KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Georgia Turns the Senate Blue

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Surprise Democratic victories in Georgia’s two runoff elections this week will give Democrats control of the Senate, which means they will be in charge of both houses of Congress and the White House for the first time since 2010. Although the narrow majorities in the House and Senate will likely not allow Democrats to pass major expansions to health programs, it will make it easier to do things such as pass fixes for the Affordable Care Act.

Meanwhile, the speedy development and approval of vaccines to protect against covid-19 is being squandered by the lack of a national strategy to get those vaccines into people’s arms. Straightening out and speeding up vaccinations will be a major priority for the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

• The Georgia election results will make it easier for some of Biden’s Cabinet picks to be confirmed, including Xavier Becerra, his choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
• Among the ACA fixes that congressional Democrats may seek is a restoration of a small penalty for people who do not have health coverage. That could negate the case before the Supreme Court now that was brought by Republican state officials.
• One strategic error in the covid vaccine distribution efforts was that the release of the vaccine was not coupled with a major messaging campaign to explain what the vaccine does and dispel fears about it.
• Late last month, a federal court blocked the Trump administration from implementing a plan to tie what Medicare pays for some drugs to the prices in other countries. It’s not clear if the Biden administration will continue the legal fight to keep the program, but the president-elect has suggested he is more interested in bringing down drug prices by negotiating with manufacturers.
• The Trump administration has sued retail giant Walmart, alleging it unlawfully dispensed opioids from its pharmacies.

Also, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read too:

Julie Rovner: The New York Times’ “One Hospital System Sued 2,500 Patients After Pandemic Hit,” by Brian M. Rosenthal

Alice Miranda Ollstein: Politico’s “Congress Using COVID Test That FDA Warns May Be Faulty,” by David Lim and Sarah Ferris

Mary Ellen McIntire: Bloomberg News’ “The World’s Most Loathed Industry Gave Us a Vaccine in Record Time,” by Drew Armstrong

Anna Edney: STAT News’ “How It Started: A Q&A With Helen Branswell, One Year After Covid-19 Became a Full-Time Job,” by Jason Ukman

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Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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