Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Farmers To Receive Additional $13B In Coronavirus Relief, Trump Says
The Hill: Trump Announces Another $13B In Aid To Farmers Affected By COVID-19
President Trump announced another $13 billion in aid for farmers, who've financially suffered due to the coronavirus pandemic, during his Wisconsin rally on Thursday. "I'm proud to announce that I'm doing even more to support Wisconsin farmers," Trump said during the rally in Mosinee, Wis. (Coleman, 9/17)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Announces A New Round Of Farm Aid In Battleground Wisconsin
The newly announced aid would be the second tranche of money issued as part of the Trump administration’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. In April, the administration unveiled $19 billion in relief for the agriculture sector, including $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers and $3 billion in mass purchases of dairy, meat and produce. The funds came from coronavirus-relief legislation passed by Congress earlier this year as well as from the Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corp., a Depression-era program designed to stabilize farm incomes. (Restuccia and Newman, 9/17)
Kaiser Health News: Election Gift For Florida? Trump Poised To Approve Drug Imports From Canada
Over the objections of drugmakers, the Trump administration is expected within weeks to finalize its plan that would allow states to import some prescription medicines from Canada. Six states — Colorado, Florida, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Vermont — have passed laws allowing them to seek federal approval to buy drugs from Canada to give their residents access to lower-cost medicines. (Galewitz, 9/18)
Time: How Donald Trump Is Trying To Change His Health Care Record
On Sunday, the President issued a new executive order aimed at lowering prescription drug prices, an issue dear to many voters, and boasted on Twitter that “prices are coming down FAST.” The reality is more complicated. Trump’s new executive order, which revokes and replaces a different executive order on drug prices that he signed in July, directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to start testing how it would work to require Medicare to pay the same price for certain prescription drugs as other developed nations, which often pay less for the same medications. In a made-for-2020 twist, the order relies on the HHS secretary invoking an office established under the Affordable Care Act, the bête noire of the Trump Administration. (Abrams, 9/17)
USA Today: Trump To Skip In-Person Trip For United Nations General Assembly
President Donald Trump will not attend the United Nations General Assembly in person next week, a White House official said Thursday – the latest display of how the coronavirus pandemic is upending U.S. diplomacy. The annual meeting usually draws world leaders to New York for several days and Trump has often used his address to frame his foreign policy in domestic terms. Last year, for instance, Trump asserted that the "future does not belong to globalists." (Fritze, 9/17)
And first lady Melania Trump visits New Hampshire —
AP: First Lady Promotes Trump's Approach To Opioid Crisis In NH
First lady Melania Trump used her first solo trip outside Washington since before the start of the coronavirus pandemic to showcase a piece of her “Be Best” youth well-being initiative on Thursday in a state her husband is hoping to win in November. The first lady toured Concord Hospital in New Hampshire’s capital city with James Carroll, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in an effort to highlight the hospital’s treatment programs for babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. Mrs. Trump, who has focused many of her public efforts on health issues such as the nation’s opioid crisis, tweeted earlier in the day that the appearance was a nod to Recovery Month. (Whittle, 9/17)
