Quite a Friday! Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona shook up the Senate a bit by announcing that she’s leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent. The change means that the 51-49 edge Democrats had figured to have in the next Congress will be somewhat less secure — and it could signal that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), the centrist who held tremendous power over Senate action the past two years, will again have outsize sway.
Adding to the day’s drama, Brazil got knocked out of the World Cup by a feisty Croatian team that came from behind to tie the match in extra time before winning in a penalty shootout. Then Argentina gave up a 2-0 lead before salvaging a nail-biter of a win over the Netherlands in another penalty shootout.
Here’s what else popped up on our radar:
Final House Covid Report Slams ‘Reckless’ Trump Administration Pandemic Response
After more than two years of investigation, the Democratic-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released its final report Friday, shining a harsh light on the federal government’s response to Covid-19.
The committee, chaired by Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), accuses the Trump White House of “failed stewardship over the pandemic response,” saying the administration showed a “persistent pattern of political interference” that undermined the nation’s public health capabilities. "The Trump Administration’s reckless pandemic response resulted in devastating and lasting harm," the report says.
Among other problems, the Trump administration failed to change its approach to the crisis as expert understanding of the virus improved. It also failed to coordinate the efforts of health officials, reducing the effectiveness of the federal response.
The 218-page report blames former president Donald Trump personally for the politicization of the federal Covid response, which it says contributed to the spread of misinformation that ultimately cost thousands of lives:
The report also faults the Trump administration’s economic relief efforts during the pandemic. “Poor implementation and oversight of federal aid programs, combined with unscrupulous private actors, led to significant waste, fraud, and abuse and a less effective pandemic response,” the report says.
Republicans reject the report’s findings: Steve Scalise (R-LA), the ranking member on the committee, said the report was purely political, citing conservative theories that fell outside the analysis. “Democrats refused to investigate after we exposed the Biden White House manipulating the science to allow a radical teachers union to rewrite CDC guidance so they could make it easier to shut down schools,” Scalise said. “They refused to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and efforts by Dr. [Anthony] Fauci to downplay the Wuhan lab leak theory.”
Senate report also faults Trump response, public health system: In a separate report released Thursday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs provided its own analysis of the crisis, which also finds extensive fault with the Trump administration’s response, as well as with the nation’s public health system more broadly.
Among its many findings, the 242-page report says the U.S. failed for years to invest sufficiently in public health infrastructure, resulting in “inadequate, antiquated, and fragmented” surveillance and production systems. Once the crisis arrived, government communications were “inconsistent and sometimes contradictory,” delaying a coherent response.
"The suffering that was caused by the pandemic" was "not inevitable," committee chair Gary Peters (D-MI) said. "We could have handled this situation a whole lot differently."
What comes next? Both reports provide extensive recommendations for how to improve the federal government’s preparation for and response to the next crisis. Those recommendations include increasing investment in public health infrastructure such as testing and surveillance; better defining lines of authority and communication within the federal government; and boosting domestic productive capacities for essential medical equipment.
“The coronavirus crisis will not be the last public health emergency or economic crisis that we confront,” Clyburn warned.
Numbers of the Week: 18 Million and 3.8 Million
If the public health emergency declaration for the Covid-19 pandemic is allowed to expire in April 2023, 18 million people will lose Medicaid coverage over the following 14 months, according to an estimate published this week by the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The new estimate is 2 million higher than one released in March.
Of those 18 million, about 3.2 million children are expected to switch over to Children’s Health Insurance Program plans and about 9.5 million are expected to transition to employer-sponsored insurance (some may have already been covered by their workplaces). More than 1 million others are expected to enroll in the Obamacare individual insurance market, with most eligible for subsidized coverage.
But here’s the most critical number: About 3.8 million people will become uninsured, according to the report. (Of those, about 40% of those newly uninsured would be eligible for premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act but may not enroll because they’d face higher premiums or because of other barriers to enrollment, the report says.) Nineteen states are projected to see their uninsured rates jump by 20% or more: Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.
If the public health emergency is extended for another 90 days, the report forecasts that the number of people losing Medicaid will rise to nearly 19 million.
How Much More Will Covid-19 Vaccines Cost After Federal Funds Run Out?
The federal government has spent more than $30 billion on Covid-19 vaccines. Now as government funds that provide free Covid-19 shots dry up, pharmaceutical firms are preparing to sell the drugs on a commercial basis, raising the question of how much — or, to be precise, how much more —future vaccination efforts will cost consumers and the overall health care system.
