Read today’s Kaiser Health News
In other news:
KFF Health Tracking Poll: Views of the One Big Beautiful Bill Well worth reading. The “bottom line” is: The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”…is viewed unfavorably by a majority of adults (64%), including large majorities of independents and Democrats.
‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans: Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump.
The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.
Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law.
Language requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated.
Doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity, documents reviewed by the Guardian show…
In making the changes, VA officials cite the president’s 30 January executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”…
In an emailed response to questions, the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, did not dispute that the new rules allowed doctors to refuse to treat veteran patients based on their beliefs or that physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation, but said “all eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law”.
He said the rule changes were nothing more than “a formality”, but confirmed that they were made to comply with Trump’s executive order. Kasperowicz also said the revisions were necessary to “ensure VA policy comports with federal law”. He did not say which federal law or laws required these changes.
70% of US medical devices are only available overseas, report finds: As hospital executives and healthcare organizations express concern about how tariffs may affect the medical supply chain, a recent industry analysis found that about 70% of medical devices marketed in the U.S. are manufactured solely overseas.
GlobalData, which tracks the medical device supply chain, reported that while 75% of U.S.-marketed medical devices are produced internationally, 69% of those are only available through foreign manufacturers.
About 13% of the overseas-manufactured devices originate from China. On June 11, President Donald Trump stated that the total tariffs on products made in China stand at 55%.
Projected Effects of Proposed Cuts in Federal Medicaid Expenditures on Medicaid Enrollment, Uninsurance, Health Care, and Health: Enactment of the House bill advanced in May would increase the number of uninsured persons by 7.6 million and the number of deaths by 16 642 annually, according to a mid-range estimate.
About health insurance/insurers
Physicians’ prior auth burden: 10 stats An informative summary of this issue.
About pharma
FDA's new speedy review programme will be open only to US drugmakers: The FDA on Tuesday announced a voucher system that promises to review drug and biologic marketing applications within one to two months. The catch? Only drug developers based in the US, and are "aligned with US national priorities," are eligible.
"So who can get a national priority voucher? The key is in the name," FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a video posted to X. "The programme will support US drug developers who are addressing our most important US national priorities."
The national priorities listed by the agency cover four broad health buckets. Companies must be working to address a US health crisis; developing an innovative treatment; addressing an unmet public health need, such as by supporting pandemic preparedness; or increasing US national security, including by upping domestic manufacturing.
Eli Lilly to buy gene-editing biotech Verve for up to $1.3 billion: Lilly will acquire Verve for $10.50 per share, a premium of nearly 70% to the biotech’s share price at Monday’s close. The deal also includes an additional payment of $3 per share contingent on the first patient getting dosed in a Phase 3 trial of Verve’s lead candidate. In total, Lilly could pay up to $1.3 billion.
All states, territories agree to $7.4B Purdue Pharma opioid settlement: The attorneys general of all 50 states, Washington D.C., and four territories have agreed to sign on to a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma and the members of the Sackler family who own the company.
The settlement seeks to resolve thousands of lawsuits over the opioid crisis. The family members would acknowledge their role in contributing to the epidemic with rampant production and aggressive marketing of opioids for decades.