Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Buttigieg Rolls Out Rural Health Plan With Focus On Access, Opioids And Maternal Mortality Rates
The Hill: Buttigieg Unveils Plan To Improve Health Care In Rural Areas
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) on Friday unveiled a plan to overhaul the nation's health care system that would implement a public insurance option while working to improve and expand health services in rural areas and on Native American reservations. The plan stipulates that Americans with private health insurance who wish to remain on their plans will be allowed to do so, while also calling to "[s]trengthen the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and protect it from Republican attacks" and implement a public insurance option. (Bowden, 8/9)
Politico: How Pete Buttigieg Would Overhaul Rural Health
Buttigieg says he would expand access to medical care by offering a form of Medicare through the exchanges that anyone could purchase — a proposal he made earlier in the campaign that separated his ideas on health care from other candidates' single payer proposals. To build up the rural health workforce, his new proposal would expand the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which currently requires employment by government or non-profits, to include private or for-profit hospitals and practices in rural areas. He also wants to expand the size of the Conrad 30 waiver program, which waives the requirement that foreign doctors on J-1 visas return to their home countries for two years before re-entering the United States if they commit to working for a period of time in underserved or rural areas. (Ehley, 8/9)
Reuters: Democrat Buttigieg Unveils Healthcare Plan For Rural Americans, Tribes
This is a more moderate approach to healthcare coverage than some of his Democratic rivals, including progressive standard bearers and U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who want to transfer all Americans to government-funded health coverage, known as Medicare for All. Buttigieg also wants to improve technology so more people can be treated from or near their homes, stop hospital closures, train and attract more doctors and nurses to rural areas and reduce care shortages with an emphasis on maternal care, primary care, mental health and addiction. (Reid, 8/9)
Iowa Public Radio: Buttigieg Releases Plan To Improve Rural Healthcare Access, Outcomes
Buttigieg says part of the spectrum of steps needed to improve healthcare for rural outcomes includes recruiting American-born providers as well as to offer more visas for immigrant doctors to practice in rural areas. “When we think about the need for skills and talents in rural communities, we need to cultivate homegrown talent and make sure that we’re making the most of highly-skilled immigrants who can be part of population of physicians providing services where they’re desperately needed.” (Payne, 8/9)
