| | | | |  | | By Chelsea Cirruzzo and Ben Leonard | | Presented by |  | | | With Robert King
| | |  Vice President Kamala Harris' views on abortion rights veer to the left of President Joe Biden's. | Stephen Maturen/AFP via Getty Images | HOW HARRIS STACKS UP ON HEALTH CARE — Vice President Kamala Harris, who said she intends to win the Democratic nomination after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign Sunday, has staked positions to the left of Biden on many health care issues, including abortion and insurance coverage. POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports on where Harris stands on some health care issues: Reproductive rights: When Harris ran for president in 2019, she advocated for federal abortion protections. Under her proposed system, states that have a record of curtailing abortion rights would have to seek preclearance from the Justice Department before enacting new laws affecting access to the procedure. Those laws would be legally unenforceable without preclearance from the federal agency — and would most certainly face court challenges. Abortions-rights advocates have quickly rallied behind Harris, endorsing her bid and praising her record. All, including EMILY’s List, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Reproductive Freedom for All, argued that Harris’ ability to speak bluntly and forcefully on abortion rights — and her record on the issue as California attorney general, senator and vice president — makes her stand out. Medicare for all: Harris signed onto Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill — which would eliminate private insurance and transfer everyone to a single-payer, government-run program — and introduced her own competing plan that would allow private plans to compete with public ones. She also cosponsored an array of more modest alternatives, including making it possible for more people to opt in to either Medicare or Medicaid. Harris’ all-of-the-above approach drew criticism from her primary rivals, including Sanders and Biden, with some accusing her of going too far, others not far enough and still others as inconsistent and untrustworthy. Biden’s campaign, which was then pushing a plan to expand Obamacare to include a public option, said Harris’ “have-it-every-which-way approach” showed “a refusal to be straight with the American middle class.” Cost of care: In her seven years as California attorney general, Harris repeatedly used legal tools to try to bring down the cost of health care, tackling anticompetitive behavior in the hospital, insurance and pharmaceutical industries. She also won multimillion-dollar settlements from major health care corporations like Quest Diagnostics and McKesson after whistleblowers filed lawsuits claiming fraud in the state’s Medicaid program. This record signals an interest not only in defending and building on the drug price negotiation framework enacted by Biden but also in using antitrust laws more aggressively to tackle consolidation in the health care sector. Lindsay Bealor Greenleaf, vice president and head of state and federal policy at consulting firm ADVI Health, whose clients include biopharmacy groups, told Pulse she will watch how Harris talks about the Inflation Reduction Act , which the vice president is likely to herald as an achievement of the Biden-Harris administration. “She has had very strong views on drug pricing. She pushed on march-in rights,” Greenleaf said, referring to an administration action to seize the patent of certain high-priced medicines. WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE. Our POLITICO politics team is keeping apprised of all election developments, and we’re also still watching how the CrowdStrike outage is impacting the health care industry. Let us know at ccirruzzo@politico.com and bleonard@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @_BenLeonard_.
| | | | A message from AFP’s Personal Option: I scream, you scream, we all scream for…a Personal Option in healthcare! The Personal Option is the healthcare plan that funds families and individuals, not insurance companies. It offers as many healthcare options as there are ice cream flavors, so Americans get the coverage they want at a price they can afford. And the cherry on top? More personal control of healthcare means lower costs for everyone. Get the scoop at PersonalOption.com. | | | | | | | 
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee, led by Rep. James Comer, will take on pharmacy benefit managers at a hearing Tuesday. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | PBMS RETURN TO HOUSE HOT SEAT — Several major pharmacy benefit managers are set to return to Capitol Hill for the first time since the Federal Trade Commission said earlier this month it would pursue new lawsuits against them, Robert reports. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on “anticompetitive practices” employed by PBMs, the middlemen who negotiate drug prices for insurers and large employers. Executives from the three biggest PBMs — CVS Caremark, OptumRx and Express Scripts — are expected to attend. “Information the committee has obtained shows spread pricing and rebates benefit PBMs and have helped the three largest PBMs monopolize the pharmaceutical market,” Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement. The hearing comes a few weeks after a report that the FTC is expected to file a lawsuit as early as this month against UnitedHealth Group, CVS and Cigna for using PBMs to steer patients toward higher-cost drugs. The FTC also recently issued a report that showed the biggest PBMs doled out nearly all prescriptions filled in the U.S. The agency criticized PBMs for using their market dominance to hike drug costs.
