With help from Alice Miranda Ollstein and Carmen Paun
LOWERING DRUG COSTS — Bipartisan lawmakers have revived efforts to require Medicare to cover generic drugs — and at least two biosimilars — with patients paying lower costs than for brand-name drugs, POLITICO’s Alec Snyder reports.
The bill would require that cheaper generics and biosimilars be covered and listed prominently next to their brand-name versions. It would also seek to stop plans from using prior authorization or step therapy to restrict access to generic or biosimilar options. While the re-introduced legislation never saw a markup during Congress’ last session, the bill’s sponsors believe there’s a path forward — although the exact path remains to be seen.
Background: The Ensuring Access to Lower-Cost Medicines for Seniors Act of 2026, led by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), represents a revived effort from the 118th Congress, when it was spearheaded by former Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.).
Sen.James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced a companion measure in the upper chamber in the last Congress, but no Senate version has been introduced in the current session.
Matsui, along with Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), unveiled the revived bill on March 31, when the lawmakers said they hoped it would help cut costs for Medicare Part D patients — largely those over age 65 and individuals under 65 with qualifying disabilities.
The measure appears to be geared toward pharmacy benefit managers, which manage prescription drug prices for insurers. According to a release from Matsui’s office, they “are using pricing gimmicks to steer patients towards higher-cost drugs that increase the PBM’s revenue.”
“America’s seniors should never be forced to pay more for their prescriptions when lower-cost options are available,” Miller-Meeks said. “Generics and biosimilars save billions, yet too often seniors are steered toward higher-priced drugs that benefit middlemen, not patients. This bipartisan bill puts seniors first by lowering out-of-pocket costs and ensuring they can access the affordable medications they deserve.”
What’s next: Staff for Matsui — who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee — told POLITICO they believe the bill has a way to become law.
“In terms of path, we’re actively engaging with Committee members and leadership, and we do see a potential lane for this to move — whether through regular order or as part of a broader health package,” Matsui spokesperson Harper See wrote in an email.
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PILL CHALLENGE PAUSED — A Louisiana district court judge on Tuesday granted the Trump administration’s request to put the state’s lawsuit against the FDA over the regulation of abortion pills on ice, Alice reports.
The judge, a Trump appointee, ordered that federal rules remain in place for the time being, allowing mifepristone to be prescribed via telemedicine, delivered by mail and picked up at retail pharmacies. Yet he also urged the Food and Drug Administration to quickly complete the pill’s safety review, which the agency has said it is conducting, and demanded a status report on that review by October 7.
“At this juncture, it is the completion of FDA’s promised good faith, evidence-based, and expeditious review of the mifepristone [risk evaluation and mitigation strategy], not ‘government by lawsuit,’ that this Court finds to be in the public interest,” wrote Judge David C. Joseph.
In granting the stay, the court rebuffed Louisiana’s request to compel the FDA to reimpose a rule requiring patients to obtain mifepristone only in person from a doctor, a move that would have wiped out access to the drug across much of the country — particularly in rural areas where clinics are scarce.
Why it matters: This lawsuit is one of many filed by GOP state attorneys general seeking to cut off access to pills that are being mailed into their states in defiance of abortion bans. In all of them, the Trump administration has declined to defend the FDA’s rules for the drugs on the merits, arguing instead that the states lack standing or are acting prematurely, and has requested courts allow the agency to conduct its review without interference.
That stance, and this ruling, have exacerbated the anti-abortion movement’s frustration with the administration over its reticence to curb the availability of pills used in more than two-thirds of all U.S. abortions.
Some GOP lawmakers, who say they don’t believe the FDA is reviewing mifepristone in good faith, have introduced bills to force the agency’s hand, but they’re unlikely to pass in the currently gridlocked Congress.
SUPPLY-CHAIN PLEA — More than 250 global health groups are asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio not to cut a multibillion-dollar award for global health commodities following reports that the State Department plans to abruptly shut the program down, Carmen reports.
“This is a dangerous move and we oppose it,” the groups wrote to Rubio on Tuesday. The signatories include Health GAP, the Global Health Council and Partners in Health.
Key context: The award, implemented by consulting firm Chemonics International in partnership with other companies such as IBM and McKinsey since it was established in 2016, is used to procure, ship and deliver drugs, tests and other health commodities to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, according to the groups.
Known as the Global Health Supply Chain — Procurement and Supply Management, the project was the largest ever awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration abruptly shut down last year.
The award was initially paused as part of the administration’s foreign-aid cuts but was later allowed to continue because of its delivery of lifesaving supplies.
Reuters and independent journalist Emily Bass reported last week that the State Department had informed some U.S. missions that, in some countries, the program would close by the end of this month.
Why it matters: The groups that wrote to Rubio said the speedy closeout would result “in severe and widespread disruption in supplies” of global health commodities for hundreds of millions of people who need them.
The State Department and Chemonics did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
EXPANDING NUTRITION SERVICES — The Trump administration announced Tuesday that more than $135 million in new funding opportunities to bolster nutrition services and the rural health workforce are available through the Health Resources and Services Administration.
The grants include $125 million to expand nutrition services and food-based approaches to health care treatment within primary care settings at more than 350 HRSA-funded health centers, according to a Department of Health and Human Services news release. HRSA will award about $11 million through 15 grants of up to $750,000 each for the Rural Residency Planning and Development Program, the release says. The program supports new rural residency programs in high-need specialties, including family medicine, internal medicine and preventive medicine.
“Preventative care cuts costs, improves outcomes and drives our mission to Make America Healthy Again,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a Tuesday roundtable, where he announced the funding. “These investments expand access to high-quality, affordable care — especially in rural communities that need it most.”
At the event, HRSA Administrator Tom Engels said the funding will create “a stronger, more sustainable system of care that helps prevent chronic disease” and advances the MAHA agenda.
Key context: HRSA-funded health centers provide primary care and other medical services to more than 32.4 million patients at over 16,000 sites nationwide, including about 1 in 5 rural residents.
Will Gordon has joined Manatt’s health care group as a senior adviser. Gordon was most recently the chief informatics officer at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
POLITICO’s Katelyn Cordero reports on the fight against conversion therapy in New York.
STAT’s Megan Molteni reports on how a researcher’s findings on genetics and racism ended up being a death knell for his career.
