Lawmakers returning to Capitol Hill this week after the Thanksgiving recess face a daunting series of tax and budget deadlines that will set the stage for how Congress addresses year-end healthcare priorities.
That...more
11/28/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) ,
Cost-Sharing ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Drug Pricing ,
GAO ,
Health Insurance ,
HELP ,
Individual Mandate ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Part D ,
National Institute of Health (NIH) ,
Opioid ,
Section 340B
The year-end schedules of the Senate HELP and Finance committees just became more clogged, as the two panels will lead the review of President Trump’s nominee to be Health & Human Services (HHS) secretary.
Trump announced...more
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said lawmakers will vote this week on legislation to renew federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), even amid unresolved partisan disagreements over...more
President Donald Trump is considering appointing lawmakers to a bipartisan commission that would develop strategies to lower prescription drug prices, while senators last week called for greater transparency into how...more
President Trump’s announcement Friday that he would stop cost-sharing payments to insurance companies triggered a firestorm on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers in both parties calling on Congress to restore the funding...more
Although the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enjoys broad bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, lawmakers last week sharply disagreed over how to pay for its renewal – signaling that a final vote could be delayed for...more
With congressional Republicans’ efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on hold at least for now, the bipartisan leaders of the Senate HELP Committee are seeking to rekindle their work to shore up the health law’s...more
Republicans’ last-ditch effort to overhaul the Affordable Care Act (ACA) suffered potentially fatal blows as GOP senators in recent days voiced either outright opposition to or serious reservations about legislation pushed by...more
Republican senators pushing a last-ditch effort to overhaul the Affordable Care Act (ACA) say they are within one vote of having the support needed to pass their bill.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)...more
The chairman of a Senate healthcare committee outlined a key test for stabilizing the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) shaky individual marketplace: Both Republicans and Democrats will have to give a little.
That formula has...more
Senate Republicans face a key procedural vote this week that would allow for debate of their healthcare legislation, but significant uncertainty remains about whether GOP senators can meet that procedural hurdle, what the...more
7/25/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Drug Pricing ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Generic Drugs ,
IPAB ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
REMS ,
Repeal ,
Trump Administration ,
User Fees
Delayed Senate Health Vote Boon to GOP or Just Prolonging the Inevitable?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s announcement that he would delay a key procedural vote scheduled for this week on the Republicans’...more
Senate Reconvenes but No Health Votes Expected This Week -
The Senate reconvenes today following the Fourth of July recess, but senators are at least a week away – and perhaps even longer – from voting on legislation to...more
Senate Republican leaders are expected to make a series of changes to the healthcare legislation released Thursday as they scramble to gain the support of at least 50 lawmakers in a showdown vote scheduled for later this...more
Senate Republicans continue intra-party discussions on changes to House-passed legislation replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but the lack of consensus is threatening GOP leaders’ pledge to have a bill ready for a vote...more
Senate Republicans return to Washington this week after a 10-day recess facing a key inflection point in their effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as GOP leaders will outline policy options they hope...more
6/6/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Congressional Budget Office ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
HRSA ,
Medicaid ,
Repeal ,
Section 340B ,
Trump Administration ,
User Fees
Legislation reauthorizing FDA user fees for prescription and generic drugs, biosimilars, and medical devices won wide bipartisan approval last week in a Senate committee, teeing up approval by the full Senate, likely after...more
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to cancel Friday’s vote on the American Health Care Act triggered post-mortem jockeying among vying GOP factions struggling to come to grips with how the party failed to repeal a law it has...more
Meeting privately with Senate Republicans to discuss next steps on the ACA was among the first actions taken last week by the new Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Tom Price. But GOP senators left...more
2/27/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Medicaid ,
Medical Devices ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Part D ,
Repeal ,
Trump Administration
Three weeks into President Trump’s administration, the Senate on Friday narrowly approved Tom Price as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), elevating the former orthopedic surgeon as Trump’s...more
House Speaker Paul Ryan last week set a deadline of the end of March for repealing most of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as other Republican leaders and conservative rank-and-file lawmakers advocated competing policy...more
At GOP retreat, consensus on healthcare elusive -
House and Senate Republicans emerged from a policy retreat last week in Philadelphia with no agreement on next steps in their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable...more
Trump order seeks to undermine ACA -
President Donald Trump didn’t mention the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in his inaugural address but later that night he signed a sweeping executive order that directs federal agencies...more
The House on Friday gave final congressional approval to a budget blueprint that authorizes separate filibuster-proof legislation Republicans will use next month to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act...more
A growing number of moderate and conservative Republicans in Congress are voicing concerns about the party’s strategy to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Act) in February but then wait months – and possibly even into 2018 –...more