Read today’s Kaiser Health News
In other news:
Supreme Court upholds Affordable Care Act’s preventive care mandate: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a portion of the Affordable Care Act that requires health plans to provide free preventive care such as screenings for cancer and HIV.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices ruled against a Christian-owned business and individuals who objected to being forced to offer medications intended to prevent the spread of HIV among people at risk. The plaintiffs contend the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment administered to prevent infections, “encourage and facilitate homosexual behavior” in conflict with their religious beliefs.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices—Legal Roles, Challenges, and Guardrails An excellent review. For example: What stops the DHHS secretary from simply disbanding the ACIP and replacing its recommendations with his own? Typically, disbanding an agency-created advisory committee would be within the authority of that agency’s leadership. But a decision to dissolve the ACIP would be complicated by the fact that Congress has repeatedly and explicitly assigned it statutory roles.
Republicans are dealt a setback on their big bill as Senate referee disqualifies key provisions: Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who adjudicates procedural disputes between the two parties, has disqualified several provisions, including Medicaid rules prohibiting funds without verification of immigration status, reimbursement changes to contracts with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), provider tax restrictions aimed at saving federal dollars, and new limitations surrounding eligibility for Affordable Care Act funding.
The disqualified provisions total from $200 billion to $300 billion in savings over a decade, said Matthew Fiedler, an expert in health care policy and economics at the Brookings Institution.
About health insurance/insurers
What 8 recent studies found about Medicare Advantage Great summary
Different Data Source, But Same Results: Most Adults Subject to Medicaid Work Requirements Are Working or Face Barriers to Work See Fig.1 for a summary.
Medicare Advantage Plan Disenrollment: Beneficiaries Cite Access, Cost, And Quality Among Reasons For Leaving: Enrollees’ self-reported inability to access and receive high-quality care, more than perceived burdens of out-of-pocket costs, was associated with MA plan disenrollment, as was an objective measure of plan generosity. Difficulty accessing needed medical care was more strongly associated with MA-to–traditional Medicare exits than MA-to-MA plan switching. Dissatisfaction with access, cost, and quality was much more common for enrollees in poor health. These findings renew concerns about access to high-quality care for high-risk and other MA enrollees.
How Likely Are You to Have an Extended Long-Term Care Need?: Data on long-term-care usage suggests that the majority of people will need long-term care in their lifetimes. A research brief from the Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 56% of Americans turning 65 are likely to develop a condition requiring long-term care. Other studies have pegged the lifetime risk of needing long-term care as high as 70%.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
2025 Impact of Change Forecast From sG2: 2025 Impact of Change Forecast Key Takeaways
The 2025 Impact of Change Forecast provides 10-year projections for anticipated shifts in sites of care delivery across the nation, including:
Outpatient (OP) care patient volumes projected to grow 18%
Inpatient (IP) care patient discharges to grow 5%
Pediatric OP volume growth forecasted at 8%
Cancer OP volumes expected to grow 18%, while IP remains flat
GLP-1s will contribute to slowing growth in IP discharges for type 2 diabetes patients to 8%
Post-Acute Care to grow 31%
About the public’s health
4 in 5 Americans support childhood vaccine requirements, poll finds: A poll released today shows that 79% of US adults support requiring children to be vaccinated against preventable infectious diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella to attend school, with even two thirds of Republicans and those who support the "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement agreeing with such measures.
The poll of 2,509 adults, conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation, also found that, among the 21% who don't support school vaccine mandates, their reasoning focused more on parental choice than on safety concerns.
Vaccine experts reject new RFK Jr.-backed federal panel, urge use of past guidance: The Infectious Disease Society of America is telling its members they should use the vaccination schedule recommended by the previous iteration of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory council because the new federal advisory group's recommendations "can't be trusted," according to the group's president, a Northwestern Medicine immunization expert.
IDSA President Dr. Tina Tan said this afternoon she expects a coalition of health care groups including her organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association would soon provide further guidance, likely later on this summer, on what vaccines should be administered and at what doses.