| | | | |  | | By Carmen Paun and Daniel Payne | | | | | 
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has said that 345,000 state residents could enroll in the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program. | Megan Varner/AP Photo | ALL EYES ON GEORGIA’S MEDICAID — Georgia is set to become the first state in five years to add work requirements to Medicaid, a move likely to be scrutinized amid a national debate over the issue, POLITICO’s Robert King reports. On July 1, the state will launch the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program, which offers a partial Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. However, certain beneficiaries must complete 80 hours a month of work, training, volunteering or education to stay covered. Several questions surrounding the effort remain: Chief among them is how many residents could be covered under the program’s budget. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said in January that 345,000 Georgians could enroll, but the funding for the first year doesn’t cover that many. Georgia’s final state budget included $52 million and $65.5 million in unspent Covid-19 relief funds. Georgia’s Department of Community Health predicted that 100,000 people will sign up in the first year, but an estimate from the nonprofit Georgia Budget and Policy Institute said there is only enough funding for 47,500 people. Republican lawmakers told Robert they’re eagerly eyeing how the implementation process goes as the national debate on work requirements continues. “If [Georgia] can successfully navigate through this, then I think it could be a great opportunity for other states,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.). Georgia is different from other red states that have tried the policy. The Trump administration gave waivers to 13 states to implement work requirements, but they all expanded Medicaid under Obamacare. Georgia, however, hasn’t expanded the program. This difference played a key role in a federal judge’s opinion upholding Georgia Pathways to Coverage after the Biden administration’s CMS rescinded the original waiver granted in 2020. Most other states saw their legal programs struck down after advocacy groups successfully argued they’d result in coverage losses. The judge in the Georgia case ruled last August that the state will see a net gain in coverage even if people are removed for failing to meet the work requirement. CMS didn’t appeal the decision. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE, where we can’t imagine being on a submarine for months to then emerge to a country locked down by a virus you’ve heard nothing about. That’s what happened to a French engineering student in 2020, and we couldn’t be happier that we’re above ground in 2023. I’m Carmen Paun, POLITICO’s global health reporter. Send news tips and feedback to cpaun@politico.com and to your regular Pulse author Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com. TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, host Katherine Ellen Foley interviews Erin Schumaker about President Biden’s choice to lead the CDC, Mandy Cohen, and the challenges she faces as a result of the agency’s politicization during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Rep. Dan Crenshaw says active service members with conditions that put them at risk of suicide should have the option of participating in clinical trials studying treatment using psychedelics substances. | Francis Chung/E&E News | Francis Chung/E&E News | PSYCHEDELICS IN NDAA? When the House Armed Services Committee marks up its version of the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) hopes panel members agree to include his psychedelic research amendment to help service members, POLITICO’s Erin Schumaker reports. The amendment would allow active service members with certain conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, to participate in clinical trials of MDMA, psilocybin, ibogaine and DMT, regardless of how those drugs are regulated. Service members would no longer risk being kicked out of the military for participating. The bill also establishes a $15 million-a-year grant program for Phase II clinical trials for service members through 2028. Previous research on MDMA as a treatment for PTSD has shown promise. Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who lost an eye fighting in Afghanistan, says his goal is to combat a suicide crisis among service members and veterans, nearly 17 of whom die each day by suicide, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | | | | | REPUBLICANS TARGET CDC PICK — Mandy Cohen, the former North Carolina health secretary, will be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, President Joe Biden announced Friday, POLITICO’s Erin Schumaker reports. Biden highlighted bipartisan praise Cohen received for her leadership, noting that leaders from both parties have recognized her “ability to find common ground and put complex policy into action.” But if the president hoped Cohen’s bipartisan appeal would return the CDC to its mostly collegial, pre-Covid relationship with Congress, they were likely dashed last week when 28 Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to the president, arguing that Cohen was too partisan for the role. But since the CDC job doesn’t require Senate confirmation, they can’t block the appointment. While the opposition might make it harder for Cohen to do her job, with the pandemic years now under the House GOP’s oversight microscope, it’s not realistic for the CDC director to stay out of the political fray. And Cohen, who held high-level roles at CMS and has a reputation for cooly fielding questions from Republicans during congressional hearings, is well equipped for that reality, according to those who’ve worked with her. What they’re saying: “She’s more of an operator and also politically sophisticated,” Andy Slavitt, who worked closely with Cohen in the Obama administration, told POLITICO. “We all want to see that job removed from politics,” Slavitt said of the CDC director role. “But for it to be removed from politics, you actually have to understand politics.”
| | | | CHINA BUDGES ON FENTANYL — The U.S. and China “agreed to explore setting up a working group or joint effort so that we can shut off the flow of precursor chemicals” used to produce fentanyl, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at this end of his trip to Beijing on Monday. China is the source of raw materials used to produce fentanyl — the synthetic opioid that has become the top killer of young adults in the U.S. — mainly in Mexico. Blinken said he raised the issue as a priority during his trip to the country, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang and others. China has repeatedly denied its role in the fentanyl supply chain, saying the U.S. needs to do more to fight drug demand at home and regulate fentanyl domestically.
| | THE PUSH FOR WEIGHT-LOSS DRUG COVERAGE — Novo Nordisk, which makes the blockbuster weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, hired law and lobbying firm Arnold & Porter to convince policymakers to allow Medicare to cover anti-obesity medications, POLITICO’s Megan R. Wilson reports. The high-cost prescription drugs exploded in popularity when videos on TikTok highlighted celebrities taking them to lose weight. But their access to a key market — older Americans — is limited, as Medicare is banned from covering weight-loss drugs as part of the Part D program.
| | | STATES RECEIVED $117 BILLION FOR MEDICAID — States spent less on Medicaid in the first three years of the pandemic when more people were enrolled in the program. That’s because the federal government paid states more than $117 billion in enhanced Medicaid funding in exchange for pausing disenrollments during that time, according to a KFF analysis published Friday. The federal funding was designed to support the costs of increased Medicaid enrollment and provide fiscal relief to states beyond the costs of enrollment growth, KFF said. State spending dropped from $231 billion in 2019 to $214 billion in fiscal year 2020, accompanied by an increase in federal spending of nearly $50 billion, from $393 billion to $444 billion. After 2020, state spending remained relatively stable while federal spending continued to increase, the analysis shows. Why it matters: That trend is expected to shift during the ongoing Medicaid unwinding, when people who are no longer eligible for the program — or fall through administrative cracks — will lose coverage. But even with fewer people enrolled, states’ Medicaid spending is expected to increase as federal spending decreases, according to KFF.
| | Bloomberg reports that Japan’s first abortion pill, approved in April, is hard to access. The Wall Street Journal reports on the promise of semaglutide, the active ingredient in the weight-loss drug Ozempic, as a treatment for cigarette and alcohol addiction. STAT looks at why ADHD is underdiagnosed among Asian Americans.
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