Rep. Brad Wenstrup’s exit: Priorities before leaving Congress

Good morning, and TGIF. As we enter the home stretch of the 118th Congress, who do you want to hear from before lawmakers wrap up their work for the year? Send thoughts and tips to .

Today's edition: Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling to Georgia to deliver an abortion-focused speech. Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance is reviving a health-care argument Democrats are eager to have. But first ...

Wenstrup's last legislative push

Rep. Brad Wenstrup isn't planning to coast through his final months on Capitol Hill.

"For me, there's no putting it off till the next term," the Ohio Republican told me over Zoom this month as he prepares to exit Congress alongside other House members at the end of the year.

Why it matters: Wenstrup — a podiatrist and former combat surgeon — has become a heavyweight on health issues during his six terms in the House. He co-chairs the chamber's GOP Doctors Caucus and leads the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

I caught up with Wenstrup about his priorities, the lessons he learned investigating the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic and the Republicans who will carry the health torch after he's gone. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Health Brief: Which health-care bills would you like to see passed before you retire?

Wenstrup: One is the Safe Step Act , which would cut out unnecessary delays in care. Oftentimes, insurers tell doctors that they have to try every other cheaper medication for their patient first. Sometimes, that's good advice, but when there is a reason that you don't want to use a different medication, you should be able to explain that quickly and get it to the patient. It's bipartisan, and I think we should be able to move it along.

The other one that is bipartisan and passed the House is the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act , which would ensure that people who are transitioning to Medicare can stay on their weight-loss medications if they've been on them for a year. This bill would also expand coverage for patients to see a dietitian or a nutritionist.

The Ensuring Patient Access to Critical Breakthrough Products Act is also important because it would speed up patient access to medical breakthroughs that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It's about getting people better, sooner.

Health Brief: You've led the House committee investigating the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic for the past two years. What are some of your biggest takeaways?

Wenstrup: With covid, it was called a novel virus for a reason. There were going to be a lot of mistakes and a lot of unknowns, and that's what we should have been telling the American people. That these ideas are hypotheses, and if they don't prove true, we'll let you know.

I've said back as far as [Secretary of Health and Human Services] Alex Azar that Americans need to be hearing from the doctors treating covid patients, not politicians or people in labs. We need people who can express themselves apolitically about what's going on moving forward, and we're going to be recommending what a structure for that should look like.

Health Brief: If there is a covid-oriented committee in the next Congress, who do you think are the strong contenders to lead it?

Wenstrup: From the Republican side, I think Reps. John James (Mich.), John Joyce (Pa.) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa) would be good potential leaders on these issues. On the Democratic side, I think Rep. Ami Bera (Calif.).

Health Brief: Several members of the GOP Doctors Caucus are set to leave Congress at the end of the year. Which remaining health-care providers do you view as critical for filling those knowledge gaps?

Wenstrup: Rep. Greg Murphy (N.C.) for sure, he's already chair of the caucus, and I think Joyce will likely step up into a leadership role there as well. Rep. Richard McCormick (Ga.) wants to work very hard on health issues, and Rep. Buddy Carter (Ga.) is really good especially on the pharmaceutical side of health care, so you'll see more of him.

Reproductive warsHarris to give abortion-focused speech in Georgia

On tap today: Harris is scheduled to travel to Atlanta to highlight her support for abortion rights, where she is expected to link the deaths of two Georgia women to the consequences of Donald Trump's role in overturning .

The deaths of Amber Nicole ThurmanCandi Miller, reported by this week, occurred in the months following implementation of Georgia's six-week abortion ban. Thurman died of an infection after being unable to get timely abortion care at a suburban hospital, while Miller died after declining to seek medical attention for complications from a medication abortion.

"This is exactly what we feared when was struck down," Harris said of Thurman in a Tuesday statement. "In more than 20 states, Trump Abortion Bans are preventing doctors from providing basic medical care."

Election watchVance floats new health plans for chronically ill, reopening ACA debate

Democrats are seizing on Vance's statement that the Trump campaign wants to roll back the Affordable Care Act's approach to how chronically ill Americans shop for health insurance — a debate that has repeatedly backfired on the GOP, our colleagues Dan DiamondMeryl Kornfield report.

At a rally Wednesday, the Republican vice-presidential candidate floated an idea to group chronically ill patients together in health-insurance pools based on their elevated risks . "We're gonna actually implement some regulatory reform in the health-care system that allows people to choose a health-care plan that works for them," Vance said, expanding on remarks he first made Sunday on 's "Meet the Press."

Why it matters: Experts said the ideas sketched out by Vance threaten consumer protections enshrined in the 2010 health law, such as rules that guarantee health coverage to the tens of millions of Americans with preexisting conditions .

Vance's comments were quickly amplified by the Harris campaign, which has sought to draw a distinction between the Democratic nominee's pledge to build on the ACA and Trump's repeated efforts to overturn the law when he served as president.

Trump-Vance campaign aides have insisted that the GOP ticket would preserve protections for preexisting conditions, and a Vance spokesman said the candidate was not proposing new ideas in his remarks this week.

On our radar: Protect Our Care, a Democrat-aligned health-care advocacy group, is planning to launch a nationwide bus tour of battleground states next week to contrast Trump's health-care actions with the Biden administration's efforts to strengthen the ACA.

On the HillSenate committee votes to hold Steward CEO in contempt

The Senate health committee voted unanimously Thursday to hold the CEO of Steward Health Care in contempt of Congress, with several lawmakers criticizing Ralph de la Torre's multimillion-dollar compensation and leadership decisions as his hospitals struggled to stay solvent, Diamond reports.

In a joint statement , Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said they had "no choice" but to pursue contempt charges after de la Torre defied the panel's subpoena to appear at a hearing last week on Steward's bankruptcy and how it affected patients. (Read more about the committee's investigation into the national hospital system here .)

A closer look: One resolution instructs the Senate's lawyers to bring a civil suit that would compel de la Torre to comply with the subpoena; the other resolution would refer the matter for potential criminal prosecution. Senate aides called the action historic, saying they were unaware of the health committee previously pursuing contempt charges against a potential witness.

The resolutions advance to a potential vote of the full Senate. The scheduling of that vote is unclear.

The bigger picture: A lawyer for de la Torre has said his client has become a "scapegoat" for broader challenges facing hospitals. But Sanders and other Democrats said their scrutiny of Steward should be interpreted as a signal to other hospital operators: prioritize patient care, not profits.

From our notebook

U.S. health experts recommended Thursday that all pregnant people undergo continued screenings for hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia, throughout their pregnancy.

Because these disorders are among the leading causes of death during pregnancy, especially for Black women, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said these guidelines would apply to everyone regardless of preexisting hypertensive conditions. The task force recommends that pregnant Black people should be considered for low-dose aspirin as a preventive medication after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Why it matters: Hypertensive disorders in the United States doubled from 2007 to 2019, with significant disparities found between rural and urban communities, according to the American Heart Association.

Infectious diseaseScientists again link covid pandemic origin to Wuhan market animals

An international team of scientists published a peer-reviewed paper saying genetic evidence indicates that the coronavirus pandemic probably originated in a market in Wuhan, China , where it jumped from animals to humans, our colleague Joel Achenbach reports.

The paper , which appears in the journal , bolsters the natural spillover theory, but it doesn't rule out other origins and is unlikely to end the acrimonious and politicized debate over where the pandemic began.

A key limitation of the research is that the genetic data, obtained by Chinese investigators in the early days of the pandemic after the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was closed, cannot reveal whether any animal was actually infected with the virus.

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