| | | | |  | | By Chelsea Cirruzzo | With help from Daniel Payne and Ben Leonard
| | |  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Capitol Hill to try to secure votes ahead of his upcoming confirmation hearing. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | SECOND SALES PITCH — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead HHS, is back on Capitol Hill today to pitch himself to Senate Democrats to lead the sprawling agency, Chelsea and Daniel report. The push comes a day after Kennedy’s meetings with Senate Democrat Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and key Senate health leader Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) yielded no endorsements. Hassan and Sanders sit on the Senate Finance Committee, which is responsible for confirming Kennedy. A Kennedy spokesperson previously told POLITICO he would also meet this week with Senate Finance Democrats Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Michael Bennet of Colorado. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will also hold a meeting, as will Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who’s signaled openness to Kennedy. The HELP Committee will likely hold a courtesy hearing. A meeting with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is scheduled for today. House Democrats and one governor are trying to pressure their Senate colleagues to vote against Kennedy, with some suggesting the confirmation vote is a “life-or-death decision.” That’s how Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a doctor, has put it to lawmakers this week in an effort to derail a Kennedy nomination. On Wednesday, Green joined House Democrats who are also clinicians to plead with senators — and Trump himself — to abandon his choice of Kennedy. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism will get a significant boost should he become the nation’s top public health official, they said. That would mean a diminished vaccination rate and the resurgence of deadly diseases that have been nearly eradicated for decades. Neither Hassan nor Sanders spoke with the media after their meetings. Kennedy told reporters his conversation with Sanders was “private” and he “couldn’t say” whether he had secured Sanders’ support. And Kennedy’s meeting with Senate HELP Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) garnered a tepid social media post from Cassidy calling the meeting “frank.” Their responses stand in stark contrast to Senate Republicans who met with Kennedy in December. He received positive reviews and social media posts from Senate Republicans. They include Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who’s called himself the body’s “most pro-life member” and told POLITICO last month he was convinced after meeting with Kennedy that he would fall in line with the Trump administration’s abortion stance. This came after Lankford expressed concern about Kennedy’s prior abortion rights stance. WELCOME TO THURSDAY PULSE. Some programming news from Ben: I am setting off on a new adventure, moving to POLITICO’s Congress team covering domestic policy, focusing on House Energy and Commerce, Senate Commerce and HELP. That includes health care. I won’t be far. It’s been an honor to be in your inboxes every day. You can reach me going forward at bleonard@politico.com and follow along @_BenLeonard_. Send your Pulse tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and follow @ChelseaCirruzzo.
| | |  Rep. Kim Schrier and other House Democrats who are clinicians oppose the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS secretary. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | A DOC CAUCUS FOR DEMS — Democratic lawmakers who are medical providers are in discussions to create a caucus that would provide an alternative to — or work with — the longstanding GOP Doctors Caucus, Daniel reports. The planning is ongoing, Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), a pediatrician, told POLITICO, but she’s confident Democratic doctors will formally organize. The new caucus might not be for Democrats only. Schrier expressed openness to working with Republican doctors in a new bipartisan caucus, adding she has talked with Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.), a dermatologist who co-chairs the GOP Doctors Caucus. “We’re going to need a lot of unity,” Schrier said about the next four years, pointing to the importance of a bipartisan group of lawmakers urging vaccinations early in the Covid-19 pandemic. As the number of Democrats who are doctors and nurses grows on the Hill, their ideas on health policy could become increasingly important. BUDGET CHAIR ON MEDICAID — House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said Wednesday that committee chairs, not him, will lead reconciliation policy on issues like Medicaid, Ben reports. “That’s going to be driven by the chairmen of the policy committees,” Arrington told POLITICO on Wednesday. “It’s not top-down. It’s committee up … the process is already very open and candid.” That would be a significant empowerment for committee chairs like Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), who leads the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid and many other health care issues. Republicans must pass a budget resolution in both chambers before considering reconciliation legislation. Guthrie had previously told POLITICO that House Republicans have discussed including changes to Medicaid and so-called site-neutral payments in a reconciliation package. The reconciliation process, which skirts the Senate filibuster and would allow Republicans to pass budget-related legislation without Democrats, is expected to be central to President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda. Republicans seek ways to pay for their agenda items, including extending Trump-era tax cuts. Guthrie told POLITICO this week he’s discussed per capita allotments with House Republicans, which could lead to lower Medicaid spending by allocating money based on population, not cost of care. Guthrie supports the policy, which he said is “really a block grant that factors in growth,” but lawmakers haven’t decided what Medicaid changes could be in store, he said.
| | | | CDC DIRECTOR FEARS CUTS — CDC Director Mandy Cohen is warning that steep cuts to the agency laid out in a budget from House Republicans in June could become a reality, POLITICO’s Sophie Gardner reports. The proposed budget, with a 22 percent cut to the agency, “tells us what the threat could be,” Cohen said at an event held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank, in Washington. “The House budget could be our future.” Cohen also said she hopes Congress will be receptive to conversations with CDC leaders. “We could go in two directions,” Cohen said. “I’m having good conversations with members on the Hill about this … but it could easily go the other way if folks aren’t thoughtful about how to approach change.” Key context: The original proposal would have eliminated 23 programs at the CDC and zeroed out funding for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. But, in the Senate, Republicans will likely need help from Democrats to cut the agency’s budget given the slim GOP majority. In July, then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to block cuts to the CDC.
| | SHAREHOLDERS REQUEST UHC DENIAL REPORT — Investors in UnitedHealth Group want the insurer to provide a report on how care denials impact patients and financial results, POLITICO’s Kelly Hooper reports. The company’s shareholders said in a proposal that the report should evaluate how UnitedHealth Group’s practices “impact access to healthcare and patient outcomes,” including how often prior authorization requirements or coverage denials lead to delaying or abandoning medical treatment or serious complications for patients. UnitedHealth Group told Pulse it will respond to any shareholder requests. The company has previously said it pays about 90 percent of medical claims upon submission and about 0.5 percent of claims that require further review are because of medical or clinical reasons. Why it matters: The request comes less than a month after the CEO of UnitedHealthcare — the company’s insurance segment — was fatally shot in Manhattan. The incident has sparked online vitriol toward health insurers and highlighted Americans’ dissatisfaction with how often the companies deny medical care, with some praising the alleged shooter as a hero. Background: UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurer by market share, has recently come under congressional scrutiny over its care denials in Medicare Advantage, the privately run alternative to Medicare. The company also faces legal scrutiny over coverage denials, with an ongoing class-action lawsuit claiming UnitedHealthcare used artificial intelligence with a high error rate to deny coverage to Medicare Advantage enrollees.
| | Kristian Werling is now global head of McDermott Will & Emery’s health and life sciences practice group. He previously served as co-head of the firm’s private equity practice. Ascension, one of the largest Catholic nonprofit health systems, has joined Keep Americans Covered, a nonpartisan coalition of healthcare stakeholders advocating for extended premium tax credits. The Peterson Center on Healthcare, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable health care, has appointed Sheila Burke, senior public policy adviser at Baker Donelson; Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health at JPMorganChase; and Avik Roy, president and CEO of the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, to its advisory board.
| | POLITICO’s Marcia Brown reports that lawmakers on Capitol Hill have raised alarm over FDA funding for food safety inspections The New York Times explains what to know about HMPV, a virus spreading in China. In STAT, the WHO director-general writes how Jimmy Carter’s legacy can guide global health policy. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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