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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 David Lim , Alice Miranda Ollstein and Krista Mahr | | | With Megan Messerly, Annette Choi and Katherine Ellen Foley It’s Wednesday. Welcome to Pulse. Your pinch hitter today laments the news that Juan Soto is no longer a member of the Washington Nationals. Send tips and feedback to David Lim ( dlim@politico.com or @davidalim ) and sympathy to Dave Martinez .
| | | | A message from PhRMA: “The slippery slope [of government price setting], once established, will get slipperier, & American drug innovation will be the poorer for it,” writes the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. When given a chance to stand with patients, Congress chooses to stand with insurers and middlemen. Government price setting will harm patients and threaten future treatments. Read more. | | | | | | | 
Protesters gather outside the Kansas state capitol in Topeka. | Alice Miranda Ollstein/POLITICO | KANSAS VOTERS BLOCK EFFORT TO ALLOW STATE TO BAN ABORTION — Abortion-rights forces scored an upset victory in Kansas on Tuesday when voters rejected an amendment that would have allowed the state legislature to ban the procedure, Alice reports from Overland Park, Kan. The vote, which comes just six weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, means Kansas will remain one of the few red states where abortion is legal. It also provides hope to abortion-rights supporters who are betting on ballot initiatives in other conservative states to restore or maintain access to the procedure. Turnout for the primary also soared above usual levels Tuesday and, in some counties, was closer to the participation usually seen in a presidential election. The in-person early vote, which tends to favor Democrats, was also nearly 250 percent higher than the last primary midterm election in 2018, when both Democrats and Republicans had competitive governors’ races, while the number of mail-in ballots was more than double. The results were also hailed by abortion-rights groups around the country, who see the defeat of the Kansas referendum as a blueprint for future efforts in cities and states across the country. The vote also countered the narrative that the abortion issue is a bigger motivator for conservative voters and may signal a warning to Republican lawmakers across the country that the Roe decision may generate considerable backlash over the coming months and years. The referendum’s result particularly shocked the state because the pro-amendment campaign had some structural advantages heading into Tuesday and they were ahead in recent polls. But leading up to Tuesday’s contest, there were signs that voters’ views on abortion were more nuanced than their partisan leanings. A July poll , for example, found that a third of voters favored no restrictions on abortion, while only 9 percent said they preferred a total ban. And a 2021 survey conducted by Fort Hays State University found that more than 50 percent of Kansans agreed with the statement: “The Kansas government should not place any regulations on the circumstances under which women can get abortions.” The decision means abortion clinics in the state can continue to serve not only Kansans but also patients from Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and other states that banned the procedure after Roe fell, many of whom have traveled to Kansas in recent weeks. “Reproductive freedom is a winning issue, now and in November,” NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju said in a statement. “Anti-choice lawmakers take note: The voters have spoken, and they will turn out at the ballot box to oppose efforts to restrict reproductive freedom.”
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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the DOJ has filed a lawsuit seeking to block Idaho's new restrictive abortion law. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CHALLENGES IDAHO TRIGGER BAN — The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Tuesday , arguing that Idaho's abortion ban violates EMTALA, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, and shouldn’t be allowed to take effect later this month. The suit represents the first attempt by federal officials to use the emergency health care law to challenge a state’s trigger ban. “Federal law is clear: patients have the right to stabilizing hospital emergency room care no matter where they live,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Women should not have to be near death to get care. The Department of Health and Human Services will continue its work with the Department of Justice to enforce federal law protecting access to health care, including abortions.” But Idaho Gov. Brad Little slammed the lawsuit , calling it “another example of Biden overreaching” and arguing that SCOTUS already “returned the issue of abortion to the states to regulate.” “I will continue to work with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to vigorously uphold state sovereignty and defend Idaho’s laws in the face of federal meddling,” Little said in a statement. BIDEN TO SIGN NEW ABORTION EXECUTIVE ORDER — President Joe Biden will sign an executive order today that aims to encourage states to use Section 1115 Medicaid waivers to enable providers to give reproductive health services to people traveling from states where abortion is illegal, among other actions. But the administration doesn't appear poised to declare a public health emergency soon. “In terms of the [Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act], again, we continue to look at any and all options,” a senior administration official told reporters. “One of the concerns we have about invoking the PREP Act is that we’re concerned that we might not be able to protect women and doctors from liability, including criminalization. So that's why we haven’t yet taken that action.”
