A newsletter briefing on the health-care policy debate in Washington.
with research by McKenzie Beard
A newsletter briefing on the health-care policy debate in Washington.
Good morning, everyone and TGIF. 🚨The Senate passed its gun deal last night, marking the most significant breakthrough on the issue since the 1990s. The House is expected to pass the bill today.
Today’s edition: The country’s monkeypox response may be making some of the same mistakes as its early coronavirus response. Colorado’s public option gets sign off from the Biden administration. A dispatch from Aspen Ideas Health. But first …
Congressional Democrats are preparing for a post-Roe world, but a sinking reality is setting in: Outside of messaging, there’s not much they can do. And it’s unclear how motivating the issue will be in the midterms.
Over the past few days, Senate and House Democrats have held private, caucus-wide meetings to plot the path forward. The emerging plans center on drawing a contrast between Democrats and Republicans on abortion and discussing in stark terms what overturning the right to an abortion could mean for women.
Any day now, the nation’s highest court could hand down its ruling on a Mississippi abortion case — one that’s widely expected to overturn Roe v. Wade’s decades-old protections. Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate, and they know they don’t have the votes to reverse a Supreme Court decision nixing Roe. And they almost certainly don’t have the votes to kill the filibuster, either.
That means Democrats are instead homing in on efforts intended to mobilize voters around the issue of reproductive rights, even though it won’t lead to policy changes in the short term. But a messaging blitz may not necessarily save Democrats in the midterms. Even among the Americans who oppose striking down Roe, the majority say the economy is more important to their vote in November, according to a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll.
At a private lunch inside the Capitol yesterday, Senate Democrats discussed how they would respond to a potential decision overturning Roe. The effort was led by Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), who for weeks has been helming a group of other lawmakers — consisting of female senators in Democratic leadership — to think about what the party can do to advance legislation or administrative action.
The conversation included plans to use the tools at the chamber’s disposal to keep up the drumbeat, like hearings and procedural requests to draw attention to the issue on the Senate floor, according to multiple senators and aides. The party also discussed ensuring its messaging is unified after the justices issue their ruling.
On Wednesday, House Democrats met at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) headquarters near the Capitol. Their briefing consisted of DCCC staff and officials from major abortion rights groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice America, Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood.
This was the message, per a House Democratic strategist: “House Democrats are going to make it clear to voters that we’re fighting to protect women’s long-held right to make decisions about their own bodies. Republicans are hellbent on ripping power away from women and their doctors.”
Leigh Ann Caldwell, co-author of The Early 202:
Two House Dems told @MariannaReports and me that their meeting at the DCCC this morning was about how to message on Roe v Wade and that their voters really care about the issue. The message? Republicans want to outlaw abortion and Dems have an answer, which is Roe
Meanwhile, Democratic senators are pressing the Biden administration on administrative actions they believe are in its purview, such increasing access to abortion through medication abortion and by using federal property. But still, there’s little the White House can do to fundamentally change a post-Roe world, my colleagues Yasmeen Abutaleb and Tyler Pager reported last month.
That means the Democratic fight for abortion rights will turn to the states. In recognition of the battles likely to come, Vice President Harris convened a meeting with Democratic attorneys general yesterday.
If Roe is overturned … the Democratic Attorneys General Association is planning to have AGs out on television shortly after a ruling, an effort to highlight the enormous power attorneys general wield over the rules in their state. Some Democratic AGs in Republican-led states have already said they don’t plan to enforce abortion bans if the Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 ruling.
Public health experts, including within the Biden administration, are increasingly concerned that the federal government’s handling of the largest-ever U.S. monkeypox outbreak is mirroring its cumbersome response during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, The Post’s Lena H. Sun, Dan Diamond and Fenit Nirappil write.
They're warning that community transmission is occurring largely undetected, and the critical window to contain the outbreak is closing quickly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed more than 170 monkeypox cases across the United States, but that number is likely much higher.
Critics say the government has moved slowly to expand testing, vaccinate people at highest risk and clearly communicate the symptoms associated with monkeypox — a disease spread by close contact that has left gay and bisexual men who are disproportionately contracting the virus especially vulnerable.
