Discontinued: A flu vaccination campaign got pulled by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It is off the air and the website was taken offline and now directs users to older information and not the new campaign (“Wild to Mild”.)

1 in 5. Did you know that 1 in 5 people in the United States has Medicaid? The Trump Administration wants to introduce tax cuts and that will likely require spending cuts. If they don’t want to cut defense then healthcare is a likely target with Medicaid top of the list. Kaiser Family Foundation released an analysis that found that 20 million people could become uninsured if the federal match (90%) went back to their traditional (pre-Affordable Care Act) rates. The proposal is estimated to save $1.9 trillion dollars over 10 years.

Pressing Pause. Over the years I’ve joked that our elementary school had the best science fair because the National Institutes of Health (NIH) borders our neighborhood. Today that connection makes the news of the day a lot more personal. Add in the number of friends who are professors and researchers at various institutions around the country and I’ve been worried about the future of innovation this country. Students are leaving programs, changing their minds about careers because of the uncertainty.

Was glad to STAT covering it. Also appreciated the grant review/Federal Register angle. If you didn’t know, hundreds of hours of work go into each of these grant review session – maybe thousands when you consider the time writing the grants. Hopefully it is a pause and not a poof gone.

Pain in the Wallet. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine how policy changes could address financial toxicity for accelerated approval drugs. Suggestions including additional information so that patients could understand that the benefits of the drug are still being studied, government intervention in pricing and drug price review boards.