court watch

Three appeals in a pod

Three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit interrogated lawsuits brought by Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca against the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare drug negotiation program. It’s the first appellate court hearing on drugmakers’ suits. A district court judge ruled against the companies. 

The issues the judges asked about included:

• How much notice companies would have to give to leave the negotiation program
• Whether the government can tie drug products made by the same company together in purchase negotiations
• Why Congress didn’t just set the prices in statute themselves
• Whether Medicare serves as both a regulator and a buyer of the medicines
• Whether terms in a government contract can count as a violation of free speech rights.

If circuit courts ultimately split in their rulings, it makes it more likely that the Supreme Court could take the case.

election 2024

Presidential candidates make closing arguments on caregiver support

In the final sprint to Election Day, both VP Harris and former President Trump are promising to provide relief to family caregivers, an estimated 53 million voters and growing. 

Trump once again brought up tax credits for long-term caregivers during a North Carolina rally on Wednesday, after unveiling the proposal at his Madison Square Garden event over the weekend, DCD co-writer Sarah Owermohle notes.

He said Harris “copied” him when she, too, promised caregiver support during a Washington D.C. event Tuesday night. But what Harris seemed to be referring to was her own “Medicare at home” plan, launched earlier this month. That proposal would offer Medicare coverage for at-home care on a sliding scale, based on seniors’ needs and incomes. Harris suggested the program (conservatively projected to cost $40 billion a year) would be funded by letting the Medicare program negotiate prices for more drugs. (Trump hasn’t yet discussed who would be eligible for his plan, or how it’d be funded). 

But both candidates have reasons to vie for the votes of a huge and growing share of the U.S. population, dubbed the ‘sandwich generation,’ faced with caring for aging family members. In key battleground state Pennsylvania, for instance, AARP polling suggests a third of voters identify themselves as caregivers. In North Carolina, where both candidates rallied Wednesday, 1 in 4 voters say they are caregivers and most over-50 voters say they’d pick a candidate with a support plan. 

influence

Chiropractors for RFK

The Make America Healthy Again movement has a new super PAC, called the MAHA Alliance, and one group dominates the committee’s early donors: chiropractors.

In the group’s first campaign finance reports, 26 out of the 51 initial donors were chiropractors. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign nodded to chiropractors as a base of support, even selling “Chiropractors for Kennedy” bumper stickers. Chiropractors have long complained of hostility from the medical establishment, and some leaned into misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Of the other donors, one was Robert Malone, a physician who gained fame spreading misinformation about Covid-19, and claimed to have a role in the development of the Covid-19 vaccines. Another, Merily Pompa, pleaded guilty to stealing from the trust fund of children she and her husband — also a chiropractor — adopted.