Read today’s Kaiser Health News
In other news:
Trump bill's health effects won't be felt until after midterms A good summary of when different provisions start.
How Health Care Remade the U.S. Economy Two takeaways:
1. The healthcare sector is now the nation’s largest employer.
2. Americans now spend more on health care than groceries or housing
About health insurance/insurers
Megabill hits health care for immigrants, including legal ones, hard: Under current rules, those immigrants — green card holders, refugees, survivors of domestic violence and individuals on work and student visas — can purchase health insurance on the Obamacare marketplace and receive tax credits to offset the cost. Some of them are also eligible for coverage through Medicaid, the state-federal program for low-income people, if they earn incomes below the poverty level, as well as Medicare, the federal program for elderly people.
But the provisions in the GOP megabill narrow immigrant eligibility for these programs, allowing only green card holders, immigrants from Cuba and Haiti and immigrants from certain Pacific Island countries access to federally funded health care.
The surprise medical bills just keep coming A really good summary of the current status and background of this legislation.
How Healthcare Cuts Stand to Hurt A good explanation with helpful graphics.
About pharma
New Cancer Drug Approvals: Less Than Half Of Important Clinical Trial Uncertainties Reported By The FDA To Clinicians, 2019–22: During the period 2019–22, the FDA approved fifty-two new cancer drugs. In review documents, FDA reviewers identified a total of 213 clinical trial uncertainties with new cancer drugs, 50 percent of which were considered to be important uncertainties to the FDA’s approval decision. Labels for physicians reported information on 26 percent of all uncertainties and 48 percent of uncertainties that were important to the FDA’s approval decision. Communicating uncertainties about the evidence of drugs in the label is essential for informing physicians about drugs’ safe and effective use.
Big Beautiful Bill narrows CMS drug price negotiation authority: The sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into federal law July 4, amended CMS’ drug price negotiations authority that could absolve nearly $5 billion in projected savings, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
CMS gained the authority to negotiate list prices with drugmakers in 2022, and the first 10 negotiated medication prices will take effect Jan. 1, 2026. To be eligible for negotiations, medications must lack generic or biosimilar competition and be on the market for more than 10 years.
FDA-designated “orphan drugs” are exempted from the eligibility criteria. These are therapies for diseases or conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 Americans. With the passage of the new law, the exception expanded to include medications for “one or more rare diseases or conditions.”
The Congressional Budget Office predicts this allowance will avert $4.87 billion in federal savings from the Medicare drug price negotiation program.