How Would The Candidates Address The Ongoing Opioid Epidemic And Ensure Adequate Prevention And Treatment For The Hardest
In April 2017, the Trump administration announced that its strategy to combat the crisis would include better addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery services enhanced data improvements in pain management advanced targeting of overdose-reversing drugs and more research. The administration has allocated nearly $2 billion in grants to states for prevention and treatment strategies, as well as for enhancing data capabilities to track and monitor drug-related deaths.
Vice President Biden has pledged to make effective prevention, treatment, and recovery services available to all. He has proposed a $125 billion federal investment to do so, part of which would be targeted support for states and localities. Biden also favors better integrated primary care and behavioral health, in addition to pursuing cost-effective, evidence-based prevention strategies.
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The Difference Between Obamacare The Senates Trumpcare The Houses Trumpcare Explained
The following table shows the main difference between ObamaCare, the Senates Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, and the Houses American HealthCare Act :
TIP: Note, not all the recent changes are reflected in the chart below.
UPDATE: Sine both the BCRA and the AHCA didnt pass, this has historical value, but doesnt reflect what actually happened. That said, youll notice some of these items were passed through other means.
OPINION ON UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE: The biggest gripe people will have with TrumpCare is that it is not a universal healthcare system . Instead, TrumpCare results in more uninsured than we had before the Affordable Care Act. All TrumpCares good points aside, a plan that results in more uninsured and not less will be hard to spin. Trump recently said , Australias healthcare system is better than ours. To be clear, I think many would agree with that. Australia has universal healthcare, meaning it doesnt leave 15% of its citizens without coverage due to preexisting conditions and costs. Trump at one point promised health care for everybody. Here I must note that the Senate could essentially re-write the house bill to create a system like the Australian one . For more see: ObamaCare and Australias HealthCare Systems Compared.
Millions Of Americans Lost Coverage Before And During The Pandemic
Since President Trump took office, millions of Americans have lost health insurance coverage. The number of uninsured Americans rose by 2.3 million from 2016 to 2019, including 726,000 children, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Among the 41 states with increases in their numbers of uninsured residents, the largest increases were in Texas and Florida . Many smaller states, such as Michigan and Wisconsin , saw increases in the tens of thousands. Just a handful of states experienced a net gain in coverage, including New York, where the number of uninsured people declined by 176,000.
Table 1
The increase in the number of uninsured people over the past few years is the product of Trump administration policies aimed at attacking the ACA, including signing the repeal of the ACAs individual mandate penalty and making it more difficult for Americans to obtain comprehensive insurance coverage. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Increases in health insurance premiums and the elimination of the individual mandate penalty have contributed to the rise in the uninsurance rate.
Figure 1
During the pandemic, the consequences of ACA repeal will be even graver: More than 20 million people overall could now lose coverage, as people shift from employment-based plans to coverage options made possible by the ACA, such as expanded Medicaid and nongroup coverage, after being laid off by an employer or losing income this year.
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Relief To Mail Delivery
- The U.S. Postal Service will receive a $10 billion line of credit. On April 24, Trump attempted to use this loan as leverage for a new demand, as he threatened to block the emergency funding if the post office did not quadruple its prices for online retailers. As of early May, the details of the loan were still being negotiated.
- $400 million will be allocated to help states prepare for an expected increase in mailed ballots in .
Pac With Democratic Ties Weighs In On Kansas Senate Gop Primary
Liz Brown-Kaiser and Ben Kamisar
WASHINGTON A newly formed PAC with ties to Democrats is inserting itself into Kansas Senate GOP primary with a new ad hammering Rep. Roger Marshall providing a not-so-subtle, de facto boost for failed 2018 gubernatorial nominee, Kris Kobach, who some Republicans fear could lose the partys historically safe seat if nominated.
“Kris Kobach, hes too conservative,” the 30-second spot from Sunflower State begins hardly a negative for Republican primary voters slated to choose their nominee early next month.
