Weekly Healthcare Policy Round-Up

In this week’s Health Policy Round-Up, ALF shares the most up to date news happening in Washington DC.

• Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on May 14 discussing programs within HHS, clinical trials, and structural changes at HHS. ALF will continue monitoring changes within HHS and the potential effect on liver patients.

• As a result of ALF’s joint advocacy efforts over the past few years to improve the transportation for organs, on May 12^th, The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sent the U.S. Transportation Secretary a report about improving the process for human organ transport on commercial airlines. The report required that the agency establish a working group to address perceived regulatory barriers and develop best practices for the transportation of organs in the passenger cabin on commercial airlines. Two of the recommendations from the working group directed at FAA have been implemented. Read more about FAA and organ transportation here.  

• On May 14^th, Energy and Commerce Committee advanced the health care section of the tax bill that includes Medicaid changes that cut spending by $625 billion. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates 8.6 million people would go uninsured. The bill now heads to the House Budget Committee, to combine it with legislation from other committees advancing policy priorities.