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Presented by Humana: Delivered daily by 10 a.m., Pulse examines the latest news in health care politics and policy. | | | | |  | | By Daniel Payne and Krista Mahr | | | With Ben Leonard, Dan Goldberg and Daniel Lippman
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Sen. Ron Wyden is just one of several lawmakers pushing for mental health care provisions to be addressed in a year-end bill. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | MENTAL HEALTH HOPES — With another week of deal-making on the Hill ahead, one health issue is increasingly being discussed: mental health provisions. Republicans and Democrats alike told Ben and your host that mental health is a target to be included in an omnibus deal — and that conversations were ongoing last week. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told Pulse he looks to get his Mental Health Reauthorization Act of 2022 included in the package, and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) told Axios he was confident an addiction treatment package would be added as well. Several others, across parties, chambers and committees, have generally emphasized the need to address mental health in a year-end bill. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told Ben last week that his health staff is working on a mental health policy and they might have more details about the measures to share soon. Special interest groups also have asked leaders on the Hill to include a number of mental health provisions. Several provider groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association, sent a letter Friday to congressional leaders , asking for legislation that promotes the integration of primary care and mental health, boosts the behavioral health workforce and ensures parity in mental and other health coverage. And the American Hospital Association sent a recent letter to Congress, addressing mental health, asking leaders to strengthen the care workforce, loosen regulations for psychiatric facilities and change payment policies around behavioral health. Some of those asks are included in legislation introduced earlier this year — places congressional aides suggested looking to see where the conversation could go in the coming weeks. Earlier this year, senators introduced three bipartisan discussion drafts of legislation to tackle mental health, which suggested ways telehealth, Medicare and Medicaid could be leveraged in the future, among other things. And one House bill, the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022, overwhelmingly passed, though the Senate has yet to vote on it. WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE, where we want to know — with the U.S. out — who you’re rooting for in the World Cup. Send hopes, dreams, predictions (and tips about health news) to dpayne@politico.com and kmahr@politico.com .
| | A message from Humana: More than 28 million people choose Medicare Advantage. With Medicare Advantage, members can see better health outcomes at lower costs. That’s one of the reasons why nearly half of the total Medicare population chooses Medicare Advantage. Learn more. | | | TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST , Megan R. Wilson talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about Washington’s top pharmaceutical lobby, which is doing some self-reflection and commissioning a report that looks at its advocacy in the run-up to its most consequential legislative loss in decades.
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The CDC is sounding the alarm that too few Americans are getting their flu vaccinations this year. | Danny Johnston/AP Photo | AMERICANS REALLY NEED TO GET MORE FLU SHOTS — Today kicks off National Influenza Vaccination Week, and the CDC will double down on trying to get more Americans vaccinated as flu levels across the country are high , and hospitals remain under pressure, Krista reports. When flu started circulating earlier this year, the CDC noticed a drop in flu vaccine coverage rates among adults by millions of doses compared with the same time last year. Those numbers have increased in recent weeks, as indicated by the CDC’s flu map, which has become increasingly red. But, overall, the rates remain relatively low. By late October, just over 26 percent of adults 18 and older had received a flu shot. Other rates within certain groups have declined compared with last year: Among pregnant women, for instance, coverage has fallen 12 percent over last year and more than 20 percent since 2020. The vaccine is a good match this year with the virus that’s circulating, Erin Burns, associate director of communications for the CDC’s flu division, told POLITICO. The CDC has no definitive answer as to why fewer people are getting their flu shots. It could be a result of fewer cases of the flu in the last two years or general vaccine fatigue, she said. “We know it’s not a question of supply because there’s plenty of vaccine out there,” Burns said. So it’s on the demand side that we’re seeing and the reasons. … I think we can just speculate about what those are.” The CDC has partnered with the Ad Council , the AMA and other organizations to reach more Americans with their message to get a flu shot, placing emphasis on reaching Black and Hispanic communities, which have historically had lower flu vaccination rates and higher hospitalization rates .
