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The ideas and innovators shaping health care | | | | |  | | By Erin Schumaker, Carmen Paun and Ben Leonard | | | | | 
Los Angeles is among the cities President Biden is targeting with a new effort to reduce homelessness. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | Finding homes for nearly 150,000 people living in shelters or on the streets is a tall task, but President Joe Biden says he wants it done by 2025. As a start, the White House will target homelessness in five cities and California — where 30 percent of the country’s nearly 600,000 people without permanent shelter live. The cities are Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix and Seattle. What’s the plan? For up to two years, the Biden administration will support California and the five cities by: — Embedding a federal official in each city to speed up strategies to reduce homelessness — Deploying federal government teams to identify solutions and funding streams and facilitate a peer-learning network — Bringing together philanthropies, the private sector and communities to collaborate and support each other By the numbers: Last month, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $486 million in grants and 3,300 housing vouchers for unsheltered people. Of that sum, $60 million went to Chicago, $22 million to Dallas, $60 million to Los Angeles and $36 million to other communities in California, according to the White House. Why it matters for health: Mental and physical decline and homelessness are closely linked, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who are homeless also have higher rates of HIV infections, substance use disorders, tuberculosis and mental illness compared with the general population. Cost and lack of transportation can hinder access to consistent health care.
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: The Covid-19 pandemic helped spur innovation in health care, from the wide adoption of telemedicine, health apps and online pharmacies to mRNA vaccines. But what will the next health care innovations look like? Join POLITICO on Wednesday June 7 for our Health Care Summit to explore how tech and innovation are transforming care and the challenges ahead for access and delivery in the United States. REGISTER NOW. | | | | | | | | | 
Davidson, N.C. | Ben Leonard | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Ireland's leaders are taking aim at mainstays of the emerald isle's famous craic: a pint of beer and a shot of whiskey. Under a new law, alcoholic beverages will come with a warning that they could potentially cause cancer starting in May 2026. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at bleonard@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, host Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Kelly Hooper about the potential impacts on health care if Congress and President Biden can't agree to raise the country's debt limit: Medicare not paying its bills, VA hospitals missing their payrolls and patients on Obamacare plans losing their subsidies.
| | | | | | |  The U.S. and Europe are looking to team up to reduce cancer's awful toll. | Getty Images | If the goal of cutting cancer death rates by half over the next quarter century — as set forth by President Joe Biden last year — is to be reached, more global cooperation would help. And more is coming. The United States and the European Union launched a joint task force last week to cure cancer and strengthen global health broadly. The U.S. and the EU want closer collaboration between Biden’s cancer moonshot and the EU’s two initiatives, its Beating Cancer Plan and Cancer Mission. They envision more peer learning, best-practice sharing and joint initiatives to improve cancer outcomes, HHS and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in a joint statement. The U.S. and the EU have already set up two expert working groups focusing on lung cancer and childhood and young adult cancer. They met virtually for the first time on May 10. “We are committed to making sure that all people can access the health care they need, and we know that our health at home is connected to the health of people everywhere,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, who was in Brussels to launch the EU-U.S. Health Task Force with Stella Kyriakides, the European commissioner for health and food safety.
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | 
President Biden had good things to say about a bill to combat fentanyl by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) | Francis Chung/POLITICO | Republicans are taking a hard line on fentanyl and having some success in dividing Democrats, many of whom are reluctant to step up the drug war. The latest example is the HALT Fentanyl Act that’s slated for a House vote this week. President Joe Biden all but endorsed it on Monday when he backed the GOP bill’s key provision – to boost regulation of street versions of the synthetic opioid to the same level as heroin, LSD and marijuana, which the government says have no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse. That puts Biden on the side of Republicans and two Democrats from swing districts that voted for the bill during a House Energy and Commerce Committee markup in March: Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Kim Schrier (D-Wash.). But it contradicts the position taken on the bill by the other committee Democrats, including Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey. The Democrats who voted no in committee raised concerns that the legislation runs the risk of causing over-incarceration. Pallone said that the legislation didn’t approach the issue from a “public health crisis perspective.” Why it matters: There’s a bipartisan appetite to address the fentanyl crisis, which took more than 70,000 lives in 2021, but there hasn’t always been agreement on how to do so. Republicans have slammed the Biden administration for not doing enough to combat the crisis. Republicans, including Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), argued that the legislation would give law enforcement more tools to address it. The legislation would increase mandatory criminal penalties for the possession and use of fentanyl, which is a commonly prescribed painkiller, and street versions of the drug that are often more potent. What’s next: The House plans to vote on the bill on Thursday. Senate HELP Committee ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has introduced a companion version with two GOP cosponsors that awaits a committee markup. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
