Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:Republicans Are Downplaying Abortion, But It Keeps Coming Up
For generations, the GOP campaigned on eliminating the right to an abortion in the United States. Now, torn between a base that wants more restrictions on reproductive health care and a moderate majority that does not, it seems many Republicans would rather take an off-ramp than a victory lap. And yet, they just can’t escape talking about it. The policy high point for abortion opponents — the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to strike down Roe v. Wade — is proving a low point for public support for their cause. (Rovner, 6/28)
KFF Health News:$2 Million Disbursed To Victims And Community Groups In Wake Of Super Bowl Mass Shooting
Surprised. Blessed. Overwhelmed. Already gone. Those were reactions from some of the 20 gunshot victims from the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shootings who were awarded $1.2 million from the #KCStrong fund on Thursday, with individuals receiving payments ranging from $22,000 to $100,000. (Lowe and Sable-Smith, 6/28)
KFF Health News:Supreme Court Upends Purdue Pharma Opioid Settlement
In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled that the Sackler family cannot be shielded from future claims through Purdue’s bankruptcy. Since the case was first heard, victims of the opioid crisis and recovery advocates have been split on the desired outcome. Some wanted the bankruptcy deal to go through so that settlement money could start flowing and fund urgently needed addiction services. Others said it would be unacceptable to allow the Sacklers to evade responsibility for their actions. (Pattani, 6/27)
Reuters:US Supreme Court Purdue Ruling Makes Mass Litigation Tougher To Resolve In Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy may become a less attractive way to resolve sprawling lawsuits after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling scuttled OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's Chapter 11 settlement and sharply scaled back a court's ability to wipe away legal claims against entities that have not filed for bankruptcy themselves. Bankruptcy courts offer several attractive tools for companies and other organizations to settle mass tort litigation, which have been used in cases involving claims of widespread sexual abuse against Catholic dioceses and the Boy Scouts of America, the marketing and sale of addictive opioid painkillers, and that consumer products cause cancer. (Knauth, 6/27)
Stat:Upending Purdue Pharma’s Settlement Does Little To Help Today’s Opioid Crisis, Advocates Say
The drug policy world has been left torn by the Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday that Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy deal could not move forward if it included legal protections for the company’s billionaire owners. In one camp are those who were eager to see the agreed-upon $6 billion settlement put to work preventing and treating opioid addiction. In the other are those who found the prospect of shielding the Sackler family from civil lawsuits to be indefensible. (Facher, 6/28)
Reuters:UnitedHealth's Optum To Pay $20 Mln Over US Claims It Ignored Opioid 'Red Flags'
UnitedHealth Group's OptumRx pharmacy benefit manager unit has agreed to pay $20 million to settle claims by U.S. authorities that it improperly filled certain opioid prescriptions, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Thursday. The settlement appeared to be the first reached by the government with a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) over allegedly illicit opioid prescriptions. (Pierson, 6/27)
Reuters:US Charges 193 People In $2.75 Billion Health Care Fraud Bust
The U.S. Justice Department has criminally charged 193 people, including 76 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, with participating in health care fraud schemes worth $2.75 billion, the agency said on Thursday. The two-week operation ensnared defendants accused of illegally distributing millions of pills of the stimulant Adderall. (6/27)
The Hill:Democrats Vow To Make Abortion Protections Top Priority If Given House Majority
House Democrats are vowing to make abortion protections among their first acts of business next year if voters return them to power in November’s elections.The lawmakers are warning that keeping the GOP in control of the House —especially if Republicans take the Senate and White House — would lead to tougher restrictions on not only abortions, but also contraception, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and stem cell research.(Lillis, 6/27)
The Hill:Biden, Top Aides Praise Idaho Abortion Ruling
President Biden and top administration officials welcomed a Supreme Court ruling that will require Idaho hospitals that receive federal funding to provide emergency abortions while the case is being litigated, even as the president and his campaign warned of broader efforts by Republicans to restrict the procedure. (Samuels, 6/27)
The Hill:Justice Jackson Dissents On Supreme Court's Idaho Abortion Ruling
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson slammed her Supreme Court colleagues for punting a decision about Idaho’s strict abortion ban Thursday, saying in a charged dissent that the court has failed pregnant women in the state.Forcefully reading her dissent from the bench, Jackson said the ruling was “not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho,” even though doctors will be allowed to provide emergency abortions as the case is litigated in lower courts. (Weixel, 6/27)
The Wall Street Journal:Abortions To Save Mothers’ Lives Are An Agonizing Call For Doctors
For two years, doctors in more than a dozen states where abortion is restricted have faced an agonizing calculus.When has a pregnant woman’s medical condition deteriorated enough to qualify for an abortion under state law? And at what point might doctors compromise their medical duty to help a patient by not performing an abortion sooner? (Calfas and McKay, 6/27)
CIDRAP:Reminders—But Not Free Rides—Boost COVID-19 Booster Uptake
Nature has published a large study showing that text message reminders to receive a COVID-19 booster worked to increase vaccine uptake, but that offering free rides to pharmacies did not.The study was based on outcomes seen among 3.66 million CVS Pharmacy patients in the United States who were offered free round-trip Lyft rides via text to CVS Pharmacies for vaccination appointments andreceived seven differentsets of behaviorally informed vaccine reminder messages.(Soucheray, 6/27)
Stat:Biden, Trump Spar Over Medicare, Abortion In Presidential Debate