| | | | Live briefings, policy trackers, and procedural, industry, and people intelligence from POLITICO Pro Analysis gives you the insights you need to focus your policy strategy this election cycle. Secure your seat. | | | | | | | | | UNEVEN HIV PROGRESS — New worldwide HIV infections were at their lowest last year than at any point since the late 1980s, and deaths due to AIDS were at their lowest levels since 2004, according to a report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, POLITICO’s Carmen Paun writes. The U.N. report also found that most people who are HIV positive — nearly 31 million — were receiving antiretroviral treatment, which stops them from developing AIDS. Still, progress is uneven, the report cautions. For the first time in the HIV pandemic’s history, more new infections are occurring outside sub-Saharan Africa than in that region. HIV infections are rising in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa. Access to treatment in most of those regions was particularly low, according to the report. Globally, some 9.3 million people who are HIV-positive still weren’t receiving treatment in 2023. One in 8 HIV deaths last year were children 14 years old or under. Why it matters: The numbers show that the world isn’t on track to achieve the U.N.’s goal of eliminating HIV as a public health threat by 2030. What to watch: The U.N. worries that funding cuts and a rising push against human rights, particularly of LGBTQ+ groups, endanger the progress made so far. The total funding available for HIV last year — nearly $20 billion — dropped by 5 percent compared with 2022. While a fifth of it should be dedicated to prevention for populations most affected by HIV, just under 3 percent went toward key populations last year, the U.N. said. And as POLITICO reported, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in the U.S. plans to cut funding by more than 6 percent next year, which will also impact funds for key populations, with reductions ranging from 3 percent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to 29 percent in Burundi, according to preliminary figures.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, our newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRI | | | | | IT’S A CRUEL SUMMER WITH COVID — More than half the country has “high” or “very high” levels of Covid-19 in wastewater, according to the CDC. The latest update, posted Friday, shows 35 states and Washington with high levels, up from 26 states in the prior update. Wastewater surveillance is an early warning system into the prevalence of disease in a region, often before testing or health care visits. The uptick in viral activity in wastewater nationwide comes as cases rise in much of the U.S. As of July 13, the U.S. test positivity rate was 12.6 percent, a 1.2 percent rise from the prior week. President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid last week as did HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, among other Washington officials. CDC: TWO MORE AVIAN FLU CASES — Two more workers at Colorado egg-laying facility exposed to poultry infected with bird flu have tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of infections from the Colorado facility to six cases, the CDC said in a Friday update. Since April 2024, 10 people in the U.S. have had confirmed avian flu infections — four cases tied to dairy cows and six tied to poultry. To date, more than 1,570 people have been monitored after being exposed to infected or potentially infected animals, and at least 62 people with flu-like symptoms have been tested. The agency also released preliminary results from blood studies of Michigan workers exposed to infected dairy cattle. The investigation found that avian flu-specific antibodies weren’t found in the blood of 35 workers working with positive dairy herds.
| | | | A message from AFP’s Personal Option:   | | | | | The Associated Press reports on an unexpected finding in research into pig-organ transplants for people with meat allergies. STAT reports on new details into former President Trump’s gunshot wound following an assassination attempt.
| | | | A message from AFP’s Personal Option: No one goes to an ice cream shop advertising “One flavor!” Yet that’s how healthcare is for too many Americans. But Americans want healthcare like they want their ice cream – countless flavors and endless toppings at an affordable price.
A Personal Option gives Americans that kind of personal control over their healthcare. How? By expanding access to health savings accounts and direct primary care plans that cut out insurance company middlemen. Price transparency to end surprise billing. And better access to the doctors Americans trust.
Polls show the Personal Option is more popular than ice cream in July – okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But a majority of voters do support it over competing plans. Affordable healthcare shouldn’t be a rocky road. A Personal Option is like a “build your own sundae” bar – you get to do it your way. Get the scoop at PersonalOption.com. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
