The Senate will still have a very small majority in 2023, but it will have some new curveballs, including HELP Chairman Bernie Sanders and the Republican House opposite the Capitol.
- That may not sound like a recipe for many health policy measures, but here’s what we’re hearing about areas that senators are at least trying to do.
1. PBMs. Action against PBM is perhaps the most likely issue given the bipartisan and bicameral interest in targeting all possible roles involved in patients’ high drug costs.
- Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden told Axios before lawmakers left for vacation that “controlling middlemen and costs” will be a priority for healthcare in 2023.
- “I know someone who I think will work with us in the House,” Wyden said.
- He didn’t go into detail about what he wants to do, but he has in the past proposed a C-THRU law that included a transparency requirement on rebates received by PBMs, allowing PBMs to pass on a minimum percentage of rebates to health insurance. request that you .
2. Nurse shortage. Bill Cassidy, a ranking member of the incoming HELP committee, previously told Axios that he would like to work with Sanders on the nurse shortage. Now Sanders is paying back the interest.
what they say: Sanders told Axios that he could “absolutely” work with Cassidy on a “catastrophic crisis” in nursing.
- “States are spending a lot of money on traveling nurses rather than building their own workforce,” Sanders said. Looking forward to it. [workforce].”
- Details of the agreement are less clear. Sanders suggested increasing funding for nursing education through the Nurse Corps program, but Cassidy did not commit to more funding, saying he wanted to consider the issue first.
Sanders wasn’t ready to speak About the progressive cause he is known for. For example, when he asked if he was going to call pharmaceutical executives to testify, he refused to discuss his subject further.
- “It’s a little premature to talk about it,” he said.
3. Equality in mental healthWyden intends to push for insurance companies to cover mental health on the same level as physical health, but it is more difficult to attract bipartisan attention to the issue.
- Some lobbyists previously thought the bipartisan Finance Committee working group on the issue would not release any recommendations, but they did in early December.
- The recommendations were modest, such as calling for a GAO study, and did not include larger measures opposed by the insurance industry, such as financial penalties for insurers found to be violating parity laws.
- Asked if he would push for new financial penalties, Wyden said he would “keep all options open,” but that what he called “ghost networks” without enough mental health providers ” No way,” he claimed.
4. Cost. “I think next year we have an opportunity to make real reforms in the area of cost containment,” Wyden said, adding that the cap on out-of-pocket insulin costs for people with private insurance would be “at the top of the list.” listed in
- Reality check: The idea has struggled to gain Republican support, and supporters were unable to put it on the omnibus last month.
asked hospital pricesIn addition to drug prices, they are under increasing scrutiny.
- Cassidy told reporters that “prescription drug costs” were a priority, but declined to elaborate. He has generally pitched small-scale, bipartisan ideas, such as speeding up the approval of generic drugs, compared to the Democrats’ more drastic New Drug Pricing Act.
To the point: There are many unknowns about the new year, including how chaotic the House will be and how much Sanders will prioritize progressive causes over bipartisanism.
- But now that big-ticket partisan agendas like repeal of Obamacare and Medicare drug deals are either dead for now or have already passed, it’s at least possible for Congress to find a somewhat narrower area of health policy to address.
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