Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Preexisting Conditions Protections Emerge As Campaign-Trail Flashpoint
The New York Times: To Rally Voters, Democrats Focus On Health Care As Their Closing Argument
Senator Claire McCaskill isn’t subtle in reminding voters what her campaign is all about. She’s rechristened it the “Your Health Care, Your Vote” tour. The turnaround could not be more startling. After years of running as far as they could from President Barack Obama’s health care law, Ms. McCaskill and vulnerable Senate Democrats in Florida, West Virginia and other political battlegrounds have increasingly focused their closing argument on a single issue: saving the Affordable Care Act. Now, with Republicans desperate to reposition themselves and come up with their own health care pitch, and with the elections roiled by gale-force winds on immigration and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, the question is whether health care will be enough to save her and Democrats in other key Senate races. (Gabriel, 10/28)
The Wall Street Journal: Pre-Existing Condition Discord Shows Health Care Still A Hot-Button Issue
As President Trump pushes ahead with efforts to chip away at the Affordable Care Act, Democrats are seizing on his moves to attack Republicans’ claims that they will protect people with pre-existing medical conditions. Republicans are hitting back, saying Mr. Trump’s actions will increase consumer choice and that they strongly favor covering pre-existing conditions. In either case, the back-and-forth shows the continuing potency of health care as an issue less than two weeks before the midterm elections. (Armour, 10/28)
The Washington Post: These Republicans Are Misleading Voters About Our Obamacare Fact Checks
Somewhere, somehow, a memo must have gone out to Republican lawmakers who voted for the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare: If you are attacked for undermining protections for people with existing health problems, jab back by saying the claim got Four Pinocchios from The Washington Post. That’s not true. Republicans are twisting an unrelated fact check and are misleading voters. We have found at least seven politicians who have done this. (Kessler, 10/29)
The New York Times: Republicans Look To Safety Net Programs As Deficit Balloons
With the federal deficit growing and President Trump suddenly talking about another tax cut, the conversation in Washington has turned to the inevitable question of how — or whether — Congress will engage in any type of fiscal discipline. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader and Kentucky Republican, got people in Washington talking — and generated some new campaign ads from Democrats — when he suggested this month that changes to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid were needed to tame the deficit. So what does that presage should Republicans maintain control of Congress? (Steinhauer, 10/26)
Health News Florida: DeSantis Health Plan Calls For More Patient Choices
After weeks of criticism over his lack of a health-care plan, [Republican gubernatorial nominee Ron] DeSantis posted the proposal online Wednesday shortly before his final debate with Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum. The plan calls for people to have the right to buy the health care they want; use price-transparency tools to shop for care; and get rebates from insurers when patient choices save money. (Sexton, 10/26)
Texas Tribune: Health Care, Not Trump, Dominates Texas' Marquee Congressional Races
Forget Donald Trump or whatever is on cable news on a given day — health care is the dominant issue in Texas’ most competitive congressional races. With early voting underway, Democratic challengers are relentlessly pushing the issue on the air, on the campaign trail and on debate stages. And Republican incumbents, many facing their first real races in a long time, are moving to defend their records after years of GOP orthodoxy against the Affordable Care Act, while also seeking to paint their opponents’ health care views as too extreme. (Svitek and Livingston, 10/27)
Politico: Don’t Lock Them Up: Opioid Policy Shakes Up Ohio Governor’s Race
Two years after Ohio swooned over Donald Trump’s law-and-order presidential campaign, the state is weighing a decidedly un-Trumplike solution to its spiraling opioid epidemic: Stop locking up drug users, and instead use the money to treat them. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray is embracing a proposal on the ballot that would downgrade all drug possession crimes to misdemeanors and prohibit jail time for all but the most frequent offenders, a move that has put him out of step with key state officials and even some in his own party — and sets up a test of how far leftward Ohio’s frustrated voters will go to escape a deepening drug crisis. (Cancryn, 10/27)
The Associated Press: Ex-DEA Official Says Blackburn Had Warning On Opioid Law
A former top Drug Enforcement Administration official says he told staffers who work with Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn exactly what to expect from a 2016 law she co-sponsored during the nation's opioid crisis. He ripped into her later suggestion the law may have had "unintended consequences." Joe Rannazzisi, former head of DEA's Office of Diversion Control, said in an interview with The Associated Press that he told the congressional staffers during a July 2014 conference call that the bill would hamper the DEA's ability to go after companies illicitly distributing opioids. (Mattise, 10/26)
Kaiser Health News: In California, Novel Initiatives Test Cities’ Power — And Will — To Tame Health Costs
At a time of mounting national anger about rising health care prices, the country’s largest union of health workers has sponsored ballot measures in two San Francisco Bay Area cities that would limit how much hospitals and doctors can charge for patient care. The twin measures in Palo Alto and Livermore, sponsored by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, take aim primarily at Stanford Health Care, which operates Stanford Hospital and Clinics, the facility with the third-highest profits in the country from patient care services, according to a 2016 study. (Waters, 10/29)
The Associated Press: Dialysis Companies Spend $111 Million To Kill Ballot Measure
Dialysis companies have contributed an extraordinary $111 million and counting to defeat a California ballot initiative that would cap their profits, the most any one side has spent on a U.S. ballot issue since at least 2002. A $5 million donation from this week from dialysis provider Fresenius Medical Care pushed the anti-Proposition 8 campaign's total past the $109 million pharmaceutical companies spent two years ago to defeat a measure limiting prescription drug costs. More than $70 million has been spent on television and radio ads as well as consulting services in the last two months. (Bollag, 10/26)
