Medicaid
Under Trump-Endorsed House Bill, Medicaid And SNAP Take $1T Hit
Truthout: Trump Backs House GOP Bill Slashing $1 Trillion From Medicaid And Food Stamps
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump endorsed a House Republican budget plan that would impose hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, a healthcare program jointly funded by federal and state money, which helps provide coverage for Americans with lower incomes, including pregnant women, children and people with disabilities, among others.
Trump endorsed the plan over another Senate proposal, which sought to pass much of his legislative agenda through two separate bills. Trump, who had previously said either plan was fine with him, said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday that the House plan was better, in his mind, because it puts most everything he wants into “one big beautiful bill.” (Walker, 2/19)
Politico: Trump Blindsides Staff, Congress With Conflicting Medicaid Messages
Trump’s seemingly contradictory comments — shared in a Fox News interview Tuesday evening and then Truth Social Wednesday morning — are also fueling confusion and concern among Republicans on Capitol Hill, who are looking to him for political cover as they contemplate a potentially risky vote.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said he has “concerns” about “the House’s proposal for very deep cuts to Medicaid.” (Leonard, Cancryn and King, 2/19)
Axios: Insurers To Trump: Stop Biden’s Medicare And Medicaid Obesity Drug Proposal
Health plans are lobbying the Trump administration to scrap a proposal dating from the final days of the Biden administration that would require Medicare and Medicaid to cover anti-obesity drugs, including GLP-1s, for weight loss.
Why it matters: The final decision, expected in April, is an important barometer of which health care interests have President Trump’s ear, since many providers, patients and drugmakers want Medicare to cover the products. (Goldman, 2/20)
In other Trump administration news —
Axios: Trump Appeal On Birthright Citizenship Order Rejected By Court
President Trump remains blocked from ending birthright citizenship in the U.S. after a federal appeals court ruling on Wednesday night.The big picture: Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship is facing multiple lawsuits, including from Democratic attorneys general and civil rights groups who say it violates the Constitution. The case is likely to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. (Falconer, 2/19)
HHS Revises Sex-Based Definitions That Omit Gender Identity References
The move to recast sex as a “immutable biological classification” comes as data shows a pronounced uptick in the number of Americans who identify as LGBTQ. Separately, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been advised to find a scientist who “can prove vaccines do cause autism.”
In one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first moves as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the agency released guidance Wednesday for the US government, external partners and the public that offers a narrower definition of sex than the ones used by many scientists and that aligns with a January executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
The department also launched a website promoting these definitions and created a video defending a ban on transgender women participating in women’s sports. (Christensen, 2/20)
The New York Times: Nearly One In 10 U.S. Adults Identifies As L.G.B.T.Q.
Nearly one in 10 adults in the United States identifies as L.G.B.T.Q., according to a large analysis from Gallup released Thursday — almost triple the share since Gallup began counting in 2012, and up by two-thirds since 2020. (Cain Miller and Paris, 2/20)
In related news about HHS and CMS —
Politico: RFK Jr. Should Handpick Vaccine Scientists, Former Adviser Says
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should recruit scientists who want to seek proof that vaccines cause autism, one of his past advisers said at a POLITICO event Wednesday.
Del Bigtree, who was Kennedy’s communications director during his presidential campaign and now leads a group promoting Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, dismissed widely replicated studies finding no link to autism because he alleged that they were conducted by scientists who wanted to find that result. (Payne, 2/19)
Modern Healthcare: Dr. Oz To Divest Of Healthcare Companies If Confirmed To Lead CMS
Dr. Mehmet Oz has agreed to divest stakes worth millions of dollars in numerous healthcare companies, including UnitedHealth Group and HCA Healthcare, if he is confirmed as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In an ethics agreement posted by the Office of Government Ethics Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead CMS said he would end investments in many companies within 90 days of confirmation. He also said upon confirmation, he would resign from numerous advisory positions he holds. (Early, 2/19)
PhRMA speaks out —
Politico: Drug Industry: Let Us Make Americans Healthy
Drug company executives on Tuesday touted their industry’s work to keep and make Americans healthy during a Washington event that came on the heels of one of their biggest critics, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., being sworn in to helm federal health agencies.
PhRMA CEO Steve Ubl took to the stage at The Anthem to carefully walk the line between supporting the Trump administration and cautioning against policies that could damage the drug industry — obliquely nodding at the tension between the industry’s goal of getting new medicines to market and Kennedy’s desire to address health problems with less pharma influence. (Gardner and Lim, 2/19)
Medical Device Lobby Urges HHS To Rethink Trump’s FDA Cuts
The CEO of the medical device lobby, AdvaMed, raised concerns over the cuts’ impact on patient health and medical device innovation. Separately, the former administrator of CMS spoke up to caution Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency against acting too quickly. Also: a protest over cuts; aid groups head to court; and more.
