Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Ad Blitz Touts Efforts To Tackle High Drug Prices
Stat: Trump's Facebook Ad Blitz Casts Biden As Pharma's Choice
President Trump’s reelection campaign is appealing to swing voters by attacking “Big Pharma” in a new digital advertising blitz. In Facebook and Instagram ads launched on Sunday, Trump touts a plan to lower prescription drug prices and casts his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, as the drug industry’s preferred candidate in November’s election. (Facher, 8/18)
Los Angeles Times: Trump And Biden Offer Starkly Different Healthcare Policies
Few issues have more sharply divided Republicans and Democrats over the last decade than healthcare, and so it is with President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. The two men offer starkly different visions of what the federal government should do to ensure that Americans have access to affordable medical care. (Levey, 8/17)
The Hill: Trump Campaign Sells 2020 Masks Months After CDC Recommended Them
The Trump campaign on Monday launched the sale of branded face coverings, months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first recommended masks as a way to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The campaign store features a red mask that has the word "Trump" emblazoned on it, and a blue mask with "MAGA" printed on it, a reference to the president's campaign slogan. Each costs $15. (Samuels, 8/17)
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Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: GOP Senate Ad Misrepresents Mont. Governor’s Stance On Rural Hospitals, Public Option
An attack ad, which was released in mid-July, states that Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democratic candidate for the Senate, supports a government-run health care program that would wreak havoc on the state’s health care infrastructure. “Bullock’s health care plan will force rural hospitals to close. Medicare as we know it will change, replaced by a government-run program with fewer doctors and longer wait times,” says the narrator in the dark and grainy advertisement paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). (Knight, 8/18)
