The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) advocacy team monitors healthcare related legislation, rule changes, and legislative updates for Ohio’s family physicians.
To access the OAFP Bill Tracker, visit the OAFP Public Policy webpage and click on the Bill Tracker icon.
Read on for this week’s updates and contact Advocacy Coordinator Kaela Springhetti with questions or for ways to get involved.
U.S. House Passes Budget Blueprint, Paving Way for Potential Medicaid Cuts
Source: Health Policy Institute of Ohio
The U.S. House recently narrowly adopted a Republican budget blueprint for slashing taxes and government spending, after hardline conservatives concerned that it would balloon the nation’s debt ended a revolt that had threatened to derail President Trump’s domestic agenda.
Approval of the plan allows Republican leaders to move forward with crafting major legislation to enact a huge tax cut, financed with deep reductions in spending on federal programs, and pushing it through Congress over Democratic opposition.
Republican Representative Chip Roy of Texas said in a lengthy statement that he had “reluctantly voted” for the measure only after receiving promises from Trump and party leaders that their budget legislation would include deep cuts to federal entitlement programs, including “a minimum of $1 trillion in real reductions in mandatory spending.” He said that President Trump had committed to “fully repeal” President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act as part of the plan, and to implement reforms to Medicaid “addressing eligibility, waste, fraud, abuse, and the disastrous money laundering schemes pervasive in the program.”
The Health Policy Institute of Ohio (HPIO) recently released the brief Policy Considerations: The Future of Group VIII (expansion) Medicaid Coverage in Ohio. The publication provides data and information on the status of Medicaid expansion in Ohio and includes a series of policy considerations for state and federal leaders.
In the coming weeks, the HPIO plans to release additional resources to assist policymakers who are evaluating options related to Medicaid coverage in Ohio. HPIO also recently released the latest edition of its biennial Ohio Medicaid Basics publication, which provides an overview of the Ohio Medicaid program, including eligibility, covered services, spending, and recent policy changes.
Columbus Leaders Committed to Keeping Fluoride in Water Despite Efforts to Remove it
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
Columbus, OH, leaders say they support continuing to add fluoride to the local drinking water as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., takes aim at the practice.
Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther told The Columbus Dispatch (The Dispatch) he trusts Columbus Health Commissioner Mysheika Roberts, MD, MPH, over Secretary Kennedy on public health decisions.
“We still believe in health and science,” Mayor Ginther said.
Dr. Roberts told The Dispatch that she supports adding fluoride, a naturally occurring mineral, to drinking water. The decades-old practice is so effective at reducing cavities, Dr. Roberts points out, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) named it one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.
“Fluoride keeps our teeth strong and reduces cavities by about 25% in both children and adults,” Dr. Roberts said. “And as a result of having fewer cavities, there’s less pain, fewer fillings, fewer teeth extractions, and fewer missed days of work and school. I don’t think people quite understand, because fluoridation has been around for so long, how beneficial it is because most of us have never been in the world without fluoridation in the water.”
Read the full article in The Dispatch.
Trump Administration Nearing Pharma Tariffs Plan
Source: The Hill
The Trump Administration recently took a step toward enacting its aims to tariff pharmaceutical imports, disclosing plans to carry out an investigation into the effects on national security of importing certain pharmaceuticals.
The U.S. Department of Commerce in a Federal Register notice said the probe, known as a Section 232 investigation, began April 1, the day before President Trump announced widespread tariffs on all imported goods but specifically exempted pharmaceuticals.
According to the notice, the investigation “includes both finished generic and non-generic drug products, medical countermeasures, critical inputs such as active pharmaceutical ingredients and key starting materials, and derivative products of those items.”
This investigation is a likely prelude to Trump’s tariffs to come.
Section 232 investigations allow the president to restrict imports deemed a threat to national security. President Trump last week said he will impose “a major tariff” on prescription drug imports in the coming weeks.
A typical investigation takes 270 days before a report is given to the president, but public comments on the notice are due just three weeks from the official Wednesday, April 16, publication date, an indication the investigation will move much quicker.
Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs has put the industry on edge, with experts warning the plan could disrupt global supply chains.
“Our concern is actually less about price increases because [of] the tariffs and more about generic manufacturers dropping out of the market,” which would exacerbate existing shortages, Tom Kraus, vice president of government relations for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, told The Hill.
“While that impacts the profitability of a branded drug, for a generic drug, if it pushes them over the line to no longer being profitable, they may just drop out of the market, and then we have a shortage.”