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   | | | | | | DÉJÀ VU: SENATE PASSES BURN PIT BILL — On Tuesday, the Senate passed a sweeping expansion of veterans health care, sending it to Biden’s desk after GOP resistance held up the bill last week, POLITICO’s Anthony Adragna and Jordain Carney report . Lawmakers voted 86-11 to back the measure, which caps a yearslong quest to help veterans exposed to substances like Agent Orange and toxins from burn pits while on active duty. Republicans quickly fell in line behind the bill — after blocking it less than a week ago — after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer allowed three GOP amendment votes, all of which failed on the floor. PROGRESSIVES PUSH TO INCLUDE UNINSURED IN INSULIN PROPOSAL — House progressives are pushing House and Senate leadership to add provisions to insulin legislation to extend the $35 out-of-pocket cost cap to uninsured populations. Senate Democrats want the existing measure to be included in their larger reconciliation bill, but the parliamentarian still has yet to rule on the cap. “Inclusion of uninsured people in insulin pricing legislation will help prevent new racial health disparities resulting from this legislation, curb future deaths of Americans due to insulin rationing, and decrease the likelihood of diabetes complications,” members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Tri-Caucus wrote .
| | | | DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today . | | | | | | | | COVID LEVELS REMAIN HIGH — Covid-19 levels are at their highest levels since late winter, Annette reports. Currently, 46 percent of U.S. counties are classified as having high Covid-19 community levels.
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| BIDEN’S COUGH RETURNS — President Biden’s bout with Covid-19 isn’t yet over, but his vitals are normal and his lungs remain clear. “The President continues to feel well, though he is experiencing a bit of a return of a loose cough,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor wrote in a Tuesday memo . “This morning, his SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing remained positive.”
| | | FEEDBACK PERIOD ON MENTHOL CIGS, FLAVORED CIGARS REGS CLOSES — The deadline to submit comments to the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rules that would ban the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars closed yesterday, Katherine reports. “Few actions the [FDA] could take … would have as great an impact in preventing tobacco-caused mortality, avoiding suffering from tobacco addiction and disease, and reducing persistent and tragic health disparities in the U.S.,” said one comment jointly submitted on behalf of 103 public health, medical, education, civil rights and community organizations, including the American Medical Association and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. | | | HHS STUDY FINDS UNINSURED RATE AT ALL-TIME LOW — The federal health department is touting a new survey that found that the national uninsured rate dropped to 8 percent by the first quarter of 2022.
| | | MGMA ASKS FOR SURPRISE BILLING REGS IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD — The federal government should exercise enforcement discretion for at least six months following the publication of a final rule implementing requirements under the No Surprises Act, the Medical Group Management Association wrote Tuesday in a letter to Becerra and CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “The current environment of the healthcare industry does not lend itself to quick implementation of major policies,” wrote Anders Gilberg, MGMA senior vice president of government affairs . The government’s final rule, already delayed, was expected by the industry last Friday.
| | | The Biden administration named Federal Emergency Management Agency acting Administrator Robert Fenton to lead its monkeypox outbreak response. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Demetre Daskalakis will be deputy. Madeline Kroll Hodge is joining Walgreens as director of federal government relations. She previously worked at McDermottPlus and for Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). Samuel Bagenstos was formally sworn in by Becerra on Tuesday as general counsel of HHS .
| | | Cities are already lobbying to be the home of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, but the agency won’t likely be the economic boon they expect, STAT’s Lev Facher reports .
| | | | INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY . | | | | | | | | | A message from PhRMA: ICYMI: Democrats’ misguided drug pricing proposal will threaten patient access to medicines and future innovations – a dangerously “slippery slope,” according to a WSJ editorial. The majority of cancer R&D takes place after the initial approval of a medicine. For example, an FDA approved treatment for a type of skin cancer has since been approved for use in treating roughly 20 additional cancers. Government price setting jeopardizes critical innovation. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
