The Senate will still have a very small majority in 2023, but it will have some new curveballs, including HELP Chairman Bernie Sanders and the Republican House opposite the Capitol.
- That may not sound like a recipe for many health policy measures, but here’s what we’re hearing about areas that senators are at least trying to do.
1. PBMs. Action against PBM is perhaps the most likely issue given the bipartisan and bicameral interest in targeting all possible roles involved in patients’ high drug costs.
- Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden told Axios before lawmakers left for vacation that “controlling middlemen and costs” will be a priority for healthcare in 2023.
- “I know someone who I think will work with us in the House,” Wyden said.
- He didn’t go into details of what he wanted to do, but in the past he suggested C-through methodThis includes transparency requirements regarding rebates received by PBMs, requiring PBMs to pass on a minimum percentage of rebates to health insurance.
2. Nurse shortage. Bill Cassidy, a ranking member of the incoming HELP committee, previously stated: told Axios He wants to work with Sanders on the nurse shortage. Now Sanders is paying back the interest.
what they say: Sanders told Axios that he could “absolutely” work with Cassidy on a “catastrophic crisis” in nursing.
- “States are spending a lot of money on traveling nurses rather than building their own workforce,” Sanders said. Looking forward to it. [workforce].”
- Details of the agreement are less clear.Saunders Proposed Although it increased funding for nursing education through the Nurse Co-op program, Cassidy did not commit to providing more funding, saying she wanted to look at the issue first.
Sanders wasn’t ready to speak About the progressive cause he is known for. For example, when he asked if he was going to call pharmaceutical executives to testify, he refused to discuss his subject further.
- “It’s a little premature to talk about it,” he said.
3. Equality in mental healthWyden said he was pushing for insurance companies to be able to cover mental health on the same level as physical health. has become stricter To draw bipartisan attention to the issue.
- Some lobbyists previously believed that a bipartisan Finance Committee working group on the issue would not issue any recommendations. actually did in early December.
- The recommendations were modest, such as calling for a GAO study, and did not include larger measures opposed by the insurance industry, such as financial penalties for insurers found to be violating parity laws.
- Asked if he would push for new financial penalties, Wyden said he would “keep all options open,” but that what he called “ghost networks” without enough mental health providers ” No way,” he claimed.
4. Cost. “I think next year we have an opportunity to make real reforms in the area of cost containment,” Wyden said, adding that the cap on out-of-pocket insulin costs for people with private insurance would be “at the top of the list.” listed in
- Reality check: the idea had a hard time To get a lot of Republican support, and supporters couldn’t put it on the omnibus last month.
asked hospital pricesis receiving Increased scrutiny In addition to drug prices, his goal list reads:
- Cassidy told reporters that “prescription drug costs” were a priority, but declined to elaborate.he has commonly suggested Small-scale, bipartisan ideas such as speeding up approval of generic drugs compared to the Democrats’ more drastic New Drug Pricing Act.
To the point: There are many unknowns about the new year, including how chaotic the House will be and how much Sanders will prioritize progressive causes over bipartisanism.
- But now that big-ticket partisan agendas like repeal of Obamacare and Medicare drug deals are either dead for now or have already passed, it’s at least possible for Congress to find a somewhat narrower area of health policy to address.