The defense: Administration officials insist their response reflects lessons learned from fighting the coronavirus, like waiting to distribute the “right test that works” to laboratories after federal officials distributed flawed coronavirus tests in early 2020.
👇🏼Very frustrated with the lack of urgency about monkeypox in the US, leaving people at risk without access to testing, vaccines, & treatment. Gratitude & respect to @reluctantlyjoe & @jbkrell for taking public health agencies to task on a disaster that could have been avoided. https://t.co/2n7X7GiMAl
Monkeypox has spread quickly across the United States, mirroring trends around the globe.
The Post's Dan Diamond sends us this dispatch:
Greetings to Health 202 readers from Aspen Ideas Health, the festival hosted in a picturesque Colorado town that is now crawling with health care luminaries. As a result, there are a lot of "health officials, they're just like us" moments; on a typical afternoon, one can see former Clinton Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala hunting for a FedEx box, or former Trump HHS Secretary Alex Azar taking in an interview between CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and CBS News' Jon LaPook. (Walensky got a standing ovation at the end of the friendly interview; your author is not sure if Azar joined in.)
Your correspondent caught up on several sessions, which are also being live-streamed. Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams called for teaching medical professionals to talk about safe storage of firearms. Mount Sinai Health System rehab expert David Putrino (one of the few people to be masked at the festival) shared how long covid symptoms can range from totally debilitating to more of a frustration. And CNBC’s Bertha Coombs quizzed CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure about what it really means to build “health equity” into the federal government’s health-care programs.
On tap today for this Post reporter: conducting an on-stage interview with former White House covid coordinator Deborah Birx, as well as a session on combatting health care misinformation. If you have questions for Birx, or tips for moderating a live panel after some covid-induced rustiness, he’d welcome all thoughts at dan.diamond@washpost.com.
Colorado became the first state yesterday to receive a green light from the Biden administration to create its own public health insurance option to be sold alongside commercial coverage on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace. The “Colorado Option” is expected to expand coverage to nearly 10,000 residents.
More than a decade ago, a federal public option was in the running to be included in the ACA, but was nixed in the final version. While President Biden campaigned on creating a government-run health insurance program, the prospects of fulfilling his pledge at the federal level have since faded — leaving states to test out the concept on their own.
Other states, like Washington and Nevada, have also passed public options, but Colorado is the first state to receive a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The Food and Drug Administration officially ordered Juul, the company that has widely been blamed for igniting the youth vaping epidemic, to remove all of its e-cigarette products from U.S. shelves, our colleague Laurie McGinley reports.
Yesterday’s biggest surprise came from the agency’s reasoning: Rather than focusing on youth use, the agency said the company failed to provide sufficient information proving the products were safe for people of any age. Federal regulators said the company’s application raised concerns about possible damage to DNA and “potentially harmful chemicals” leaching from the pre-filled cartridges that contain liquid nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals.
Meanwhile, Juul said it’s planning to seek a stay of the FDA decision while it explores its options moving forward, including filing an appeal within the agency.
Xavier Becerra, Department of Health and Human Services secretary:
This action by @US_FDA reflects the agency’s commitment to carefully evaluating the science to ensure that only those products meeting its rigorous public health standards are granted marketing authorization. FDA has taken the proper steps to protect the health of all Americans. https://t.co/yaBQZTymTV
Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator under former president Donald Trump, detailed wide-ranging dysfunction and misinformation within the administration that misled public and state officials, hampered coronavirus testing and contributed to unnecessary deaths from the virus, our colleague Dan Diamond reports.
Democrats yesterday also released hundreds of pages of interviews with Birx conducted last October, during which she alleged that Trump officials frequently asked her to change reports about the state of the pandemic. Birx said she grudgingly went along with the requests out of fear that if she didn’t, the updates wouldn’t have been sent to governors’ offices at all.
Today’s first @washingtonpost TikTok features Juul https://t.co/3omgTmBS7Z pic.twitter.com/oqt2C0K6cC
Thanks for reading! See y'all Monday.