Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
No one's sure just when we'll see the CR text and the year-end health deal. But details that have slipped out indicate the policy changes are more substantive than expected, and that some industries will go away unhappy.
The big picture: If the CR is released Tuesday and Speaker Mike Johnson sticks to his pledge to follow the 72-hour rule, the House would vote Friday, followed by the Senate, which could be motivated to speed things along.
- Johnson said the text is coming Tuesday. "We're almost there," he said after a House Republican conference meeting in the Capitol.
Between the lines: The health care provisions have essentially been set since Monday, sources say, and are not the reason for continued delays, which have centered on issues including assistance for farmers.
What's inside: With the usual caveat that nothing is final until everything is final, the health care package is expected to include the pieces we've told you about.
- Those include PBM reforms, two years of telehealth flexibilities and community health center funding, PAHPA and the SUPPORT Act, relief from Medicare physician payment cuts, and the hospital cost provision on unique identifier numbers.
- Funding for federal health agencies will stretch to March 14 next year, the CR's end date.
Driving the news: The PBM provisions in particular have drawn some attention, as the industry pushes back hard.
- There has been a burst of bipartisan bills on PBM overhaul throughout the 118th Congress, as we've chronicled, and policy changes around how PBMs are paid in Medicare Part D and rebate pass-throughs in the commercial market are expected to make it into the final package. There's also a ban on spread pricing in Medicaid.
- But some House Republicans have also been grumbling, including conservative Rep. Chip Roy, who wrote on X that "Pharma is dancing in the streets" over the measure.
- Other House Republicans backing PBM reforms are happy with the changes.
- Rep. Buddy Carter, for example, posted a clip of President Trump criticizing PBMs at his press conference Monday.
The big picture: Plenty of House Republicans were frustrated coming out of their morning conference meeting Tuesday, but health care was not at the top of their concerns.
- Rather, members pointed to issues like adding to the debt and not having enough time to read a long bill.
