Finding Rare Common Ground in Health Care’s Future
The 21st Century Cures Act has passed through Congress with a vote of 392 to 26 in the House and 94 to 5 in the Senate, with the final approval of the President due on Tuesday. The law will enable funding for biomedical research and hasten the process of approving new drugs and medical devices. The new law will also provide much-needed support for mental health care improvements and for the eradication of opioid abuse. At the same time, Republicans are attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has attempted to tackle the same issues as are highlighted in the new bill. Though the move seems contradictory, lawmakers have suggested it is due to financing and a reluctant sentiment; the Affordable Car Act cost hundreds of billions of dollars, where the Cures Act will cost $6.3bn, and Republicans feel that they were given little choice but to accept “Obamacare”. Both Acts have the support of organisations such as the American Cancer Society and Friends of Cancer Research. The increase in medical research spending will likely lead to new healthcare products, which in turn will require good insurance coverage, meaning that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act could leave millions unable to see the benefits of the new bill.

WASHINGTON — With self-congratulatory zeal and smiles all around, huge bipartisan majorities in Congress have just passed legislation to speed the discovery of cures for killer diseases. At the same time, Republican leaders have been devising a strategy to undo the Affordable Care Act, which has done more than any law in a generation to treat people with those diseases.

“It is a real contradiction,” said Dr. Otis W. Brawley, the chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society.

In recent years, few major bills have commanded as much support as the 21st Century Cures Act, which sailed to passage by votes of 392 to 26 in the House on Nov. 30, and 94 to 5 in the Senate a week later. Once it is signed by President Obama on Tuesday, as the White House has said it will be, the law will allow for money to be pumped into biomedical research and speed the approval of new drugs and medical devices. It also includes provisions to improve mental health care and combat opioid abuse.

“This is the most significant legislation passed by this Congress,” the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said on Thursday. By contrast, he once referred to the 2010 health law as “the single worst piece of legislation that has been passed in the last half-century.”