Late Wed., Sen. Amy Klobuchar told us there is bipartisan support for AI rules and bipartisan oppo to the moratorium: “By preventing cities and states from protecting renters and allowing landlords to leverage AI to collude, House Republicans would raise rents even more while reducing competition."

In the search for spending savings, House Republicans could've gone after overpayments to insurers & hospitals in Medicare. Instead, they singled out people w/ the lowest incomes for the lion's share of cuts. Then re-directed that $$ mainly for more high-income tax cuts.

The original House bill would have led to about 10 million more uninsured people, according to CBO. The amended version that passed would lead to more people losing health insurance. If this bill gets enacted, it would represent the biggest rollback in federal support for health care ever.

Farce of a process, disaster of a bill

Join ISGMH on May 22 for our annual Postdoctoral Fellow Showcase! This year’s event features exciting LGBTQ health research presentations from 5 postdocs: Emily Esposito, John Guigayoma, @tim-levengood.bsky.social, @jonathanlpzmts.bsky.social, and Mariajosé Paton. Register today: buff.ly/rUSA6Yh

Are you a health equity researcher who has lost federal funding for a project? RWJF’s Evidence for Action is offering Rapid Response grants to support community-centered, social science research disrupted by cuts. ☀️ More details: www.rwjf.org/en/grants/ac...

This isn't about saving money: the program costs just a fraction of the dept's budget. This isn't about making Americans healthier: over 2k people use the service every day. This is about scoring cheap political points by taking advantage of some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Speaking in Utah today, Secy Kennedy called for end of water fluoridation. An HHS official now tells us they're "directing the CDC to reconvene the Community Preventative Services Task Force to study and make a new recommendation on fluoride" tinalexander.github.io/notes/2025/0...

👇🎯 The public isn't going to understand this, unless the presidents of R1 universities around the country <loudly> & <collectively> get out into the public square & start explaining this & calling out the existential threat to the entire 🇺🇸 university system. The silence is deafening right now.

100%. One of the most professionally rewarding dimensions of my job the last few years has been in working with clinical teaching colleagues to integrate systems and policy thinking into our med student curriculum.

Prescription drug spending in the US increased by $30 Billion between 2022 and 2023, including: ⬆️$11B spent by Medicare ⬆️$4B spent by Medicaid ⬆️$15B spent by Private Insurers #healthpolicy #healthcarespending #cost #affordability More details: www.healthsystemtracker.org/health-spend...

CBO's out with their new deficit reductions options. Just look at all that $$ on the table if we paid Medicare Advantage plans closer to what the law intended. www.cbo.gov/system/files...

New in @AJMC_Journal from Mark Fendrick, MD of the Univ. of Michigan Center for Value Based Insurance Design: a reflection on the tumultuous events of the past week and the broader issues facing American healthcare & insurance: www.ajmc.com/view/sharing... #healthpolicy

Just had an idea

GO DAWGS!!!

Pfizer, Lilly, PhRMA execs meet with Trump and RFK Jr. www.axios.com/2024/12/05/t...

"More than 90% of expenditures in the early years have gone to administrative and consulting costs –mostly to Deloitte Consulting, according to data obtained by investigative reporters." This includes an $11 million ad & outreach campaign.

The MN Dept of Health just released a first of its kind report on MN 340B covered entities’ acquisition costs, net revenue, and external operational/admin expenses. It includes (select) entity-level and drug family-level data. The report is here: www.health.state.mn.us/data/340b/do.... #Healthpolicy

The possible “catastrophic success” of CAR-T cells in cancer and autoimmune disease @science.org. A nice story on dramatic diseases, biomedical technology and sustainability.. bit.ly/4i9FXf1 #oncosky #medsky #oncsky 🧪

New open access article from our team. Event-driven / on-demand (AKA 2-1-1) PrEP use has tripled between 2019-2023 in Australia, with 28% of gay/bi men and other men who have sex with men now using event-driven PrEP in 2023. Read here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

NEW: How could Trump’s tariffs impact generic drugs, many of which come from abroad? Dr. Janet Woodcock, a former acting FDA chief, said without some kind of exemption, importing is likely to become more expensive — a cost that could be passed on to patients. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

RFK Jr and aides are weighing changes to billions of dollars in Medicare physician payments. Their thesis: the current payment model, which rewards specialty care and surgeries, has created bad incentives that harm our health. Many experts + Democrats have also called for more $$ for primary care.

Curious about the 340B Drug Pricing Program? Check out our scoping review of the empirical literature (and the first paper of my dissertation) in The Milbank Quarterly @MilbankFund. Many thanks to co-authors Rena Conti, Sean Cahill, and Megan Cole doi.org/10.1111/1468...

Scoop: Republicans are quietly delaying more than $1 billion in planned funding for a life-saving HIV program — demanding changes to terms like abortion, sexual reproductive health, even "human rights" in the program’s documents. It’s the latest hurdle facing PEPFAR. More here.

We were so fortunate to share the results of our work (w/ @stecula.bsky.social ) on @npr.org 's All Things Considered yesterday. What I appreciate most about the story is its focus on not just the prevalence of vax. hesitancy, but its potential public health risks. www.npr.org/sections/hea...

When the abstract says ❝We exploit the quasi-exogenous assignment of 1.5 million patients to physicians in US military, using the difference in ranks to measure their power differential❞ you know you're in for something great @vinisingh.bsky.social stschwab.github.io/images/power...