Dive Brief:
- Following the weekend release of a new version, the House is slated to vote this Wednesday on the highly anticipated 21st Century Cures Act, bipartisan legislation worth $6.3 billion that was first introduced in January and would reform numerous major aspects of healthcare regulation.
- The Senate could potentially pass the legislation without debate and provide unanimous consent if none of its members object to that process, though one Republican senator has threatened to stand in the way despite the bill's heavy GOP backing.
- Republicans say the new version of the bill is final, while Democrats are reportedly still trying to negotiate changes to increase bipartisan support.
Dive Insight:
The bill has received significant enthusiasm from both sides of the aisle. However, it is far from a sure thing considering there is disagreement within the GOP, aside from hesitation among Democrats.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has announced plans to object to unanimous consent from the Senate because one of the bill's provisions is at odds with The Physician Payment Sunshine Act, which he co-authored to increase transparency around payments from drug and device makers to healthcare providers. As it stands, the Cures bill creates loopholes that would dampen disclosure requirements, he argued.
The bill is also seeing an extraordinary level of attention from lobbyists, Kaiser Health News noted. with more than 1,455 lobbyists representing 400 companies, universities and other organizations pushing legislators to vote for or against the bill.
If it passes, the scope of the legislation will be immense. It would range from provisions to speed drug and device approvals from the FDA, to providing $1 billion to respond to the opioid epidemic, to providing additional funding to the NIH of $4.8 billion over ten years to cover efforts including precision medicine research.
President-elect Trump has yet to comment on the Cures Act, according to KHN.