President Joe Biden is the newest top Washington official to check positive for covid-19, following Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But work continues, particularly on a Senate bill that would, for the primary time, allow Medicare to barter prescription drug prices and cap seniors’ out-of-pocket medication costs.

Meanwhile, each supporters and opponents of abortion rights are struggling to search out their footing within the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturn of the federal right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Shefali Luthra of The nineteenth, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat.

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• Although some Democrats and plenty of political pundits are criticizing the Senate for scaling back the president’s Construct Back Higher agenda to be mostly a health care bill, the proposal in that bill to permit Medicare to barter prices for some drugs can be a serious change that drugmakers have successfully fought for twenty years.
• The bill, which hasn’t been released in full, will include only those provisions which were approved by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), because all 50 members of the Democratic caucus within the Senate might be needed to pass the bill. Along with allowing price negotiations on 10 drugs in the primary yr, the laws would penalize drugmakers that raise prices above the speed of inflation and limit Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket drug spending to $2,000 a yr.
• The bill can also be expected to incorporate provisions to increase for a further two years the improved subsidies for premiums on health policies purchased through the Inexpensive Care Act’s marketplace. Those details haven’t yet been released.
• Progressives have been dismayed on the administration’s lackluster answer to the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe. Whilst the White House notes that there are limits to what the president can do, the administration has been more cautious than many expected in announcing the way it plans to reply. For instance, immediately after the Supreme Court released the choice, the administration said it might guard women’s access to medication abortions — but there was little follow-up.
• The Indiana doctor who treated a 10-year-old rape victim searching for an abortion is threatening a defamation lawsuit against the state’s attorney general, who incorrectly said on national television that she didn’t file the needed paperwork.
• The case of that 10-year-old has put anti-abortion groups on the defensive and suggested that they’re split on handle situations like this. Some leaders suggest the kid must have gone forward with the pregnancy, while other groups said individuals who have been raped mustn’t should carry a baby to term.
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is constant his push to limit abortion. The state principally shut down most abortions last September with a strict law that enables community members to sue doctors and others who help a girl get an abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy. Now, Paxton is difficult the Biden administration’s statement that federal law entitles people searching for emergency care due to pregnancy problems to get an abortion. Paxton has said that federal law doesn’t preempt the state’s restrictions.
• Texas’ hard line on abortion could have an economic impact throughout the state. Some young people and corporations will not be in favor of the abortion policies and a few are threatening to depart the state.

Also this week, Rovner interviews Dr. Jack Resneck Jr., a California dermatologist who’s the brand new president of the American Medical Association.

Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think it is best to read, too:

Julie Rovner: KHN’s “Conservative Blocs Unleash Litigation to Curb Public Health Powers,” by Lauren Weber and Anna Maria Barry-Jester

Shefali Luthra: Stat’s “Health Care’s High Rollers: Because the Pandemic Raged, CEOs’ Earnings Surged,” by Bob Herman, Kate Sheridan, J. Emory Parker, Adam Feuerstein, and Mohana Ravindranath

Rachel Cohrs: Politico’s “Anthony Fauci Desires to Put Covid’s Politicization Behind Him,” by Sarah Owermohle

Joanne Kenen: Inside Climate News’ “When the Power Goes Out, Who Suffers? Climate Epidemiologists Are Now Attempting to Figure That Out,” by Laura Baisas

Also mentioned on this week’s podcast:

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