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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview published Friday that he supports measures to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, as well as lowering the Medicare eligibility age and creating a public health insurance option. The comments from Schumer give important backing to a push from progressives, who have been calling for a range of major health care reforms from President Biden, including in his next major economic package, which he laid out for Congress during a joint address on Wednesday night. (Sullivan, 4/30)

President Joe Biden’s call for authorizing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices has energized Democrats on a politically popular idea they’ve been pushing for nearly 20 years only to encounter frustration. But they still lack a clear path to enact legislation. That’s because a small number of Democrats remain uneasy over government price curbs on pharmaceutical companies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will need every Democratic vote in a narrowly divided Congress. Otherwise Democrats may have to settle for a compromise that stops short of their goal. Or they could take the issue into the 2022 midterm elections. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/3)

Congress will likely try to move forward with drug pricing legislation although President Joe Biden excluded such changes from his latest economic policy proposal. Biden called on Congress in his joint address Wednesday night to enact health care legislation this year that would expand Medicare and allow the massive program to negotiate drug prices. But the White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill disagree on whether to include it in the upcoming legislative push on family aid, which could be one of the last major bills to move this year besides spending legislation. (McIntire and Clason, 4/30)

Demand for long-term care has increased in recent years as the aging population grows, and a wave of baby boomers retire in coming decades. But as of now, the long-term care system is failing to meet the needs of the current population. It's fragmented, expensive and often inaccessible for low-and-middle income aging adults and people with disabilities. While most people are cared for at home by unpaid caregivers, lawmakers have looked to expand access to home and community services covered by Medicaid, the largest payer of long-term care in the U.S. (Hellmann, 4/30)

The National Institutes of Health is preparing to award grants in the next three weeks to researchers studying the long-term effects of COVID-19 and patients experiencing “long COVID. ”NIH Director Francis Collins told the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee this week that the agency expects laboratory research and imaging studies to be underway by the summer. The agency received 273 research proposals after Congress provided more than $1 billion for research into the long-term effects of COVID-19. (McIntire, 4/30)

The Most Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone was careful not to single out any Catholics in his latest letter calling for Holy Communion to be withheld from public figures who support abortion rights. But the 17-page missive from the archbishop of San Francisco may have important implications for one of the archdiocese’s most famous parishioners: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Thebault, 5/2)

KHN: Journalists Track Biden’s First 100 Days 

Chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed Biden’s first 100 days on WAMU/NPR’s “1A” on Wednesday. She also joined Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time” to talk about why hospitals aren’t cooperating with price transparency requirements. ... KHN senior correspondent Julie Appleby discussed changes in insurance coverage for covid-19 care on NBC News NOW on Tuesday. (5/1)