Fight Over Anti-Abortion Candidates’ Place In Democratic Party On Display In Missouri, A Barometer For America’s Middle
Joan Barry is a state legislator who has been a member of the Missouri Democratic Party for decades. She's also stands against abortion, which has put her at odds with the majority of her own party. Midterm election news also comes out of Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Florida and Massachusetts.
The New York Times:
Is It Possible To Be An Anti-Abortion Democrat? One Woman Tried To Find Out
Joan Barry has been a member of the Missouri Democratic Party for 53 years. As a state legislator, she voted regularly for workers’ rights, health care and programs for the poor. So when the party began writing a new platform after its crushing losses in 2016, Ms. Barry, a member of its state committee, did not think it was too much to ask for a plank that welcomed people like her — Democrats who oppose abortion. (Tavernise, 10/16)
Detroit Free Press:
Republicans Air False Medicare Ad Against Elissa Slotkin
A new TV ad released by a national Republican group on Tuesday suggests that Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic challenger to U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, supports a plan that has undermined Medicare, the health care policy for older Americans, by cutting $800 billion from it. The ad is not true. While it is true that the Congressional Budget Office in 2015 estimated that a Republican-proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act – otherwise known as Obamacare – would require an increase in mandatory Medicare spending over a decade by more than $800 billion, that is not the same as suggesting that amount would somehow go toward improving benefits or otherwise strengthening the program. (Spangler, 10/16)
KCUR:
Missouri's U.S. Senate Race Casts Spotlight On Health Care, Pre-Existing Conditions
A once-obscure health insurance buzzword — pre-existing conditions — is taking over the U.S. Senate race in Missouri. And the seemingly narrow issue could have a wider effect on the federal health care law, depending on whether Republicans maintain control of the Senate after the Nov. 6 midterm election. Before 2014, when parts of the so-called Affordable Care Act took effect, insurance companies could deny coverage to customer who already had been diagnosed with anything from diabetes to depression. Almost a third of people in Missouri have pre-existing conditions, and GOP Senate candidate Josh Hawley has said he’s looking out for them, especially because his oldest son has an unspecified chronic joint disease. That is, a pre-existing condition. (Smith, 10/17)
OPB:
Where They Stand: Oregon's Gubernatorial Candidates On Health Care .
Months before they began campaigning in earnest against one another in the race for governor, Gov. Kate Brown and state Rep. Knute Buehler had another showdown. The politicians formed up on opposite sides of Measure 101, a January 2018 vote that decided how Oregon would patch a budget hole in its Medicaid program after membership swelled under the Affordable Care Act. (VanderHart, 10/16)
Miami Herald:
South Florida Democrats Campaign On Saving Obamacare
Miami-Dade County is home to the largest concentration of Obamacare recipients in the country, and Democrats are spending millions on TV ads, certain that healthcare is the No. 1 issue voters care about this year. Congress’ attempt to repeal Obamacare during the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency was one of the highest-profile votes that incumbent Republican Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Mario Diaz-Balart had to take. (Daugherty, 10/16)
WBUR:
Midterm Election Could Reshape Health Policy
Obamacare — as the Affordable Care Act is commonly known — won't be on the ballot next month. But the fate of the eight-year old health care law could be decided by which party wins control of Congress in November. "Medicare for All" — the progressive alternative to Obamacare — also stands to gain or lose ground. (Horsley, 10/17)
KCUR:
How To Tell Missouri's 3 Medical Marijuana Ballot Measures Apart
Missouri, if you want medical cannabis legalized, the midterms are your chance to make it happen. Voters on Nov. 6 have three separate ballot measures — two proposed amendments and a proposition — on essentially the same question: whether to allow the legal use of medical cannabis to treat conditions like epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. But the details of exactly how each program would work and how much money they would generate for the state are buried in the fine print. (Smith, 10/16)
Meanwhile, CMS Administrator Seema Verma speaks out against "Medicare For All," a popular Democratic talking point on the trail —
Kaiser Health News:
Medicare For All? CMS Chief Warns Program Has Enough Problems Already
The Trump administration’s top Medicare official Tuesday slammed the federal health program as riddled with problems that hinder care to beneficiaries, increase costs for taxpayers and escalate fraud and abuse. Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said those troubles underscore why she opposes calls by many Democrats for dramatically widening eligibility for Medicare, now serving 60 million seniors and people with disabilities, to tens of millions other people. (Galewitz, 10/16)
