STAT+: House panel passes public health bills following contentious debate
Lawmakers passed bills on pandemic preparedness and allowing the Senate retroactive approval of CDC director picks. They debated, but didn't adopt, drug shortage reforms.
WASHINGTON — The House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee on Thursday voted along party lines to pass a bill to let employers provide telehealth-only insurance and another to retroactively require Senate confirmation of the president’s pick to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They also passed a bill to renew federal pandemic-preparedness programs, but Republicans blocked attempts by Democrats to add drug shortage reforms.
With 17 bills plus amendments under discussion, the lawmakers clashed over a wide range of topics — including whether to fund graduate medical education at hospitals that provide gender-affirming care.
Republicans said the telehealth bill would let employers provide insurance to seasonal employees who otherwise would have no insurance at all.
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