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The Biden administration has started approving state requests to use Medicaid to pay for groceries and nutritional counseling as policy makers explore whether “food as medicine” programs can lead to broad health benefits and trim costs. A growing body of research suggests that addressing food insecurity can improve health as well as deliver savings by reducing medical visits, the need for medication, or by helping control serious illness. The programs have also appealed to some GOP lawmakers who believe states should have more control over their Medicaid programs. (Armour and Peterson, 2/12)

Nia Sumpter, a student, mother and patient advocate, calls herself a sickle cell warrior. People with the disease — which affects red blood cells — need to see doctors all the time. Before she enrolled in health insurance, her treatment racked up thousands of dollars in hospital bills. “With sickle cell disease, that meant I was now responsible for affording … transfusions and all of the other types of medicines,” said Sumpter, who lives in St. Louis County. “And so now I'm stuck on the hook for that. And my credit is literally like, shot.” (Fentem, 2/13)

The state program that helps people acquire required health insurance policies is preparing for an influx of new enrollees as enhanced federal funds for Medicaid are scheduled to be cut off next month. At the start of the pandemic, Congress required that state Medicaid programs keep people continuously enrolled through the end of the month in which the COVID-19 public health emergency ended. The federal emergency is scheduled to come to a close this spring. (Drysdale, 2/10)

Employer-sponsored health plans pay significantly more than Medicare for costly physician-administered drugs, threatening access to lifesaving treatments, according to a newly published analysis of claims data and Medicare files. (Dreher, 2/13)

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said any idea on sunsetting Social Security and Medicare belongs to Sen. Rick Scott—not the GOP. “Unfortunately, that was the Scott plan, that’s not a Republican plan,” McConnell said on a Kentucky radio program. (Bailey, 2/10)

Most Republicans don’t agree with Sen. Rick Scott‘s plan to sunset programs including Medicare and Social Security, Sen. Mike Rounds said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” even as he left the door open to other changes. “The vast majority of us would say that we prefer to look at it in a different direction, one of managing it, as opposed to a discussion about having everything start over again,” Rounds said. (Olander, 2/12)

Capitol Hill is talking more about Social Security, which estimates show is on track to becoming insolvent in little more than a decade, as both sides feud over how to address the rising national debt. A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that spending for Social Security benefits increased by 10 percent, or $37 billion, in the four-month stretch ending in January, compared to the same period the year before. (Folley, 2/12)