Analysts at the Kaiser Family Foundation tackled that question in a new report estimating how much manufacturers are expected to charge for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, based on their sales to the federal government so far and any announcements they have made about future pricing.
The federal government so far has bought 655 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 566 million doses from Moderna for a combined total of 1.2 billion shots, according to the report. The cost of those vaccines: $25.3 billion, or a weighted average of $20.69 per dose.
That cost is set to rise significantly. The analysts note that the federal government underwrote the cost of developing the vaccines while creating a guaranteed market for drugmakers, who now plan to raise prices. “While the commercial prices for COVID-19 vaccines are not yet known, both Pfizer and Moderna have signaled likely ranges that are three to four times greater than the pre-purchased federal price for the bivalent booster,” they write.
The analysts looked at different scenarios for future vaccination efforts, in which the price per dose was low ($96) or high ($115), and uptake was low (25% of all adults vaccinated), medium (50%) or high (100%). The result, not surprisingly, was greater overall cost. “Even under much lower vaccine uptake scenarios (e.g., 50% of adults getting a booster), the total cost to purchase COVID vaccines at the commercial price would still exceed the cost of purchasing enough vaccines for everyone at the federal bivalent booster price,” the analysts say.
While most people would still have access to vaccines at reduced prices negotiated by the insurance providers, the uninsured would face greater costs, as would the health care system overall. “For private insurers and their enrollees, these costs could have an upward effect on premiums,” the analysts say.
The bottom line: “On a per-dose basis, the cost to continue to vaccinate adults in the U.S. against COVID-19 after federally purchased doses are depleted is likely to be significantly higher than the costs borne in the past by the federal government,” the analysts say. While the numbers are still uncertain, it seems a good bet that the U.S. health care system will end up bearing a heavier burden for vaccines in the future as prices rise.
News
- Parties Play Chicken on Omnibus as Shutdown Deadline Approaches – Roll Call
- Thin House Majorities, Current and Future, Color Spending Talks – Roll Call
- Yellen Sees Rising Risk of Stimulus Fraud Without Funding Fix From Congress – Bloomberg
- Dems’ Final Covid Report Slams Government Failures. Congress May Repeat Them – Politico
- House COVID Panel Accuses Trump Administration of Exacerbating the Pandemic in its Final Report – The Hill
- US Producer Prices Top Estimates, Supporting Fed Hikes Into 2023 – Bloomberg
- Labor Costs Point to Corporate Profit as Main Inflation Driver – The Hill
- House Republicans Brace for Doomsday Scenario if McCarthy Falls Short of 218 Votes for Speaker – CNN
- Seven Hard-Line House Republicans Lay Out Speaker Demands Amid McCarthy Opposition – The Hill
- Senate Democrats Gear Up for Battle With Corporate America – The Hill
- House GOP’s Help-Wanted Sign: One Border Funding Chief – Politico
- BofA Chief Moynihan Says He Likes His Job, Hasn’t Focused on Yellen’s – Bloomberg
- Hospitals in the US Are the Fullest They’ve Been Throughout the Pandemic – but It’s Not Just Covid – CNN
- Group Leading Covax Decides ‘in Principle’ to End Vaccine-Sharing Initiative – Washington Post
- Biden’s Pause on Payments Has Been Better for These Students Than Forgiveness – CNN
- Employers Estimate Health Benefits Costs Will Rise 5.4% Next Year: Mercer – Fierce Healthcare
Views and Analysis
- Repeal of Military Vaccine Mandate Shows Changing Pandemic Politics – Nathaniel Weixel, The Hill
- Providers Ramp Up Their Lobbying Game to Avert Medicare Cuts – Rachel Roubein, Washington Post
- A Loan Forgiveness Emergency? The Supreme Court Takes Up Biden’s Trumpy Plan – Ruth Marcus, Washington Post
- Finally, a Much-Needed Glimmer of Hope for the Opioid Crisis – Jim Crotty, The Hill
- Manchin’s Energy-Permit Plan Can Still Be Salvaged – Karl W. Smith, Bloomberg
- Republicans, It’s Okay Not to Thank Biden for Bringing Down Gas Prices – Paul Waldman, Washington Post
- How America’s Trains Nearly Went Off the Rails – Peter Coy, New York Times
- Three Signals We’ve Entered a New Economic Era – Ezra Klein, New York Times (podcast)