Latest news with #VernBuchanan
Politico
6 days ago
- Health
- Politico
Dems: Medicaid cuts complicate health AI dreams
WASHINGTON WATCH House Republicans and Democrats clashed during a Ways and Means Health Subcommittee hearing Wednesday over how to fund and advance the use of digital health technologies. 'We live in a time where Americans have access to better technology and more health information than ever to truly be the 'CEO of their health,'' subcommittee Chair Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said, noting that despite high spending on health care, Americans are getting sicker. Digital health tools and artificial intelligence are central to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s strategy to cure chronic disease and reduce costs. But Democrats warned that the GOP's proposed Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump's megabill could hamper the adoption of AI and other innovations in health care. 'I'm a bit in the twilight light zone. At the same time that we're here talking about this issue, my colleagues on the other side just passed a bill that would effectively take away health care for 16 million Americans,' said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.). At the heart of the disagreement is cost. 'People cannot take advantage of technological advances in health care if they do not have health insurance coverage or face insurmountable financial barriers to health care services,' said Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. For health systems, that means less revenue to invest in innovative technologies, especially ones with no or low reimbursement rates. A few ideas that were floated: — The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should set reimbursement rates for some digital technologies and raise the rates for technology that's already reimbursed. — Congress should expand tax-advantaged health savings accounts so Americans can use them to buy health and fitness wearables like WHOOP bands and Oura Rings. — Lawmakers should consider the impact Medicaid cuts would have on doctors' ability to implement AI. What's next: Republicans have waffled on whether to include an expansion of health savings accounts in the 'Big Beautiful Bill' because they'll add to the budget. But Senate Republicans are feeling pressure from their House counterparts to keep them in. WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Life science company Verily is re-upping its work on the research platform that powers All of Us, a NIH-funded, big data project that seeks to understand risk factors for disease, better treatments, and how technology can help make people healthier. The contract with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, one of the NIH's key partners on the program, is for the next five years. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Danny Nguyen at dnguyen@ Carmen Paun at cpaun@ Ruth Reader at rreader@ or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@ Want to share a tip securely? Message us on Signal: Dannyn516.70, CarmenP.82, RuthReader.02 or ErinSchumaker.01. CONNECTING THE DOTS Federal agencies developed or used more than 2,000 artificial intelligence tools or programs in 2024, according to an analysis by POLITICO's Rosmery Izaguirre. Agencies reported that, in about 16 percent of use cases, their tools or programs posed safety concerns or had the potential to infringe on users' civil rights or rights to data or privacy. The Department of Health and Human Services reported the highest total number of AI use cases among its agencies, with four use cases presenting rights or safety concerns. The Justice Department reported the second-highest number of AI use cases, with 124 use cases presenting concerns, and the Department of Veterans Affairs reported the third-highest number of AI use cases with 145 use cases presenting concerns. The Trump administration is poised to expand AI use across federal agencies. In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order rescinding Biden-era legislation that promoted a more cautious approach to developing and testing use cases for AI. In an April memo, the Trump administration set its own disclosure requirements for agencies using AI, repealing the previous administration's conditions. Several rules were rescinded, including those related to rights and safety reporting, but the requirement for agencies to track and report their use of AI was maintained. What's next for HHS: AI is used widely across HHS, from analyzing big public health datasets and detecting health trends to more rote tasks like summarizing documents. But not all of the departments' AI efforts are rolling out smoothly. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration deployed a general-use chatbot to shorten reviews throughout the agency. But two current and two former agency employees granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters told POLITICO that the bot isn't capable of meaningfully reducing review time.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GOP Eyes Pharma Tax Hike, Nixing Drug Price Deal for Trump Bill
(Bloomberg) -- House Republicans are considering nixing a Medicaid drug pricing plan floated by President Donald Trump and fiercely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry as the party pushes to strike a massive tax and spending deal in the coming days. Is Trump's Plan to Reopen the Notorious Alcatraz Prison Realistic? Vail to Borrow Muni Debt to Ease Ski Resort Town Housing Crunch Iceland Plans for a More Volcanic Future As Trump Reshapes Housing Policy, Renters Face Rollback of Rights But drugmakers may not be totally off the hook. Lawmakers have separately discussed eliminating a tax deduction for pharmaceutical advertising, Representative Vern Buchanan, the chairman of the House tax committee's health subcommittee, said Thursday. It's unclear whether that provision will be in the final tax cut package. 'I know it's been brought up, so I don't know where it landed,' Buchanan said. Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, a senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, signaled Thursday that the drug pricing plan may be scrapped. The idea, first floated last week by the White House as a way to help pay for the president's tax cut plan, blindsided the pharmaceutical industry and has prompted a furious lobbying campaign. Drugmakers said it could cost them $1 trillion over the next decade. While lawmakers may be poised to reject Trump's drug pricing plan, the president is unlikely to abandon the concept entirely. During his first term, he pursued regulatory avenues to accomplish similar goals, and could do so again. Bringing foreign drug pricing into US government programs could hurt drugmakers' revenues. The potential elimination of the TV ad deduction, meanwhile, could get backing of some in the Trump administration. Pharmaceutical ads have come under special scrutiny as most other countries don't allow drugmakers to run television ads, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called to ban the television ads entirely. Currently, pharmaceutical companies can deduct advertising costs as expenses on their taxes, which is standard for other industries, too. Greg Murphy, another Republican member of the Ways & Means committee, introduced legislation to eliminate the pharma ad tax deduction last month. In announcing the legislation, Murphy said the television ads lead to 'inappropriate prescribing practices.' US Border Towns Are Being Ravaged by Canada's Furious Boycott Pre-Tariff Car Buying Frenzy Leaves Americans With a Big Debt Problem Made-in-USA Wheelbarrows Promoted by Trump Are Now Made in China Maybe AI Slop Is Killing the Internet, After All Inside the Dizzying Chaos of Running a Freight Business Under Trump ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Return to Freedom Applauds Lawmakers' Support of Fertility Control to Better Manage Wild Horses