“Roger Marshall’s a phony,” the ad continues. “After backing a Mitt Romney-like candidate for president, hes been soft on Trump and weak on immigration. Marshalls been both for and against the wall. He went easy on China, but now talks tough. Roger Marshall: Fake, fake, fake.”
Sunflower State has booked about $900,000 in ad time through the Aug. 4 primary, data from Advertising Analytics shows. Kobach and Marshall lead a broad field of candidates competing in the Kansas Senate GOP contest to earn the right to face expected Democratic nominee, state Sen. Barbara Bollier, to win outgoing Sen. Pat Roberts seat.
Some Republicans worry that if Kobach who lost the states 2018 gubernatorial contest to Democrat Laura Kelly becomes their partys nominee, the traditionally red seat could be up for grabs as Bollier continues to rake in sizable fundraising sums and the DSCC pushes her candidacy.
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Trump Signs Limited Drug Pricing Orders After Last
But the ordersappeared largely symbolic for now, as they were not immediately enforceable, contained notable caveats and may not be completed before the election anyway. For instance, an order requiring drugmakers to pass along any discounts directly to seniors requires the health secretary to confirm the plan wont result in higher premiums or drive up federal spending. But the White House had shelved that plan last summer over worries the move might hike seniors Medicare premiums ahead of the election and cost taxpayers $180 billion over the next decade.
Conway disputed that Trump had not made progress on issues like drug pricing.
President Trump is directing the development of therapeutics and vaccines, has delivered lower prescription drug costs, increased transparency in pricing for consumers and is committed to covering preexisting conditions and offering higher quality health care with lower costs and more choices, she said.
Yet a number of Trumps other health care initiatives have faced hurdles especially amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The opioid crisis, which the president had touted as a top priority and campaigned on in 2016, is getting worse. Drug overdose deaths hit a record high in 2019 and federal and state data shows they are skyrocketing in 2020.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated when the Trump administration plans to finalize its kidney care project. Its expected to happen this year.
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Trump Campaign Hits Biden On Energy Trade Around Pennsylvania Speech
Stacey Khizder
WASHINGTON President Trump’s re-election campaign warned that former Vice President Joe Biden would devastate Pennsylvania’s economy if elected president, a warning given as Biden traveled to the state Thursday to give remarks on health care.
In a phone call aimed at reporters who primarily cover Biden, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh, promised that once Pennsylvanians find out that wants to destroy the Pennsylvania economy by imposing the Green New Deal on everybody and eliminating the natural gas industry and when they find out that he voted for NAFTA, which was an epic job killer, people will have a different view, and even the public polls will reflect that. Now we have confidence, the President is strong in Pennsylvania a second time.
In Pennsylvania, Biden met with families who have benefitted from the Affordable Care Act, the signature piece of legislation during his time in the Obama administration. He also gave remarks criticizing the president’s attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, as well as the president’s recent remarks on coronavirus testing.
“Hes like a child who just cant believe this has happened to him. Its all whining and self-pity,” Biden said, critiquing the president’s coronavirus response.
“This pandemic didnt happen to him. It happened to all of us.”
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The Effects Of Trumpcare As It Stands Now
The grand result is that the plan is that it reduces costs for the wealthy, healthy, and young, but substantially raises costs for many in other demographics.
The middle class is helped a little .
However, the same middle class would suffer went without coverage , and they might also have problems with costs if they lost their jobs or got sick.
Meanwhile, our poorest people, women, seniors, and low-wage workers would all see some new hurdles.
Less Coverage And Higher Costs: The Trumps Administrations Health Care Legacy
The president has failed to deliver on his promises to take care of everybody.
During his 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump repeatedly said he was for insurance for everybody and promised to take care of everybody and to lower costs. Almost four years later, the Trump administrations record falls far short of these promises: The number of uninsured Americans has swelled, his administration has chipped away at the consumer protections guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act , costs have risen for Americans with marketplace plans, and the nation is mired in a public health crisis.
