Overnight Health Care: Key Trump drug pricing proposal takes step forward | Missouri Planned Parenthood clinic loses bid for license | 2020 Democrats to take part in Saturday forum on abortion rights
Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re happy it’s Friday! But that didn’t stop the health care news, including a major drug pricing rule moving forward and Missouri’s only Planned Parenthood clinic losing its bid for a license.
Key Trump proposal to lower drug prices takes step forward
Some movement on drug pricing: A major Trump proposal took a step forward on Friday, when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent it to the White House for review. The proposal would lower certain drug prices in Medicare by linking them to the lower prices paid in other countries, an idea called the international pricing index.
A sign the administration means it? There has been some speculation that the administration would never actually finalize the rule and was simply using it as a bargaining chip to push for other drug pricing changes.{mosads}
But the move to send the proposal to the White House for review, along with supportive comments from HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Friday, indicate the idea is at least moving forward.
“We’re going to end that foreign free-riding, we’re going to stop having America’s seniors propping up the socialist systems abroad at their expense, and we’re continuing to act,” Azar said on Fox Business.
Political problem: Trump lacks support from key leaders in his own party in Congress on this proposal (though that has not always stopped him before).
In fact, HHS sent the proposal to the White House for review just days after Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) this week announced that he opposed the idea.
Missouri’s only Planned Parenthood clinic loses bid for license, will stay open for now
Missouri’s health department will not renew the license for the state’s last abortion clinic but will allow it to stay open for now.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services declined to renew a Planned Parenthood clinic’s license Friday after being ordered to reach a decision by a judge, according to The Associated Press.
The department cited patient safety concerns, including failed abortions, as its reasoning.
But the St. Louis clinic will stay open, at least temporarily, under a preliminary injunction issued by Judge Michael Stelzer last month.
Stelzer said Friday he will make a final decision about the case soon.
Read more on the decision here.
2020 Democrats to face questions on reproductive rights Saturday
Most of the Democrats running for president will appear at Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s candidate forum tomorrow, where they will face questions about how they will protect and expand access to abortion and other reproductive health services.
Each candidate will be questioned for 15 minutes by Planned Parenthood advocates and patients.
Here are the candidates attending: Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); former Reps. John Delaney (D-Md.) and Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas); current Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D); Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.); Former Vice President Joe Biden, Mayors Pete Buttigieg, Bill de Blasio, as well as Julián Castro, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang.
Happening next week
The Energy & Commerce Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday at 10 a.m. on “reauthorizing vital health programs for American families.”
The Senate HELP Committee will mark up its bipartisan package to lower healthcare costs on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.
The Hill events
On Tuesday, June 25th, The Hill will host Cost, Quality and Care: The Medicare Equation at the Newseum in Washington, DC. The Hill’s Editor-at-Large Steve Clemons and Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack will sit down with Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) and an expert panel for a discussion on how leaders in Washington and the health industry can bring down drug costs for Medicare patients while continuing to ensure quality of care for those who depend on the program. RSVP here.
On Wednesday, June 26th, The Hill will host the Future of Healthcare Summit at Long View Gallery in Washington, D.C. We will discuss some of tomorrow’s biggest questions in healthcare with policymakers, health officials and industry leaders. Speakers include Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), FDA’s Dr. Amy Abernethy, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Nano Vision CEO Steve Papermaster and many more. RSVP and learn more about the summit here.
What we’re reading
Trump to issue executive order on health care price transparency (The Wall Street Journal)
While addiction crisis raged, many surgeons overprescribed opioids (STAT)
FDA releases millions of records detailing incidents involving medical devices (startribune.com)
State by state
Georgia to reinstate Medicaid benefits to patients who lost them (ajc.com)
Hacienda health care to lose Medicaid contract after report of maggots found on patient (azcentral.com)
Drug users armed with naloxone double as medics on streets of San Francisco (Kaiser Health News)
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