For the most part, substantive debates on health policy between President Biden and former President Trump were overshadowed by mistakes, errors, and blatant falsehoods in Thursday night’s presidential debate. Biden had difficulty articulating his accomplishments in office and points of contrast with Trump on health care. Trump misrepresented how federal programs work, inflated policies in his tenure, and simply evaded some questions. (Zhang and Owermohle, 6/27)
The Hill:Donald Trump Says He Will Not Block Access To Mifepristone
Former President Trump said Thursday he would not block access to the abortion pill mifepristone if he returned to the White House. “The Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill, and I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it,” Trump said during the CNN presidential debate in Atlanta when asked if he would block abortion medication. (Vakil, 6/27)
Stat:Trump, Biden Don't Mention Addiction Treatment In Debate
President Biden and former President Trump were each given the chance on Thursday to speak to a kitchen-table issue plaguing the nation: the addiction and drug overdose epidemic claiming over 110,000 American lives each year.One word was conspicuously absent from both of their answers: “treatment.”(Facher, 6/27)
Stat:Biden's Supreme Court Abortion Wins Could Be Short Lived
The Supreme Court this month handed President Biden a pair of wins on abortion rights — but they could be short-lived. The court made two major decisions about abortion that preserved or expanded access to reproductive health care for now, but teed up an even sharper debate about reproductive rights that will play out in November’s elections. (Owermohle, 6/27)
Stat:House Panel Passes Bills To Expand Medicare Obesity Drug Coverage, Cancer Screening
A House committee overwhelmingly passed four bills on Thursday that would expand Medicare coverage of obesity drugs and cancer screening blood tests and place guardrails around Medicare’s discretion in covering drugs and devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (Zhang, Wilkerson and Lawrence, 6/27)
Reuters:US FDA Declines To Approve Merck-Daiichi's 'Guided Missile' Cancer Drug
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve Merck (MRK.N) and Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo's (4568.T) lung cancer treatment, which belongs to a lucrative class of cancer therapies that work like "guided missiles". The FDA cited findings from an inspection of a third-party manufacturing facility in its so-called complete response letter, the companies said late on Wednesday. (6/27)
Stat:Blind Employee Sues VA Over Its New EHR From Oracle
A blind employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs is suing the federal agency on grounds that their new electronic health records system makes it impossible for her to do her job. (Broderick, 6/28)
Politico:Privacy Bill Vote Scrapped
Republicans can’t agree on whether to move forward with House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ bill to set a national data privacy standard. ... Why it matters: The measure would have significant ramifications for companies that collect data related to customers’ health. It would restrict how firms can use the data and require them to get customers’ consent before sharing it. (Schumaker, Paun, Payne, Reader and Odejimi, 6/27)
CIDRAP:USDA Spells Out Financial Assistance To Offset H5N1-Linked Milk Losses
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced more details about a program to compensate dairy farmers for H5N1 avian flu-related milk losses, including that it will start accepting applications on July 1. In a statement, the USDA said it is offering the assistance through an update to its Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-raised Fish Program (ELAP). The change will reimburse a portion of financial losses when cattle are removed from milking herds due to confirmed H5N1 test results. (Schnirring, 6/27)
Stat:Prenuvo To Launch Clinical Trial To Evaluate Whole-Body MRI Scans
A startup selling elective whole-body scans for upward of $1,000 is launching a 10-year, 100,000 person study to attempt to settle doubts within the medical community about its value and potential consequences. (Ravindranath, 6/27)
The Wall Street Journal:GSK Shares Slump After CDC Narrows Age Recommendation For RSV Shots
GSK shares plunged after U.S. health officials narrowed their recommendation of respiratory syncytial virus vaccines to a smaller age range and more at-risk patients, which could affect sales of GSK’s RSV vaccine, Arexvy. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said late Wednesday that it now recommends the shots for individuals ages 60 to 74 with heightened risk of severe RSV due to underlying medical conditions, in addition to all those 75 and older. (Smolak, 6/27)
Reuters:Eisai And Biogen Launch Alzheimer's Drug Leqembi In China
Eisai and Biogen have launched their Alzheimer's treatment Leqembi in China, the third country after the United States and Japan, the companies said on Friday. Leqembi, which works by removing a toxic protein called beta amyloid from the brain, is the first Alzheimer's treatment proven to alter the course of the fatal, brain-wasting disease. (6/28)
The Hill:DeSantis Says Florida Won't Comply With Surgeon General's Gun Violence Advisory
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said his state will not comply with the Surgeon General’s newly issued public health advisory on gun violence, calling the move “unconstitutional” in a post on the social platform X on Wednesday. “We will not comply,” DeSantis wrote. “Florida will always reject the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional power grabs.” (Teshome, 6/27)
Health News Florida:DeSantis Vetoes Bill On Control Of Beach, Pool Closures Over Water Quality
Citing concerns of superseding control of local authorities, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have required the Department of Health to close beaches, waterways and swimming pools if needed because of poor water quality. (Mayer, 6/27)
Central Florida Public Media:Florida’s Dengue Travel Cases Exceed This Year’s Expectations, Data Show
Travel-related cases of dengue for June have exceeded what was expected for the year, according to the Florida Department of Health. “The dengue cases concern me,” said Steve Harrison, manager of Orange County Mosquito Control. “I don’t think the public needs to be overconcerned right now, but dengue is on my radar.” (Pedersen, 6/27)
Newsweek:Delaware Warning Over Deadly Disease-Carrying Bugs: 'Wake-Up Call'
Scientists have issued a warning after a resident in New Castle County, Delaware, spotted a large insect on their pillow that was found to be carrying a potentially deadly parasite. Three months later, the same resident found another specimen of the same species, raising concerns about the prevalence of these insects on North America. (Dewan, 6/27)