The wake of one of the administrations most destructive health care policies may trail far beyond this term of his presidency. The health care repeal lawsuit that he helped advance to the U.S. Supreme Court could invalidate the entire ACA next spring, ending coverage for more than 20 million Americans, driving up costs for those seeking to buy coverage on their own, and eliminating consumer protections for millions of people with preexisting conditionsall in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Trump Super Pac Launches Multi
Ben Kamisar
WASHINGTON President Trump’s top allied super PAC, America First Action, has begun airing three new ads in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania as part of a $7.5 million ad campaign aimed at chipping away at former Vice President Joe Biden in key swing states.
The group hits Biden in Michigan and Wisconsin on the loss of manufacturing jobs to China.
And the Pennsylvania ad warns Biden’s climate plan would cost fossil fuel jobs in the state.
The super PAC is spending $1.75 million in Michigan’s Traverse City, Flint and Grand Rapids markets $2.25 million in Wisconsin’s Wausau, La Crosse/Green Bay and Milwaukee markets and $3.5 million in Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Johnstown, Erie and Wilkes-Barre markets. Those spending figures also include digital and mail ads, as well as television advertising, from Thursday through the July 4th weekend.
Many of those markets cover places Trump won significantly in 2016, and will need to perform well in again to hold the pivotal states in 2020. The Trump campaign just finished a $5 million TV buy that flooded the airwaves in many of those markets too.
Republicans have significantly outspent Democrats over the past week in the presidential race $5.3 million to $1.9 million on TV and radio between May 27 and June 3, according to Advertising Analytics. With the Biden campaign dark on the airwaves, the top Democratic spender over that span has been the pro-Biden Priorities USA super PAC.
Bidencare Focuses On Lower
Bidencare would cover more Americans by increasing subsidized health insurance purchases through tax credits.
It would also offer a public option, allowing anyone who wants it to buy in, even if their job offers private insurance. Lower-income families shut out of ACAs expanded Medicaid eligibility because of where they live could get it premium-free.
Any boost to health and financial stability is likely to be biggest for millions of low-income households, particularly Latino and Black families who have been particularly hard-hit during the pandemic.
For these groups especially, says the University of Michigan School of Public Healths Helen Levy, being able to accumulate assets is really important if you think about supporting economic mobility.
Minorities get and die from COVID-19 at higher rates than whites, data shows. Some of that is probably because Blacks and Latinos are more likely to work in jobs that put them at higher risk of transmission.
But even without COVID-19, minorities face higher rates of chronic disease and earlier death than whites. They also have lower rates of health insurance despite substantial gains since the advent of the ACA, a study by Kaiser Family Foundation shows.
Biden said he would pay for his plan through higher taxes on the wealthy, and use the clout of expanded public insurance to keep down medical costs.
Increasing the number of insured Americans could have positive economic consequences.
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Health Care Groups Look To Boost Democrats Again In 2020
Melissa Holzberg
WASHINGTON A number of doctor and nurses groups are backing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden for president amid the coronavirus pandemic, and as health care becomes a main focus of the presidential campaign, these groups are are making the bet that they can help Biden over the finish line like the issue helped House Democrats in 2018.
Biden has support from health care groups like the Committee to Protect Medicare , National Nurses United, Be a Hero and the American Federation of Teachers which includes has over 112,000 health professionals as members.
But the groups aren’t just offering support, they’re also taking their message to the airwaves.
The Committee to Protect Medicare launched a six-figure ad buy in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona on Wednesday tying Bidens understanding of loss to the struggle frontline health care professionals are in with coronavirus. Its message mirrors that of the Biden campaign: aside from Bidens health care plans, his empathy is what should set him apart from President Trump.
