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Presented by PhRMA: Delivered daily by 10 a.m., Pulse examines the latest news in health care politics and policy. | | | | |  | | By Krista Mahr and Sarah Owermohle | | | With help from Daniel Lippman Editor’s Note: POLITICO Pulse is a free version of POLITICO Pro Health Care's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our s each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
| | | —New ways to bolster women’s reproductive rights are coming into focus after POLITICO published a Supreme Court's draft opinion that could overturn Roe v. Wade. — The White House set to ask countries to give more to the global Covid-19 fight at a summit this week, though it currently has no new pledges to offer. —Rare hepatitis cases in kids continue to crop up in the U.S., as CDC officials try to figure out what’s causing them. WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE — We were all in for first lady Jill Biden's surprise trip on Mother's Day to show her support to her counterpart Olena Zelenska in Ukraine, where the U.N. says 90 percent of the displaced people are women and children. Send news and tips to kmahr@politico.com and sowermohle@politico.com.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: New data show that 35% of insured Americans spent more on out-of-pocket costs than they could afford in the past month. Read more about how insurance is leaving patients exposed to deepening inequities. | | | | | | | 
Online abortion providers are seeing a surge of interest. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo | NEW FRONTLINES IN THE ABORTION RIGHTS BATTLE — A new raft of action designed to to protect the right to abortion has emerged in the very long week since POLITICO first published a Supreme Court draft opinion indicating a majority of court’s judges had voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Patients are turning to onlne providers, which have seen a surge in requests for abortion pills and consulation queries about the drugs, reports POLITICO’s Ben Leonard. The interest is coming both from states poised to limit abortion access if the court overturns Roe, like Texas and Florida, and from states like California, where officials have pledged to keep abortion rights intact. Traffic on online abortion site Plan C went from about 2,300 the day before the draft opinion published to 56,000 two days later. The number of daily visitors to Aid Access, an Austria-based telemedicine group that provides the drugs from pharmacies in India, rose from about 1,300 the day of publication to more than 38,000 on Tuesday. Democratic attorneys general are also pitching themselves to voters as the last line of defense in states where abortion rights will come under threat, writes Alice Miranda Ollstein. With the possibility that abortion rights could, in a matter of weeks, be an issue left to the states, AG candidates running in red and purple states are pledging not to prosecute whatever bans their governors and legislatures approve. While the power of attorneys general varies widely, all could play a role in how dozens of often vaguely worded abortion bans are interpreted and enforced. In some states, for instance, the attorney general can intervene to stop local prosecutors from filing criminal charges against doctors and people who terminate a pregnancy. Where that’s not possible, they can put out guidance that defense attorneys in those cases can use and advise against prosecuting people for having or assisting with an abortion. Birth control makers have also jumped into the fray, reports Lauren Gardner. Pharmaceutical companies HRA Pharma and Cadence have been working for years with the Food and Drug Administration to get their birth control pills authorized for over-the-counter use and are now approaching the task with fresh urgency. HRA Pharma expects to seek over-the-counter status for its drug, Hana, later this year; Cadence is still a couple years away. Reaction on the Hill to the companies’ efforts is, unsurprisingly, mixed. Democratic lawmakers are pressuring the FDA to move quickly once the applications are submitted, while conservatives are working to restrict access to contraception.
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NOT A GOOD LOOK FOR BIDEN AHEAD OF COVID SUMMIT — The White House is set to ask the world to give more cash to the global Covid response at a summit it’s hosting this week, despite not having new money of its own to offer, write POLITICO’s Daniel Payne, Erin Banco and Carmen Paun.
Last month, Congress failed to approve $5 billion in additional funding that would have helped low-income countries ramp up stagnant vaccination rates. Administration officials subsequently wondered whether it was wise to move ahead with the summit if the U.S. didn’t have significant pledges to announce, according to people familiar with the matter. The lack of additional money weakens Washington’s ability to ask countries to do more, officials acknowledge, but the summit is seen as key to keep momentum going as much of the world loses focus on the pandemic. SCIENTISTS SCRAMBLE TO DIAGNOSE RARE AND SEVERE HEPATITIS IN KIDS — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is investigating more than 100 cases in which children in the U.S. developed a rare type of hepatitis of unknown cause, Krista reports. Five of the children died, 14 percent had to have liver transplants and almost all of the children were hospitalized. The agency launched the investigation after a cluster of nine pediatric hepatitis cases of unknown cause was reported last fall in Alabama. In more than half of the cases under investigation, the children also had adenovirus infections, a common virus usually associated with the colds, vomiting and diarrhea in kids. It typically, however, only leads to hepatitis in immunocompromised children. Most of the children whose cases the CDC is looking at were healthy when they got sick. Covid-19 has not been ruled out as a possible cause. The U.S. cases join more than 200 others across the world that the World Health Organization has also reported, with at least one death.
