Healthcare
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is headed to Austin on Thursday to speak in favor of expanded health benefits for Texans.
She’ll host an event with U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at one of the offices for Foundation Communities, a local nonprofit providing housing and health care services to Texans in need.
Austin, T.X. – Tomorrow, Thursday, September 2, at 2:30 PM, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Chair of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, will hold a press conference in Austin to highlight Democrats’ priorities in the forthcoming Build Back Better Act that will strengthen health care access for Texas families. This includes coverage for those denied Medicaid expansion, more affordable ACA Marketplace insurance, additional Medicare benefits, and lower prescription drug prices.
Prospects for Medicare expansion are further complicated by a price tag that could exceed $350 billion over a decade and surpass the cost of other health priorities under discussion.
Older Americans would see their health coverage expanded as part of the $3.5 trillion budget plan approved by the House on Tuesday.
Hospital and doctors’ groups successfully lobbied to save Covid-19 relief money earmarked for their members, while pharmaceutical companies are expected to lose billions of dollars as part of a bipartisan infrastructure deal struck yesterday.
Three years ago, Congress directed the Department of Defense to take steps to lower the cost of medicines discovered with the help of federal funding, but eventually cost Americans substantially more than what is paid in other countries.
ON TAP
— CDC vaccine advisers balk at recommending Covid shot boosters while supporting continued availability of Johnson & Johnson’s shot.
— House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders want answers from FDA about the status of foreign inspections of drug manufacturing facilities.
Washington, D.C. – Just now, U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Chair of the House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee, joined by over 30 Members of Congress, introduced the Close the Medigap Act to prohibit discriminatory pricing and coverage denials for patients seeking supplemental Medigap coverage. Nearly 13 million Medicare beneficiaries purchase supplemental Medigap policies to help reduce out-of-pocket costs and provide benefits not currently covered by Medicare.
When COVID-19 began spreading in the U.S. in March 2020, McKale Santin was working at a nursing home in Burlington, Vermont.