POLITICO HEALTH SUMMIT HIGHLIGHTS — Abortion, humanitarian aid to Gaza and opioids were key issues on the minds of top government officials, lawmakers and health policy experts at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit on Wednesday in Washington. On abortion: Neera Tanden, the White House’s domestic policy adviser, pointed to the federal abortion restrictions some Republicans have been mulling. “Right now, we know the moderate position on the other side is a nationwide ban,” she said. Her portrayal of Democrats as defending the rights of Americans from Republicans looking to take them is a hint of what’s to come in the months leading up to the 2024 election. But influential Republicans are forming their own strategy to address the issue of abortion through the election. Kellyanne Conway, president of KAConsulting LLC and former senior counselor to then-President Donald Trump, said Republicans should look to appeal to the majority of Americans in their proposals. “I think that to show concession and consensus is really the way to go,” she said. On opioids: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) blamed his state’s and the country’s opioid epidemic partly on the Food and Drug Administration. “The FDA started it. They keep bringing more products,” Manchin said of the agency that approved the prescription opioids that started the addiction crisis. The FDA has historically approved opioids as they do any other drug — by evaluating the safety and efficacy of the proposed medication. But lawmakers and others have pushed it to consider public health concerns more expansively, and FDA Commissioner Robert Califf has suggested the agency needs greater authority from Congress. Namandjé Bumpus, the FDA’s principal deputy commissioner, defended her agency. “We make science-based decisions,” said Bumpus. “We leverage our science in our decisionmaking to make the best decisions we can,” she said. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said he saw nothing wrong with tougher policies like San Francisco’s recent decision to drug test welfare recipients. “We should be willing to consider anything that helps us tackle this drug addiction crisis because so many people are dying today,” he said. “We need to get a grip on this.” On humanitarian aid to Gaza: Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said she asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to improve compliance with international humanitarian law” during her visit to Israel late last month. "Even if Hamas doesn’t care about civilian life, and it’s proven that again and again, that doesn’t relieve the obligation of a combatant to observe those principles,” she said. “Clearly, more needs to be done.” On doctor pay: Two lawmakers — Reps. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) and Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) — said they believed changes to how doctors are paid could be on the way sooner rather than later. Portions of legislation addressing the Medicare payment schedule for doctors “will be baked into” an appropriations package expected to advance this month, Kelly said. “We don’t want doctors to cut back on their Medicare patients or to stop doing some of the charity care they do,” Kelly said. Bucshon also emphasized the importance of fixing the system that determines doctor pay from Medicare, saying he thought reforms could be included in a larger health package to be passed before the end of the year. WELCOME TO THURSDAY PULSE. A California bill could ban foods with synthetic food dyes in schools. Bye-bye, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and bleonard@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @_BenLeonard_.
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