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Ashish Jha warns of winter surge without more Covid-19 aid from Congress. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | IN D.C. AND NYC, THE MIXED SIGNALS CONTINUE — White House Covid-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha said on Sunday that the U.S. is likely to see another winter virus surge, POLITICO’s Hannah Farrow reports, after the White House officials told news outlets that as many 100 million Americans could become infected without additional funding. Jha said on ABC’s “This Week” that given Americans’ waning immunity and the virus’ continuing evolution, the nation still needs the $22.5 billion in Covid-19 aid for testing and vaccines that Congress has so far failed to pass. Infections and hospitalizations have been on the rise for the last month, according to the CDC, with more than 97,000 cases reported on May 6. Public health experts agree that given the slowdown in testing and state reporting, as well as the increased use of at-home tests, the current numbers don’t reflect the real amount of virus circulating in the country. Anthony Fauci is frustrated that Americans are treating the pandemic as if it's over, privately criticizing the decision to hold the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last weekend, POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn reports. Fauci, who declined to attend, questioned why so many felt comfortable gathering indoors as cases have been rising in the Washington area. Jha, who attended the dinner, said earlier he didn’t think events like the WHCD needed to be canceled. Meanwhile in New York … Gov. Kathy Hochul has tested positive, reports Bill Mahoney, as cases in her state have nearly doubled in a week. But NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who also recently tested positive, said on Friday he was “not there yet” on imposing new mitigation measures in the city after it moved into “medium risk alert level” last week, according to Erin Durkin. Under the city’s guidelines, entering the medium alert level means government officials should consider reimposing a vaccine mandate for indoor dining and entertainment and a mask requirement in schools.
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   | | | | | | THE DANGEROUS LINK BETWEEN COVID AND AMR — The Covid pandemic is amplifying another public health problem: the chronic overutilization of antibiotics to treat infections that may or may not be caused by bacteria, writes POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner. The CDC warned providers last month not to prescribe antibiotics to Covid patients who don’t have a bacterial infection, after finding nearly a third of Medicare beneficiaries were prescribed the drugs early in the pandemic. Azithromycin — commonly known as the Z-Pak — was the most prescribed antibiotic. Overprescription of antibiotics is driving antimicrobial resistance, also known as antibiotic resistance, in the U.S. and the world, a problem WHO says is one of the greatest health threats to humanity. SHORTAGE OF RARE INFANT FORMULA AFTER PLANT SHUTDOWN — The closure of an infant formula plant in Michigan has rattled parents of children with rare medical conditions who need the rare formula produced there, POLITICO’s Helena Bottemiller Evich reports. The Abbott Nutrition plant in Sturgis, Mich., was the major supplier of specialty formulas that are a lifeline for thousands of people with medical conditions, including metabolic, allergic and gastrointestinal disorders, which can make eating regular foods impossible or even dangerous. The plant has been effectively shut down since mid-February after FDA inspectors investigated the facility in response to complaints that four infants who had consumed formula made there had been hospitalized with a rare bacterial infection. Two of the infants died.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | Lisa Steelman is now national executive director for state strategies and growth at Aetna Medicaid. She most recently was principal consultant at Lisa Steelman Enterprises. Henry Rodriguez has left the White House, where he was assistant director for strategic health and cancer science for the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He has returned to the National Cancer Institute, where he is founding director of the Office of Cancer Clinical Proteomics Research.
| | | This moving story in The Washington Post about mother and daughter reunited makes a powerful argument for one D.C. non-profit’s approach to securing housing for homeless people first, and then working on their medical, mental health, and addiction needs. After the death of two Ohio State University students this week, health officials warned that fake adderall pills circulating could contain fentanyl, reports The New York Times. CNN's What Matters newsletter talks to epidemiologist Syra Madad about the White House's dire winter surge predictions without Congressional financial intervention.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: According to data just released, insurance isn't working for too many patients. Despite paying premiums each month, Americans continue to face insurmountable affordability and access issues:
- Roughly half (49%) of insured patients who take prescription medicines report facing insurance barriers like prior authorization and “fail first” when trying to access their medicines.
- More than a third (35%) of insured Americans report spending more in out-of-pocket costs in the last 30 days than they could afford.
Americans need better coverage that puts patients first. Read more in PhRMA’s latest Patient Experience Survey. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
