Will Voters In State Hit Hardest By Premium Hikes Be Swayed By The Increases?
The flood of bad news around the health law is unlikely to change the minds of Arizona voters, who have been long-braced for the spike in costs. Meanwhile, not a single one of 100 prominent health care executives has given money to Donald Trump's campaign.
The New York Times:
Increase In Health Act Premiums May Affect Arizona Vote
Arizona was shaping up to be one of the more unlikely battlegrounds of the 2016 campaign when a political bombshell appeared to explode last week: The Obama administration revealed that the cost of midlevel plans on the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace here would increase next year by 116 percent on average. Senator John McCain, running for re-election against the headwind of Donald J. Trump, took the bad news as a gift, highlighting it in a new television ad that begins, “When you open up your health insurance bill and find your premiums are doubling, remember that McCain strongly opposes Obamacare.” (Goodnough, 10/29)
Modern Healthcare:
Healthcare Leaders Send Cash To Hillary Clinton, Shun Donald Trump
Healthcare leaders apparently don't think much of Donald Trump. A quarter of 100 prominent healthcare executives gave money to Trump's opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. The rest have not donated to either Clinton or Trump, according to a Modern Healthcare analysis of federal election records. Not a single one financially backed Trump, even though many of them have a history of donating to conservative politicians and causes. (Herman and Muchmore, 10/29)
In other 2016 elections news —
The Hill:
ObamaCare Vanishes From Campaign Airwaves
ObamaCare appears to have lost its potency on the campaign trail. Senate Republican candidates have featured the healthcare law in just 12 percent of their ads this year, according to data by Wesleyan University. That’s about half as many anti-ObamaCare ads by Republicans from the same period in 2014. It's an even sharper shift from the elections in 2010 and 2012, when Republicans campaigned aggressively on the healthcare law and wiped away the Democratic majorities in Congress. Leading up to the GOP’s 2010 wave election, ObamaCare made up a full one-third of advertising, according to the Wesleyan data. (Ferris, 10/31)
Kaiser Health News:
Sounds Like A Good Idea? High-Risk Pools
This is the third in a series of videos about campaign health proposals that “sound like a good idea.” This one explores why a Republican suggestion to establish a new federal high-risk insurance pool may not be such a good idea after all. (Rovner and Ying, 10/31)
Watch the other videos on selling insurance across state lines and regulating drug prices.
