Episode #48 Deep Dive – Sen. Peter Welch Takes on Big Pharma
A deep dive into this week's episode of Paging America
››› Pope Leo calls universal healthcare a 'moral imperative'
Reuters reports that Pope Leo made a plea this week for countries to offer their citizens universal healthcare. "Universal health coverage is … a moral imperative for societies that wish to call themselves just," Pope Leo said. “Healthcare must be accessible to the most vulnerable … not only because their dignity requires it but also to prevent injustice from becoming a cause of conflict. Health cannot be a luxury for the few."
››› A federal judge struck down several of RFK Jr.’s vaccine policies
This week, U.S. District Court judge Brian Murphy blocked the federal government from implementing RFK Jr.’s new childhood vaccine schedule and reversed all decisions made by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) since Kennedy took over at HHS a year ago. The immediate impact was the cancellation of an ACIP meeting scheduled for this week.
With this decision, the previous vaccine schedule will be resumed, including the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine, and the decisions to ban thiomersal from flu vaccines and to separate the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine into individual components will also be reversed.
From reporting by The New York Times:
In his decision, Judge Brian Murphy, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, noted that the vaccine committee has historically made decisions through careful review of scientific evidence, “a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements.” But, he added “unfortunately, the government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.” [...]
Judge Murphy [also] wrote that only six of the 15 panelists “appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines — the very focus of ACIP” [...]
In a hearing this month…a lawyer for the Trump administration, argued that Mr. Kennedy and the committee had “unreviewable” — or absolute — authority to make vaccine policies, even if that included recommending that people become infected with measles instead of getting vaccinated.
Judge Murphy was clear in his dismissal of that argument. “Suffice it to say that the Court disagrees,” he said.
The decision is all but certain to be appealed.
In related news, some of Kennedy’s most ardent supporters are calling for an end to ALL childhood vaccine recommendations. This is from NOTUS:
Leaders of the MAHA Institute, the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-allied think tank pushing Make America Health Again movement policies, stated their position on vaccines unequivocally on Monday: “The childhood vaccination schedule needs to be eliminated,” the policy group’s president, Mark Gorton, said.
“All vaccines need to be removed from the market until they can be proven to be safe and effective,” Gorton told an audience of supporters gathered in the Willard Hotel’s Crystal Room for a panel discussion on the “Massive Epidemic of Vaccine Injury.”
››› RFK Jr. and Republicans are increasingly in a bind
MedPage Today’s headlines says it all: “Republicans Fret Over RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaccine Policies While MAHA Moms Stew”. On one hand, his avid supporters are urging him to push harder on stopping vaccines. On the other, the Trump administration and Republicans in general want him to shut up about the issue.
White House officials are steering the Trump administration away from vaccine reform, fearing the political consequences of emphasizing a relatively unpopular issue in a key election year.
But the [MAHA] movement … isn’t going along without a fight.
The administration’s shift began late last year, when Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio published a memo finding that “vaccine skepticism is bad politics,” especially as the midterm elections near.
This month, the White House fully pivoted the administration on the issue, according to two White House officials who were granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
“We’re just kind of done with the vaccine issue,” said one of the officials. “We’ve done what we want to do on the vaccine front.”
However, Brian Hooker, chief scientific officer of the Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaxx group founded by Kennedy, said, “We’re nowhere near done on the vaccine issue.”
In addition to this, Democrats are seeing other cracks in the MAHA facade, as well, and intend to exploit them for the upcoming midterm elections, according to POLITICO:
The MAHA base is furious with the Trump administration over its promotion of a controversial pesticide. Democrats up for election this fall see a prime political opportunity in the infighting… [and] are mobilizing to win over these disaffected MAHA voters as internal polling highlights the opportunity.
Since many people in the MAHA base once identified as Democrats, they may have a real opportunity to win them back.
››› One-third of Americans skip meals or other needs to afford health care
This is from reporting by The Washington Post:
Roughly one-third of Americans are cutting back on daily spending to cover medical costs, and about half of middle-income households said they have delayed a major life event because of the same expenses, [two Gallup polls released Thursday] found, as premiums rise and the federal government cuts Medicaid spending.
Eleven percent of respondents said they had skipped a meal in the past year to meet health care costs, according to the first poll on Americans’ daily spending. Fifteen percent said they had borrowed money or prolonged a current drug prescription. The trend was most pronounced among Americans who don’t have health insurance, 62 percent of whom said they made at least one financial trade-off to pay for health care.
People are also driving less, skipping meals and putting off big life moves, like buying homes or having children, according to the Post. In addition, researchers said they expected the affordability of health care to be a potent issue for voters in the midterm elections.
››› Dr. Oz thinks Obamacare sign-ups are too high
Oz, the Trump administration’s top official overseeing the Affordable Care Act, told NBC News that millions of people may be fraudulently enrolled or eligible for other types of coverage.
About 23 million people signed up for ACA coverage during this year’s open enrollment period, which ended in January, according to the latest data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s roughly 1.2 million to 1.3 million fewer sign-ups than last year. [...]
In a phone interview, Oz said some people enrolled in ACA plans should not be there and expects enrollment to fall further — to around 19 million.
“In fact, the fact that we have 23 million makes me think we have too many participants in the ACA,” Oz said. “It’s too high of a number.”
The truth is, as The Wall Street Journal reports, almost 10% of the people who got their health insurance through the ACA exchanges are no longer covered and many others have much higher costs which could lead them to drop coverage later:
Nearly one in 10 people who had Affordable Care Act plans last year dropped health insurance altogether, after premium costs rose sharply because of the expiration of federal subsidies, according to a new survey.
Most of those who remained in ACA plans reported larger out-of-pocket healthcare expenses in the form of higher copays, coinsurance or deductibles, according to the survey from health-research nonprofit KFF. About one-sixth of those who still have ACA coverage, or 17%, weren’t sure they would be able to afford their new premium payments for the entire year, indicating more people might drop insurance as the year goes on.
Links for a deeper dive on Episode #48
Dr. Rob’s interaction with Vice President Mike Pence in January 2020 is HERE
Reuters: Pope Leo calls universal healthcare a ‘moral imperative’
The New York Times: Judge Strikes Down Kennedy’s Vaccine Policies
NOTUS: RFK Jr.’s MAHA Allies Call to Eliminate All Childhood Vaccine Recommendations
MedPage Today: Republicans Fret Over RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaccine Policies While MAHA Moms Stew
STAT: White House says it’s ‘done’ with vaccines. MAHA begs to differ
POLITICO: ‘I share your outrage’: Democrats woo MAHA moms ahead of the midterms
The Washington Post: One-third of Americans skip meals or other needs to afford health care
NBC News: Dr. Oz says Obamacare enrollment may be ‘too high’
The Wall Street Journal: Millions of Americans Are Going Uninsured Following Expiration of ACA Subsidies
Sen. Peter Welch on X, Facebook, Threads, YouTube, and Bluesky
The New York Times: Trump Promised the ‘World’s Lowest’ Drug Prices. We Checked the Numbers.
Press Release: Welch, Durbin, Warren Sound Alarm on Launch of TrumpRx
When we first got Social Security, it was supposed to include a healthcare component. The Roosevelt administration did not think it could get through that session of Congress & expected it to happen the next year. The rest is history. Social insurance was introduced to the planet by Otto von Bismarck, hardly a pinko, seeking to ensure the domestic tranquility in the young German Empire with this rift on an idea by the Jewish jurist & social activist Ferdinand Lassalle which he, Bismarck, thought would inoculate Germany against socialism. This pivotal historical note is virtually never discussed by advocates for single payer health care.