Good Day BIO: California's single-payer bill is dead

We have news on California’s single-payer bill and bipartisan policy recommendations to advance climate-smart forestry and agricultural practices—plus, President Biden’s plans to relaunch his “cancer moonshot” today.  (785 words, 3 minutes, 55 seconds)

California’s single payer bill is dead for 2022

California’s high-profile effort to overhaul the state’s health care system died in the Assembly on Monday—we caught up with BIO’s State Government Affairs Team to get details.

AB1400, sponsored by CA Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) would have created CalCare, the first state-run single-payer health care system in the country, by establishing billions in new business and personal taxes (via constitutional amendment ACA 11). 

The bill did not have the necessary votes to move by the Monday deadline. This is the second time in five years a single-payer bill died in the California State Assembly.

What they’re saying: “The shortage of votes needed to pass this bill out of the Assembly indicates the immense difficulty of implementing single-payer healthcare in California,” said Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D- Lakewood). 

“CalCare would impact BIO members and the patients who rely on their innovative medicines by establishing a single statewide formulary for nearly all residents of the state,” combining Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the health benefits exchange, and employer-provided commercial coverage into one system, explains BIO’s Brian Warren in California. Negotiations between biopharmaceutical manufacturers and CalCare could “negatively impact the market for innovative medicines.”

It could also disadvantage patients—who may “need coverage of specific medicines and would no longer have more than one plan to choose from,” among other concerns. 

The context: We could see single-payer legislation come up in New York this year, too—so keep an eye on this issue.

More Health Care News:

AMR Action Fund: AMR Action Fund appoints scientific advisory board
“The SAB will help evaluate the scientific merit, patient benefit, and public health impact of potential investments into clinical-stage companies developing antibacterial treatments that target priority pathogens.” 

Drug Channels: New CMS data reinforce the truth about U.S. drug spending
“[O]utpatient drug spending remains a small—and shrinking—share of the $4.1 trillion spent on U.S. healthcare. What's more, drug spending again grew more slowly than overall healthcare spending.”

6 bipartisan recommendations to address climate change

“America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners are key partners in the effort to combat climate change,” but we need to advance policies across six key objectives to realize climate-smart agriculture and land practices, says new recommendations from the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

Who and what: The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) Farm and Forest Carbon Solutions Task Force, co-chaired by former U.S. Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), released new recommendations, Federal Policies to Advance Climate Solutions. 

Why: “[B]oosting the amount of carbon stored in plants, trees, and soils can make an important contribution to slowing the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and will be needed, along with emission reductions and other strategies, to meet national and international climate goals,” say the recommendations. 

The challenge: “Markets for carbon credits are still not fully mature, and few farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners are accustomed to viewing carbon sequestration and avoided emissions as a business opportunity. Even those who do may lack the time, expertise, and financial resources to assess their options for carbon markets or incentive programs and then implement changes in their land management practices, particularly if those changes require large upfront investments in expectation of uncertain long-term returns.” 

The recommendations focus on six policy objectives:

1. Expand existing Farm Bill programs that deliver climate benefits and offer pathways to new market opportunities.
2. Expand technical assistance for implementing natural climate solutions and address related workforce needs.
3. Strengthen the integrity of voluntary carbon markets and increase access to these markets.
4. Develop new public and private finance and insurance instruments to help overcome barriers to the broad adoption of natural climate solutions.
5. Enhance resilience to wildfire, drought, insects and disease, and invasive species on a landscape scale.
6. Foster technology innovation in the agriculture and forestry sectors to make natural climate solutions cheaper and easier to implement and to address measurement and monitoring challenges. 

BIO’s take:The Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA)—BIO’s a steering committee member—applauds this bipartisan effort to move the climate conversation forward. We look forward to ensuring biotech solutions—such as gene editing to help plants sequester more carbon or reduce the footprint of agriculture—are central to future policy. 

Learn more: The Bipartisan Policy Center will host a virtual event today, February 2, with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at 11 AM ET—get the details and register.  

President Biden’s Wednesday: Hosting an event to relaunch the “cancer moonshot” at 1:30 PM ET. The White House COVID-19 Response Team will hold a briefing at 3 PM ET. 

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: Climate’s on the agenda, with hearings covering the Farm Bill’s conservation programs, domestic recycling and composting programs, and manufacturing and climate solutions. Meanwhile, Biopharma Dive takes a deep dive into proposed legislation targeting antimicrobial resistance.