Stat: AdvaMed Pushes Back Against Trump’s FDA Cuts
AdvaMed, the medical device lobby, pushed back Wednesday on the Trump administration’s weekend firings of Food and Drug Administration employees. AdvaMed CEO Scott Whitaker sent a letter Tuesday to administrators at the Health and Human Services Department urging them to consider the terminations’ potential ramifications on patient health and medical device innovation. In a call with reporters on Wednesday, he noted that many of the roles were funded, at least in part, by fees paid by device makers to help speed the review of their products. Device companies have already noticed delays, he said. (Lawrence, 2/19)
The Hill: Former CMS Head Warns Elon Musk’s DOGE Acting Too Quickly
CBS News: Faculty At Several Chicago Universities Protest Planned Cuts To Federal Research Grants
Professors, researchers, and faculty members from several Chicago colleges rallied at the University of Illinois Chicago on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s planned funding cuts to research grants. … Faculty members from UIC, the University of Chicago, DePaul University, Northwestern University, and many more gathered at UIC on Wednesday to talk about their schools’ groundbreaking research, medical advancements, and workforce training for students. (Feurer, 2/19)
Groups that receive foreign aid are asking a federal judge to find the Trump officials now running the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development in contempt of court for not reopening the flow of money to thousands of programs around the globe, as the judge has ordered. In a filing Wednesday afternoon, the plaintiffs said that each day the funding is delayed, millions of people across the world who rely on it suffer. It urged the judge to impose penalties until the U.S. government complies. (Langfitt, 2/19)
MedPage Today: Federal Register Blackout Blocks NIH Funding
Scientists around the country fear that an apparent halt of the Federal Register’s publication of meeting schedules for research grant reviews is an attempt to evade a judge’s order that was supposed to lift the Trump administration’s freeze on federal research funding. Pausing Federal Register notice publication means numerous NIH study sections and advisory councils — panels of subject experts who evaluate each grant application — can’t meet to make decisions on those proposals. (Clark, 2/19)
Administration Fires Border Health Inspectors Who Screen For Diseases
Experts warn that Americans may be more vulnerable to pathogens carried by plants, animals, and people. Meanwhile, the CDC is ending a successful campaign designed to encourage people to receive the flu vaccine. In other news: Experts say the egg shortage will not affect flu vaccines; bird flu lab techs in California are going on strike; and more.
The New York Times: Trump Administration Has Fired Health Inspectors At Some Border Stations
At the nation’s borders, federal workers keep the country safe in many ways: Some investigate sick passengers. Some examine animals for dangerous pathogens. And some inspect plants for infestations that could spread in this country. Late last week, the Trump administration dispatched hundreds of those federal employees with the same message that colleagues at other agencies received: Their services were no longer needed. (Mandavilli and Anthes, 2/19)
On the spread of the flu —
NPR: Trump Administration Terminates CDC Flu Vaccine Campaign
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stopping a successful flu vaccination campaign that juxtaposed images of wild animals, such as a lion, with cute counterparts, like a kitten, as an analogy for how immunization can help tame the flu. The news was shared with staff during a meeting on Wednesday, according to two CDC staffers who spoke with NPR on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, and a recording reviewed by NPR. (Stone, 2/19)
MedPage Today: Will The Egg Shortage Affect Flu Shots?
While millions of vaccine doses are made using chicken eggs each year, experts say the current egg shortage won’t hamper next year’s flu vaccine production cycle. Previous bird flu outbreaks and decades-old public health infrastructure have led industry to protect the hens used for vaccine production, experts told MedPage Today. Moreover, flu vaccines that don’t require eggs are available, and mRNA-based flu shots are in development. (Robertson, 2/19)
Becker’s Hospital Review: Why This Flu Season Is So Severe
After a moderate influenza season last year, flu has returned with a vengeance this winter. The CDC estimates flu has killed between 16,000 to 79,000 people (including 68 children), infected between 29 million and 51 million people, and hospitalized up to 820,000 since Oct. 1. This season is now being regarded as the most severe flu season in the U.S. in 15 years. (Asin, 2/19)On bird flu —
The Washington Post: UC-Davis Lab Workers Key To California’s Bird Flu Response To Go On Strike
Workers at the only lab in California with the authority to confirm high-risk bird flu cases will go on a brief strike next week, claiming that years of understaffing, poor training and burnout have left them struggling to protect the state’s food chain from the rampant virus. … Limited career advancement and poor management prompted a staff exodus early last year, former lab workers said, and chronic staffing shortages have since increased errors and left remaining workers ill-equipped to handle virus testing. (Ziegler, 2/19)
Some lots of raw pet food sold in two states are being recalled after two indoor cats became ill with bird flu earlier this month and were euthanized due to the severity of their illnesses. Officials in Oregon and Washington issued public health alerts late last week after tests confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the felines, which lived in different households in Multnomah County, Oregon. (Gibson, 2/19)
On mpox —
The Guardian: Trump’s Dismantling Of USAid Raises Risk Of Mpox Global Emergency, Experts Warn
As the Trump administration dismantles the US Agency for International Development (USAid) and retreats from funding global public health efforts, mpox – formerly known as monkeypox – is at greater risk of becoming a wider global emergency, according to aid workers and global health experts. “It’s a real mistake not to be doing everything we can to control this while we’re still able to,” said Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University focusing on risk assessment of infectious diseases. “Taking huge steps backwards is only going to make everything worse.” (Adams, 2/20)
Health Industry
Newsweek: US Warned Of 2032 Hospital Crisis
