Leaders on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee indicated solving workforce issues is going to be a top priority this year.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the panel, said he is eyeing legislation and wants to massively increase student loan debt forgiveness and make sure there are jobs that offer enough pay to attract providers to health care deserts.
There was also broad agreement that the nursing shortage needs to be addressed. Nurses in the U.S. are getting older, with the average age being 54 and about a fifth of working nurses 65 and older.
Lawmakers, Sanders included, generally backed proposals from medical groups like the American Hospital Association, which called for more nursing school scholarships and expedited visas for trained foreign workers to come to the U.S.
But moving forward this year, the committee is less likely to see such bonhomie between its two leaders.
Sanders has the pharmaceutical industry in his crosshairs, and on Wednesday he announced the first pharma CEO he intends to grill over high drug prices: Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel.
Sanders said he plans to question Bancel about the company’s plans to reportedly quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, ranking member Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician, and other Republicans on the committee will likely not be so quick to pass judgment on drug companies.
During the committee’s organizing meeting earlier this month, Cassidy emphasized the importance of medical innovation.
“You’ve got to be conscious of the tension between affordability and innovation. People in this room are alive today who would not be alive, were it not for medical innovation,” Cassidy said. “But we also have to recognize that if the patient cannot afford the drug, to them, it is as if that innovation never occurred.”
