politics
The times they are a-changin' (Republicans are calling for MA reform)
Ben Curtis/AP
Democrats in Congress have long pressed for an overhaul of the $500 billion Medicare Advantage program. On the other side of the aisle, the GOP has continually shown their support for privatized Medicare plans. But amid widespread evidence that health insurers are abusing the system, Republicans are increasingly calling for reforms.
"I thought Medicare Advantage was a good thing when it came out," Roger Marshall, a Republican senator from Kansas, said during a recent hearing. "But unfortunately, it's been manipulated." Read more from the Polk-award-winning Health Care's Colossus team on the shifting tides. And check out Tara Bannow's story on a study released Monday that shows the extent to which the biggest MA player, UnitedHealth Group, stands out from the rest for its prowess at raking in extra cash from that program.
There's also this: Health insurers that sell Medicare Advantage plans are going to get about $30 billion more in taxpayer money next year, STAT's Bob Herman reported yesterday. Read his story about the rule finalized by Medicare yesterday that would raise benchmark payment rates to privatized Medicare plans by 5.1% for 2026.
one big number
500,000
That's how many additional children could die from AIDS by 2030 if PEPFAR programming is reduced or eliminated, according to an analysis published today in The Lancet. The model — built using data from UNAIDS, UNICEF, World Bank, impact assessments, PEPFAR reports, PubMed, economic reports, original interviews, and more — also estimated that by 2030, an additional one million children could be infected with AIDS and additional 2.8 million could be orphaned by the disease. (PEPFAR, short for the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is a widely heralded international program launched in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush.)
It's a dire prediction, but similar to one made in 2023 by another group of researchers, who found that eliminating the program would lead to 601,000 HIV-related deaths in South Africa over 10 years. "The impact is huge, and the impact is immediate," Beatriz Grinsztejn, an HIV physician and researcher, told STAT's Drew Joseph when the Trump administration froze funding for the program.
A couple of hours after this was emailed to you, there will be a congressional hearing on PEPFAR held by the appropriations committee.
cuts
A unique pain research office eliminated in last week's purge
In today's RIF news: All but one out of a dozen full-time positions within the National Institutes of Health Office of Pain Policy and Planning were eliminated last week. Without this unit, which was devoted to coordinating pain-related research across the federal government, advocates worry that crucial projects related to both acute and chronic pain could grind to a halt.
Though the office was housed within the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, its work intersected with that of numerous other NIH institutes and federal agencies, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Cancer Institute, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Read more from STAT's Lev Facher.
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