become breathless simply walking across a room or up stairs. Some must sleep sitting up to avoid gasping for air. Drugs may help to control the symptoms, but the disease takes a relentless course, and most people with severe heart failure do not have long to live. Until now, there has been little doctors can do. (Kolata, 9/23)
Stat:
Can Building A Better Research Mouse Open The Black Box Of Alzheimer’s?
Drug development for Alzheimer’s disease has been a series of disappointments, with only faint glimmers of hope from pharmaceutical companies or academic labs. What causes the disease is still hotly debated, with the amyloid hypothesis losing believers after each new trial failure. But before those drugs targeting amyloid plaques or tau tangles failed in human trials, they generally succeeded in preclinical studies — specifically, ones done with mice. Right now, about 160 mouse models for Alzheimer’s exist. But none is particularly good, experts say. (Sheridan, 9/24)
Los Angeles Times:
Cornell Researcher Who Studied What We Eat And Why Will Step Down After Six Studies Are Retracted
A Cornell University professor whose attention-getting studies reported that guests at Super Bowl parties consumed more calories when served snacks from larger bowls and that couch potatoes ate nearly twice as much when watching an action-packed movie than when viewing a PBS talk show will step down from the university at the end of the academic year. Brian Wansink, the longtime director of Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab, submitted his resignation this week after a year-long review concluded that he committed academic misconduct, according to a statement from the university’s provost. (Kaplan, 9/21)