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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 Daniel Payne and Krista Mahr | | | With help from Carmen Paun
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The World Health Organization wants to increase member countries' dues. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images | WILL GOVERNMENTS SHOW WHO THE MONEY? That’s the big question from supporters of the World Health Organization as its executive board starts a weeklong meeting in Geneva today. The board — comprised of 34 members, each representing a country and tasked with setting the WHO’s priorities — must bless a 20 percent increase in mandatory contributions from WHO member countries for 2024–2025. The agreement would be the first step in a plan approved last year to gradually hike countries’ dues to the WHO to eventually represent 50 percent of the global health body’s base program budget by 2031. That’s a 34 percentage point increase from the 2020–2021 budget. The decision to increase contributions came in the aftermath of the pandemic, which put pressure on the WHO to help the world fight the outbreak but showed its limits — in both money and power. Each country pays a membership fee to the WHO based on its gross domestic product. The 20 percent increase would see the United States pay an additional $33.2 million to the WHO by 2025, bringing its contribution to $252.5 million for 2024 and 2025, said Dana McLaughlin, a senior associate at the United Nations’ Foundation global health team. The one-fifth hike demanded would give the WHO some $1.14 billion in mandatory contributions from its member countries by 2025. But lobbyists and activists advocating for a stronger, better financed WHO are concerned that some countries could hesitate to pay the WHO more money as the war in Ukraine, inflation and fears of economic recession have strained their national budgets. “It is time for Member States to act on their commitment of providing the predictable and unearmarked funds that WHO needs to tackle current and future health challenges,” McLaughlin wrote in a WHO-funding analysis. WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE. Deer on the roadways are known to be dangerous, but you should also look out for pigs, according to insurance data. Stay safe out there. We want to hear from you — send story ideas and tips to dpayne@politico.com and kmahr@politico.com. TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, Ben Leonard talks with Katherine Ellen Foley about what we know and don't know about what the FDA has in mind for future Covid-19 vaccines.
| | | | | | | A message from PhRMA: Costly out-of-pocket expenses tied to deductible and coinsurance requirements are a leading concern for patients with commercial insurance. These harmful practices put in place by insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are even causing patients to abandon their medicines. New IQVIA data break down how insurers and their PBMs are impacting how patients access and afford their medicines. | | | | | | | 
Lawmakers are asking the White House for additional funding to support kidney research. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo | FIRST IN PULSE: REPS URGE BIDEN FOR MORE KIDNEY CARE FUNDING — In a bipartisan, bicameral letter, lawmakers urged the White House to include a boost in kidney care funding in its 2024 budget. The letter, from Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), along with Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.), asks for $25 million to invest in KidneyX, a partnership between HHS and the American Society of Nephrology to advance kidney care. “With more funding, KidneyX could expand the number of innovators it supports and accelerate the development of transformative technologies, particularly the artificial kidney,” the group said, adding the innovations could help reduce the nation’s kidney care costs — which include about $50 billion for treating kidney failure in Medicare patients. KidneyX, formalized in 2018, encourages innovation in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases, including working toward developing an artificial kidney. DOGGETT TO LEAD DEMS IN THE WAYS AND MEANS HEALTH SUBCOMMITTEE — Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) will serve as the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, POLITICO’s Ben Leonard reports. The announcement, from the full committee’s ranking member Richard Neal (D-Mass.), came with Doggett promising to continue “longstanding efforts to rein in Big Pharma monopoly prices for all Americans.” See the full list of Democrats in the subcommittee. DEMS’ E&C HEALTH SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS ANNOUNCED — On Friday, House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) announced the preliminary Democratic roster for the 118th Congress’ health subcommittee, POLITICO’s David Lim reports. The subcommittee’s Democrats will be led by ranking member Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who said the group would focus on “passing essential public health legislation to protect our nation’s biosecurity, provide low-cost community health care, improve pediatric and maternal health, support vital medical research and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid.” See the full list of Democrats in the subcommittee.
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | FIRST IN PULSE (II): PROTECT OUR CARE OUTLINES ITS 2023 AGENDA — Democrat-aligned health group Protect Our Care’s 2023 goals are coming into focus, with its agenda to be released today. That agenda, largely focused on lowering costs and increasing coverage, includes: — Making American Rescue Plan tax credits permanent — Applying insulin price caps to everyone, not just Medicare beneficiaries — Allowing Medicare-negotiated drug prices to be available to anyone — Improving health coverage for those in states without expanded Medicaid — Requiring postpartum coverage for Medicaid beneficiaries — Permanently authorizing the Children’s Health Insurance Program
| | | FDA PROPOSES NEW BLOOD DONATION POLICY FOR MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN — The FDA issued a draft policy Friday that proposes easing restrictions on blood donation from men who have sex with men. The policy is expected to be finalized in a way that would allow men who have sex with men to donate blood if they report in a questionnaire that they haven’t had sex with a new partner or multiple people in the past three months, in addition to other eligibility criteria. That’s a change from the existing policy, which required the MSM community to abstain from sex for three months before donating blood to mitigate the risk of HIV transmission. The move was praised by several groups, who said the updated policy would promote equality and uphold safety standards. Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, the LGBTQ advocacy group, said in a statement that the move would “ease historic discrimination against LGBTQ Americans, help alleviate the national blood shortage, and open the door for all eligible LGBTQ people to give blood and save lives.” Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, said in a statement that the updated policy “ends a long and painful era of blanket discrimination against gay men.” Kate Fry, CEO of America’s Blood Centers, said in a statement that the draft policy “maintains the safety of our nation’s blood supply while treating all donors with the fairness, equality, and respect they deserve.”
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   | | | | | | LOOKING FOR EU LAWS TO PREVENT DRUG SHORTAGES — Doctors and pharmacists have called on the European Commission to strengthen legislation to prevent future drug shortages amid patients, especially children, having difficulty getting common antibiotics, POLITICO’s Helen Collis reports. The shortages have been blamed on a surge in seasonal infections — and have led to provider groups pointing out the EU’s lack of power to prevent future shortages, even amid an expanded mandate for the European Medicines Agency.
| | | | JOIN TUESDAY TO HEAR FROM MAYORS AROUND AMERICA: 2022 brought in a new class of mayors leading “majority minority” cities, reshaping who is at the nation’s power tables and what their priorities are. Join POLITICO to hear from local leaders on how they’re responding to being tested by unequal Covid-19 outcomes, upticks in hate crimes, homelessness, lack of affordable housing, inflation and a potential recession. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | Ayoade Alakija has been named chair of FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics. Soumya Swaminathan and Malebona Precious Matsoso also joined the group’s board of directors. Jess Pavel is now director of global health advocacy for malaria at the U.N. Foundation. She most recently was senior health policy adviser for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
| | | The New York Times reviews the role of state constitutions in a post-Roe America. The Washington Post reports the DEA removed its Mexico director amid a misconduct probe — and as fentanyl boomed. Bill Gates argues in The Washington Post’s opinion pages that the progress made by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, proves a need to keep going.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Every day, patients at the pharmacy counter discover their commercial insurance coverage does not provide the level of access and affordability they need. New data from a study by IQVIA reveal the harmful practices of insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) can lead to significantly higher out-of-pocket costs for medicines — causing some patients to abandon their medicines completely. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
