| | | | |  | | By Chelsea Cirruzzo and Ben Leonard | Presented by the Coalition to Protect America's Health Care | With Carmen Paun and Alice Miranda Ollstein
| | |  President Joe Biden is stepping up his reelection campaign by touting his new executive actions to improve access to contraception and abortion. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | BIDEN MARKS ROE ANNIVERSARY — President Joe Biden is hammering his message on reproductive freedom this week with executive actions, a new campaign ad and a campaign rally on the same day as the New Hampshire primary, Alice reports. It’s a preview of a broader election-year strategy to frame the 2024 race as a choice between Democrats who’ll protect abortion and contraception and Republicans who have called for further restrictions. Republicans “continue to push for a national ban and devastating new restrictions,” Biden said in a statement marking the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The Biden strategy. The ad released Sunday features a Texas OB-GYN forced to travel out of state to terminate her wanted but nonviable pregnancy. Today, the White House announced a series of executive actions to improve access to abortion and contraception. On Tuesday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will speak at a rally in Virginia on the stakes of the election for reproductive rights. Former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee, takes credit for appointing the judges who overturned Roe v. Wade and is supported by anti-abortion groups despite refusing to commit to a national ban and supporting exceptions for rape and incest and to protect the life of the mother. His former VP, Mike Pence, speaking Saturday at an annual anti-abortion conference hosted by the group Students for Life, said the next president should immediately “pull the abortion pill off the market.” The administration’s actions. One executive order launches a program to educate patients and doctors about their rights under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known as EMTALA. It includes an easier way for patients to submit a complaint when denied an abortion during an emergency and a beefed-up team at HHS to review the complaints and bring hospitals into compliance. The Biden administration has recently faced criticism for not doing more in response to the EMTALA complaints it’s already received. The administration will also release guidance requiring insurers to cover a broader range of contraceptives at no cost under the Affordable Care Act — a step Democrats on Capitol Hill have been demanding. The Office of Personnel Management will also send that guidance to insurers who cover federal workers and require them to educate enrollees about their rights and benefits. Still to come: Biden administration officials signaled on a call with reporters Friday that more executive actions are on the horizon, including a final rule to strengthen privacy protections under HIPAA for people who terminate a pregnancy. WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE. The American Society of Anesthesiologists said “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Annemarie Wiley misrepresented her medical credentials in a recent episode when talking about her training as a nurse anesthesiologist. Wiley posted on Instagram that she does not “condone the ASA’s defamation campaign.” Send your favorite reality shows and also your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and bleonard@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @_BenLeonard_.
| | | | A message from the Coalition to Protect America's Health Care: Cutting Hospital Care Hurts Patients. Period. https://actnow.protecthealthcare.org/a/no-cuts-to-care | | | | | | | 
After successful pilot programs, the malaria vaccine Mosquirix will be distributed today in Cameroon with more countries to follow this year. | Patrick Meinhardt/Getty Images | MALARIA VACCINE ROLLOUT BEGINS — The first malaria vaccination campaign outside of clinical trials and pilots starts in Cameroon today — marking what many people hope will be a turning point in the prevention of the deadly parasitic disease, one of the biggest killers of children globally, Carmen reports. Twenty African countries plan to introduce Mosquirix, GSK’s RTS,S vaccine, this year. Since Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, shipped the first doses in November, local health leaders have been preparing to integrate the four-dose vaccine into clinical practice. That included health care worker training, infrastructure investments, vaccine storage and community engagement, POLITICO’s Helen Collis reports. The vaccine supply will be tight, as GSK can supply only 18 million doses through 2025 for a dozen countries. But a second malaria vaccine, R21, developed at Oxford University and endorsed by the World Health Organization in December, is expected to arrive in Africa later this year in far higher volumes and at a lower price, which will help expand access.
| | | | JOIN 1/31 FOR A TALK ON THE RACE TO SOLVE ALZHEIMER’S: Breakthrough drugs and treatments are giving new hope for slowing neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and ALS. But if that progress slows, the societal and economic cost to the U.S. could be high. Join POLITICO, alongside lawmakers, official and experts, on Jan. 31 to discuss a path forward for better collaboration among health systems, industry and government. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | THERANOS FOUNDER BARRED — Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, serving 11 years for wire fraud at the now-defunct company, has been barred from participating in federal health programs for 90 years, HHS’ Office of Inspector General announced Friday. The HHS OIG is required by law to ban individuals and entities from participating in federal health programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, if they’ve been convicted of certain types of criminal offenses, including Medicare or Medicaid fraud, patient abuse and felony convictions of health care-related fraud. Those banned can’t receive reimbursement under federal health programs for any services or items they provide. Theranos former president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, also serving time for his role in fraud at the company, previously received a 90-year ban from HHS. Background: Holmes and Balwani were charged with defrauding investors and patients by falsely claiming they had created technology at Theranos that could run clinical tests with a single drop of blood. According to HHS, the statutory minimum based on convictions like Holmes’ is five years but “certain aggravating factors,” including the length of time during which she committed the crime, warranted an extended period.
| | | | A message from the Coalition to Protect America's Health Care:   | | | | | A SCIENTIFIC READ INTO CANNABIS — HHS’ review of the health benefits of cannabis doesn’t answer all questions about its use, but it’s thorough and could open the door to further research, two scientists told POLITICO’s Natalie Fertig and Mona Zhang. What the science says: HHS earlier this month released an unredacted copy of the agency’s scientific review of cannabis, which led it to recommend moving the drug from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. That’s because the review concluded that some evidence supports marijuana’s medicinal benefits. Jacob Borodovsky, a senior research scientist at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, says the review is detailed in looking into its potential for abuse, public health risks and pharmacological effects — but leaves out a topic that’s getting more attention: the impact of marijuana use on psychosis. “This report wasn’t about cannabis and mental health,” he said. “So I can’t really blame them for not including that.” Staci Gruber, director of the marijuana investigations for neuroscientific discovery program at Harvard’s McLean Hospital, said moving cannabis to Schedule III would make some things easier for the type of research she does but not as much as allowing scientists to study products sold in state-legal dispensaries would. “From a research perspective, that has been one of the greatest challenges,” Gruber explained. “We don't have the ability to legally study the products that these [people] are actually using. When you’re trying to do an actual randomized controlled clinical trial. … That’s a problem.”
| | | | Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of new episodes – click here. | | | | | | | | | Beth Connolly has joined Winning Strategies Washington as a senior principal. She was assistant director of the Office of Public Health within the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy.
| | POLITICO’s Arek Sarkissian reports on worries that a new Florida proposal would allow people to report doctors for performing abortions. The Washington Post reports on an artificial intelligence model that could detect alcohol use before surgery. NBC News reports on a rise in cervical cancer among young women.
| | | | A message from the Coalition to Protect America's Health Care: Hospitals provide critical care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They treat sicker patients. They’re better equipped to handle complications. They care for anyone, regardless of their ability to pay. And they provide vital capacity during public health emergencies and disasters.
Yet the same corporate insurance companies that bank record profits by often delaying and denying Americans’ care are pushing Congress to slash hospital care — and patients will pay the price.
Learn more about how cuts to hospital care will hurt patients. https://actnow.protecthealthcare.org/a/no-cuts-to-care | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
