BECERRA’S FINAL ACT — During the unveiling of his official portrait on Tuesday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, who will soon depart the agency, highlighted the record number of people who have signed up for health insurance since he took the helm of the sprawling agency — and President Joe Biden’s role in it, Chelsea reports. “There have never been more Americans in the history of the United States who have had access to a health care plan, to a doctor, to a hospital, than under this president,” Becerra said. In an interview with POLITICO, he credited his tenure with leaving “America stronger and healthier than we found it.” Over the past four years, Becerra played a role in some central issues of Biden’s presidency: Covid-19, the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the implementation of legislation tasking Medicare with negotiating drug prices. Still, in each case, Becerra played a supporting role while Biden and the White House took the lead. On Covid: The pandemic defined the first year of Becerra’s tenure at HHS. To POLITICO, the outgoing HHS secretary insisted it was tough to fight social media disinformation on vaccines, but said his department “overachieved” with the resources it had. He carefully sidestepped directly addressing misinformation spread by his potential successor, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to replace him. “I certainly hope that if Americans recognize that loved ones are alive today because of the lifesaving treatments made available to them, in some cases, without cost, like vaccines,” he said. “I hope people recognize that their children should get vaccinated for everything from chicken pox to polio.” On abortion: In Becerra’s words, when it came to protecting reproductive health care, “everywhere we were given a chance to take a swing, we have swung.” And the blame for the fall of Roe, he lays firmly at the feet of the U.S. Supreme Court. “We have done everything in our power to protect a woman's access to health care. I can't say the same for six people on the Supreme Court,” he said. But HHS’ handling of migrant children was a low point. His early difficulties in managing the influx at the southern border in 2021 cost him influence in the White House, government officials who spoke with POLITICO in 2021 said. What’s next? Before Becerra leaves his role, HHS is expected to propose lowering nicotine in tobacco products. Becerra also hinted that he “would love” his department to negotiate lower prescription drug prices following a first round of drug price negotiation. Becerra has remained coy on what his plans are after HHS, though as POLITICO has reported he's had conversations about running for California governor. WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE. I’m Carmen Paun, POLITICO’s global health reporter. I call today the Super-Wednesday, with no less than seven (!) nomination hearings in the Senate. What will you be watching for? Let me know at cpaun@politico.com or on X @carmenpaun.
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