| | | | GO INSIDE THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT: POLITICO is featuring a special edition of our “Future Pulse” newsletter at the 2022 Milken Institute Future of Health Summit from Dec. 6 to 8. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of health industry leaders and innovators solving the biggest global health issues to ensure a healthier, more resilient future for all. SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE . | | | | | | | | WHERE ANTI-ABORTION ADVOCATES GO NEXT — After a series of big wins in state legislatures this fall, Republicans intend to use their expanded power to further restrict abortions, POLITICO’s Megan Messerly reports. Come January, state legislators plan to work on new restrictions — even as a divided Congress is unlikely to pass substantial changes at the federal level. Adding additional restrictions to abortion medications and upping the penalties for doctors who break standing laws are among the changes Republicans in the new congresses are eyeing. The new policies could make it more difficult for people to get abortions, especially those in Southern states that still permit them, like Florida, North Carolina and Virginia — which have become havens of access in a region full of restrictions. Counter to the idea that Democrats’ unexpected midterm performance was fueled by a desire to protect abortion rights, many Republican state representatives have seen their victories as a reason to continue championing restrictions.
| | | | A message from Humana:   | | | | | | INDIANA ABORTION LAW IS BLOCKED, AGAIN — An Indiana Jewish group scored a victory for abortion rights Friday when a county judge agreed that the state’s new anti-abortion law violated their religious freedom rights under a law former Gov. Mike Pence signed in 2016, Dan reports. Hoosier Jews for Choice sued under the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, arguing that their religion compels them to abort a fetus to protect a pregnant person's physical and mental health in cases beyond what the new law allows. In August, Indiana passed a law that prohibits abortion except in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly or life endangerment. What changes: For now, nothing. The Indiana Supreme Court issued an order in October that allowed abortions to continue while it considered whether new restrictions violate the state’s constitution. But the order provides another vehicle for abortion proponents to challenge the law should their effort before the state’s high court fail. Why this matters: Marion County Judge Heather Welch dismissed the state’s argument that life begins at conception, noting that other state statutes did “not endow zygotes, embryos, and pre-viability fetuses with the legal status of human being. The Supreme Court already recognized in Hobby Lobby that the question of when life begins is a religious one that the State may not answer legislatively or as a factual matter,” she wrote. If that position is upheld, it could stop the state from prohibiting anyone who believes they have a religious obligation to help women obtain an abortion. A similar case is being considered in Florida . INDIANA JUDGE ALLOWS PROBE OF ABORTION DOC TO MOVE FORWARD — An Indiana judge on Friday ruled that state Attorney General Todd Rokita broke the law when he publicly discussed his investigation of Caitlin Bernard, the doctor who came to national attention this summer after she performed an abortion on a 10-year old rape victim from Ohio, Dan writes. But Marion County Judge Heather Welch declined to block the Republican attorney general from proceeding, saying she no longer had jurisdiction because the matter had been turned over to the state’s medical licensing board earlier in the week.
| | | | POLITICO APP USERS: UPGRADE YOUR APP BY DECEMBER 19! We recently upgraded the POLITICO app with a fresh look and improved features for easier access to POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Starting December 19, users will no longer have access to the previous version of the app. Update your app today to stay on top of essential political news, insights, and analysis from the best journalists in the business. UPDATE iOS APP – UPDATE ANDROID APP . | | | | | | | | COVID’S HOLD ON XI — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s future standing might depend on protests against his government’s pandemic lockdowns, a top U.S. intelligence official said Sunday. Avril Haines, the U.S. director of National Intelligence, said the demonstrations countered the government’s pandemic narrative, POLITICO’s America Hernandez reports . “How it develops will be important to Xi’s standing,” Haines said. But it’s “not something we see as being a threat to stability at this moment or regime change or anything like that,” she added. The comments come as several cities in China have begun loosening Covid restrictions, POLITICO’s Hanne Cokelaere reports . The rules, largely dictating testing and quarantine requirements, led to a wave of historic protests. Now, some cities are closing Covid testing stations, dropping requirements for negative tests to use public transit, parks or supermarkets.
| | | Karen Comfort has been hired as the deputy assistant secretary for equity, diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for the Department of Health and Human Services. She most recently was chief employee experience officer at the Department of Agriculture.
| | | POLITICO’s Connor O’Brien and Bryan Bender report that a coming law could overturn the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate. A new analysis from the Annenberg Public Policy Center explores the undying myth of suicides being linked to the holiday season. The Washington Post’s Fenit Nirappil and Jacqueline Dupree write about the rise in Covid hospitalizations after Thanksgiving.
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