Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Next Step In 'Moonshot': White House Picks Surgeon To Lead Cancer Institute
The Biden administration has selected Monica Bertagnolli, a renowned surgical oncologist, as the next director of the National Cancer Institute, according to two sources familiar with the decision. (Facher, 7/21)
In news from Capitol Hill —
Only half of the 180 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers across the country currently have a designated area for nursing, or lactating, parents. (Padilla, 7/21)
Senate leaders are introducing sweeping legislation Thursday meant to lift federal prohibitions on marijuana more than 50 years after Congress made the drug illegal. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act would decriminalize weed on the federal level and allow states to set their own marijuana laws without fear of punishment from Washington. (Fertig, 7/21)
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a staunch ally of former President Trump and perhaps the most vulnerable GOP senator facing reelection in November, announced Thursday that he would vote for a bill protecting same-sex marriage. (Bolton, 7/21)
Senators from Maine and Delaware want to establish a national mercury monitoring program to try to safeguard human health from the neurotoxin. Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Sen. Tom Carper introduced the proposal. Collins said she was motivated to propose it because some lands and water bodies in her state have higher mercury pollution levels than the nation at large. (7/22)
On the drug price bill —
KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Drug Price Bill Is A Go In The Senate
President Joe Biden is the latest top Washington official to test positive for covid-19, following Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But work continues, particularly on a Senate bill that could, for the first time, allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and cap seniors’ out-of-pocket medication costs. Meanwhile, both supporters and opponents of abortion rights are struggling to find their footing in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturn of the federal right to abortion in Roe v. Wade. (7/21)
With overall inflation raging at 9 percent, the White House is eager to portray any action as an element to bring price inflation down. But how likely is it that the prescription-drug provision in this bill will make a difference? It’s a surprisingly complicated question. Let’s take a look. (Kessler, 7/22)