LOMPOC, Calif., May 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation on Monday applauded lawmakers for supporting the use of fertility control to manage wild horses and burros on more humanely. Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., David Schweikert, R-Ariz., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asking for him to support reforms to wild horse and burro management with a greater focus on the implementation of fertility control by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). "We're grateful to Reps. Buchanan, Schweikert, Fitzpatrick and Ciscomani for calling for the long overdue implementation of proven, safe and humane fertility control in wild horse management," said Neda DeMayo, president of Return to Freedom (RTF), a national nonprofit wild horses and burro advocacy organization. "The BLM's own history shows that remaining fixated only on capture-and-removal management will not succeed. To create meaningful, sustainable change, the agency must use fertility control to stabilize herd growth so that removals, which decimate family bands and herds, can be brought to an end." Specifically, the congressmen asked Burgum to support: increased use of humane, reversible fertility control by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), budget measures that "significantly reallocate" BLM wild horse funding to fertility control, and the upholding of congressional directives and Interior Department policy for non-lethal management. RTF has worked closely with Buchanan for many years on the effort to pass a lasting ban on horse slaughter and the export of American horses for slaughter. In February, he and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.) reintroduced that legislation, the Save America's Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act. The recent letter from Buchanan and his colleagues emphasizes the continued protection of wild horses and burros and fiscal responsibility. The BLM has never spent as much as 4 percent of the wild horse budget on fertility control despite growing calls from Congress, public lands stakeholders and the public for its use. BLM has instead tried and failed for decades to control herd populations by capture and removal. The agency estimates that there are about 73,000 wild horses and burros on the rangelands it manages. Nearly as many — 65,000 — are now warehoused in off-range government holding facilities. "We must do better by America's wild horses and burros," DeMayo said. "There are proven, humane tools supported by the public and a broad array of rangeland stakeholders that can be used to create a conservation legacy of which all Americans can be proud." Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF) is a pioneering wild horse advocacy organization that has worked to preserve wild horses and burros through sanctuary, education, conservation and advocacy since 1997. RTF operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at two California locations. Since 1999, RTF has modeled the use of fertility control and other solutions there that can be implemented on the range. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, BlueSky, Tik Tok and Youtube. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Key House Republican opposes Medicaid cuts
The chair of a key House panel in setting Republicans' tax and spending agenda said the GOP will seek savings in Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. But Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said that he'd oppose cutting them. Buchanan, the chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said that Republicans could do it by rooting out waste. 'I'm not for cuts in Medicaid,' Buchanan said at POLITICO's Health Care Summit Wednesday. 'There are a lot of inefficiencies. We've got to find a way to be able to ... do things better for less." Buchanan's comments come as Republicans are trying to figure out how to pay for President Donald Trump's plan to cut taxes, boost border security and expand energy exploration. House leaders want to find $880 billion in savings to pay for it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that would need to come from Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that more than 75 million low-income Americans rely on. Whether that can be done without cutting benefits is a matter of debate and some Republicans have warned their leaders against going too far. Buchanan said Republicans are open to reducing payment rates for states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Such a change could force states to reduce benefits or raise taxes to avoid doing so. 'It's something they're going to look at,' Buchanan said, adding he hopes to protect Medicaid for the most vulnerable. The federal share of payments is higher for certain beneficiaries in states that have used an Obamacare provision to extend benefits to more enrollees with higher incomes than traditional enrollees. Buchanan said the ballooning federal debt necessitated a search for savings. 'Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security — I'm for all that,' Buchanan said. 'Our interest on the debt is a trillion dollars a year... We've got to find a way to [be] more efficient.'
Politico
02-04-2025
- Health
- Politico
Key House Republican opposes Medicaid cuts
The chair of a key House panel in setting Republicans' tax and spending agenda said the GOP will seek savings in Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. But Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said that he'd oppose cutting them. Buchanan, the chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said that Republicans could do it by rooting out waste. 'I'm not for cuts in Medicaid,' Buchanan said at POLITICO's Health Care Summit Wednesday. 'There are a lot of inefficiencies. We've got to find a way to be able to ... do things better for less.' Buchanan's comments come as Republicans are trying to figure out how to pay for President Donald Trump's plan to cut taxes, boost border security and expand energy exploration. House leaders want to find $880 billion in savings to pay for it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said those would need to come from Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that more than 75 million low-income Americans rely on. Whether that can be done without cutting benefits is a matter of debate and some Republicans have warned their leaders against going too far. Buchanan said Republicans are open to reducing payment rates for states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Such a change in the joint state-federal program could force states to reduce benefits or raise taxes to avoid doing so. 'It's something they're going to look at,' Buchanan said, adding he hopes to protect Medicaid for the most vulnerable. The federal share of payments is higher for certain beneficiaries in states that have used an Obamacare provision to extend benefits to more enrollees with higher incomes than traditional enrollees. Buchanan said the ballooning federal debt necessitated a search for savings. 'Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security — I'm for all that,' Buchanan said. 'Our interest on the debt is a trillion dollars a year .. We've got to find a way to [be] more efficient.'
