POLITICO's Pulse Check

In June, the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision — throwing the future of abortion access in the U.S. into flux. Since then, roughly a quarter of states have made accessing the procedure illegal in most circumstances, while others have bolstered protections for doctors and patients. At the federal level, members of Congress and the Biden administration have been grappling with how to respond. Megan Messerly talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the state abortion fights they followed in 2022 and what they’re looking at next year.

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Mark Cuban is famous for his "Shark Tank" reality TV show on ABC and is one of America's most prominent investors. But he's also trying to disrupt the prescription drug space. Earlier this year, he made a foray into health care, launching the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company to take on the pharmaceutical market and lower drug prices. Ben Leonard talked with him about the Cost Plus Drug company he founded with Dr. Alex Oshmyansky and how he plans to pull it off.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) takes the reins of the Senate HELP Committee next month. Lauren Gardner talks with Megan Wilson about why lobbyists are bracing for what comes next.

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The House voted on the National Defense Authorization Act last week – the Senate hasn’t yet, but it’s one step closer to passage. Grace Scullion talks with Carmen Paun about the NDAA's planned $5 billion over five years for global health security.

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At least 3,500 Americans have died due, at least in part, to long Covid, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ben Leonard talks with Krista Mahr about the analysis from the CDC’s Center for National Health Statistics.

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Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Megan Messerly about the situation inside hospitals as Covid, RSV and flu cases rise. Nearly 30,000 people currently U.S. hospitals have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the CDC, up 30 percent since Thanksgiving — with New York, Arizona and New Mexico among the hardest hit.

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Today in our Pulse Check podcast, Lauren Gardner talks with Megan Messerly about the introduction of biosimilars next year to compete with Humira, the anti-inflammatory used to treat arthritis that has been the best-selling drug in America. Competition could reduce prices for consumers, but that’s not certain. Lauren explains how it could play out. 

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Retiring Republican Rep. Fred Upton has been a big advocate for major health care policies in his tenure. He joined Ruth Reader to discuss what he accomplished while in office and his hopes for Cures 2.0 and the PASTEUR act. Later, John Halamka talks about the future of AI in health care.

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At the second day of the Milken Future of Health conference, Grace Scullion talks with Dr. Ofer Levy, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases at Boston Children's Hospital and a voting member of the FDA COVID vaccine advisory panel. Plus, Sen. Tim Kaine on why he's optimistic there will be funding for long covid in an end-of-year omnibus.

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