Executive director of Committee to Protect Medicare and Michigan emergency room doctor Dr. Rob Davidson compared Bidens empathy to a doctors bedside manner in the midst of this crisis.
And outside groups are pushing for Democratic-led health care legislation again this November.
And while Trump is defending his handling of the coronavirus and his lawsuit efforts, health care will be front and center in November.
New Filings Show Prominent Dem Group Funded Anti
Ben Kamisar
WASHINGTON A mysterious group that aired TV adds hammering Democrat Andrew Romanoff in the final weeks of Colorados Senate primary was funded by a Democratic outside group with ties to the super PAC backing his rival, former Gov. John Hickenlooper, new campaign finance filings show.
Let’s Turn Colorado Blue, which spent $1.3 million during the primary and ran ads hitting Romanoff on immigration, was funded by Majority Forward, according to a new filing made public on Thursday.
Majority Forward is the non-profit arm of Senate Majority PAC, the super PAC aligned with Senate Democratic leadership. Senate Majority PAC spent more than $3 million on ads of their own during the primary defending Hickenlooper and attacking Republican Sen. Cory Gardner.
Experts expected Hickenlooper to cruise through the primary. Despite a handful of hiccups during the primary , Hickenlooper defeated Romanoff by a double-digit margin.
Because Let’s Turn Colorado entered the fray so late, it did not have to disclose its donors until after the primary ended.
It’s far from the first time an outside group formed in the final weeks of a campaign is ultimately revealed as a shell for a larger group’s ambitions. It’s a tactic both parties have relied upon in recent years, with many recent, high-profile examples coming from Democrats.
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Biden Obama Discuss Race Relations Coronavirus Aca In Sit
WASHINGTON In their first known in-person side-by-side appearance together since Joe Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee, former President Obama and his vice president discussed the challenges the U.S. is facing in a video released Thursday.
In a 15-minute socially distant conversation held in Obamas Washington D.C. office earlier this month, the two discussed the coronavirus pandemic, the Affordable Care Act and race relations. This release was the full version of the conversation the Biden campaign teased on Wednesday.
Obama largely devoted his comments to validating Bidens leadership and ability to tackle issues hes faced criticism for, particularly whether he can help uplift the Black community.
The key right now, and this is why I have so much confidence in your administration, wanting to be a partner in harnessing that energy and bringing about concrete reforms, concrete steps, not just in the criminal justice system, not just with respect to policing, but with respect to investment, jobs, business development, is going to send a signal of decency,” Obama said.
Folks, I sat down with my friend President to discuss the significant moment we’re in, who we are as a nation, and how we can build back better. Watch our full conversation:
Joe Biden
The two likened it to Social Security, with Biden saying that when the program was first passed it was narrow but “you kept building it out”.
Lincoln Project To Endorse Democratic Senate Candidate In New Ad
Liz Brown-Kaiser
WASHINGTON The Lincoln Project, a super PAC founded by a group of veteran Republican strategists, is best known for its viral anti-Trump ads spread across social media and even aired on television. And while the group has also targeted individual GOP senators up for re-election this cycle for supporting President Trump, its inserting itself more directly into upcoming races by endorsing a Senate candidate for the first time Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock.
In an ad obtained by NBC News and set to be released Wednesday, the group gives its endorsement to Bullock in his race against Republican Sen. Steve Daines.
Were known for our independence, our open spaces and our strength, the spot narrator says of Montanans over picturesque scenes of the state. Governor Steve Bullock did a hell of a job for Montana, and in the U.S. Senate, he’ll show ’em what Montana strong looks like.
The 30-second ad, titled Strong, continues to say that, With everything going wrong in Washington, do nothing, say nothing politicians won’t cut it as a photo of Daines appears on the screen.
The Lincoln Project says it’s spending north of a $100,000 dollars on the ad, which is set to air across several Montana media markets on both broadcast and cable television from Wednesday through the end of the week. The spot will also be released on digital and social platforms.
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