Congress

House Republicans Friday (May 15) blasted Democrats for slipping into their sweeping COVID-19 response package new language that creates a federal backstop to prevent insurer losses, saying the move shows the Democrats are about “corporations first.”

The White House said Thursday (May 14) that it would veto House Democrats’ $3 trillion COVID-19 response bill were it to somehow reach the president’s desk, citing among other reason the bill's failure to ensure that federal dollars would not go toward abortion.

Forty Democratic senators, led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), unveiled a resolution to urge the United States to get involved with global efforts to fund and develop COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, including the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi and the World Health Organization’s Solidarity clinical trial.

Members of the Senate health committee failed to get administration officials to commit to making COVID-19 drugs and vaccines affordable for everyone or to ensure their equitable distribution.

House Democrats’ latest pandemic response bill would make COVID-19 drugs and vaccines free for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and the privately insured, but it would do nothing to curb drug prices, and that omission bothers progressive Democrats and consumer and patient lobbyists.

The new COVID-19 relief package unveiled by House Democrats on Tuesday (May 12) would further boost federal matching funds for state Medicaid programs, temporarily increase payments to safety-net hospitals and bar CMS from finalizing tough new restrictions on Medicaid supplemental pay during the public health emergency.

House Democrats on Tuesday (May 12) unveiled a sweeping proposal for their second iteration of the CARES Act, dubbed the HEROES Act, which includes Medicare provisions that put a spotlight on nursing homes, including provisions that would create nursing home strike teams and incentivize nursing homes to create COVID-19-only facilities.

House Democrats’ $3 trillion coronavirus response bill unveiled Wednesday (May 12) would require HHS establish and promote an eight-week special enrollment period for healthcare.gov, would fully subsidize COBRA coverage, and would mandate that group and individual health plans provide COVID treatment cost-free to enrollees.

House Ways & Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-MA) called on CMS to slow down allowing hospitals and health systems to reopen for non-emergency services until facilities meet certain requirements.