Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
With Shutdown In Rearview Mirror, ACA Subsidies Are A Priority. Or Not.
President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paychecks, stranded scores of travelers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks. The shutdown magnified partisan divisions in Washington as Trump took unprecedented unilateral actions including canceling projects and trying to fire federal workers to pressure Democrats into relenting on their demands. (Freking, Cappelletti and Brown, 11/13)
What happens next?
Popular THC-infused drinks and edibles may disappear from store shelves in the next year as Congress is on the verge of passing a ban on nearly all hemp-derived THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, products. Tucked into the Senate-passed government funding bill is a provision that would recriminalize many of the intoxicating hemp-derived products that were legalized by the 2018 farm bill.(Weixel, 11/12)
House Democratic leaders introduceda discharge petitionWednesday designed to force consideration of legislation to extend expiring ObamaCare subsidies for another three years. Behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the Democrats are hoping to entice a handful of moderate Republicans to endorse the petition, which will require 218 signatures to force a floor vote on the legislation over the objections of Republican leaders. (Lillis, 11/12)
President Donald Trumps Domestic Policy Council and senior health officials have been meeting privately for preliminary conversations on how to address the expiration of health insurance tax credits, according to a White House official and another person familiar with the talks. (Haslett, Messerly and Ward, 11/13)
Republicans are proposing a substitute to the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that Democrats want to extend, taking their cue from President Trumps demands. But even some opponents to the Democrats plan are wary of what Republicans are working on.(Wilkerson, 11/13)
On SNAP and hunger
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, said in an email Wednesday that funds could be available upon the government reopening, within 24 hours for most states. The department didnt immediately answer questions about where it might take longer or whether the 24-hour timeline applies to when money would be available to states or loaded onto debit cards used by beneficiaries. (Mulvihill, 11/12)
Food assistance workers said the restoration of food assistance can't come soon enough as they struggle to fill in the gap left behind by SNAP. Cyndi Kirkhart, executive director at Facing Hunger Food Bank, said she's been working at the food bank for 11 years and has never seen the surge in people she is seeing now, and that it is higher than what she saw during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Kekatos, 11/13)
On the open plains of the Fort Peck Reservation, Robert Magnan leaned out the window of his truck, set a rifle against the door frame and then pop! a bison tumbled dead in its tracks. Magnan and a co-worker shot two more bison, also known as buffalo, and quickly field dressed the animals before carting them off for processing into ground beef and cuts of meat for distribution to members of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in northern Montana. (Brown, Lee Brewer and Schafer, 11/13)
