Health Care
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Health Care
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Biden campaign jumps into ObamaCare fight |
President Biden’s reelection campaign is enthusiastically jumping into a fight with former President Trump over the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. |
Over the holiday weekend, Trump posted on his Truth Social account that he was “seriously looking at alternatives” to the 13-year-old law, and that the failure to repeal the law while he was in the White House in 2017 was “a low point for the Republican Party.”
Still, he said “we should never give up!”
Republicans don’t have a plan to replace ObamaCare. When Trump was president and Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress, they tried and failed to repeal the law. Three GOP-led attempts to repeal the law through the courts have also failed, including one backed by Trump in 2020.
Since then, GOP members have largely conceded that an ObamaCare fight is a losing issue and have instead focused on issues like crime, immigration and the economy.
Still, President Biden and his reelection team is more than happy to engage and amplify Trump’s claims, which were made in reaction to an editorial published in The Wall Street Journal.
“My predecessor, once again — God love him — called for cuts that could rip away health insurance for tens of millions of Americans on Medicaid,” Biden said Monday. “They don’t give up. But guess what, we won’t let these things happen.”
Biden’s team pointed to polling from the health policy research group KFF, which in May found nearly 60 percent of the public had a favorable view of the health law. Democrats retook control of the House in 2018 after making the GOP repeal efforts the center of their campaigns, promising to protect Americans from losing coverage for preexisting conditions.
“40 million people – more than 1 in 10 Americans – have health insurance today because of the Affordable Care Act and Donald Trump just said he would try to rip it away if he returns to power. He was one vote away from getting it done when he was president – and we should take him at his word that he’ll try to do it again,” Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
The campaign has also enlisted popular Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper to act as a health care messaging surrogate. North Carolina is a key battleground state, and Cooper was able to shepherd Medicaid expansion through the GOP-controlled legislature this year.
The law will officially take effect on Friday, making North Carolina the 40th state to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare. Cooper and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who presided over passage of ObamaCare in 2010, will hold a press call for the campaign Tuesday. |
Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health. |
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How policy will be impacting the health care sector this week and beyond: |
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A new retrospective study of children’s health care coverage found that roughly 1 in 5 children did not have adequate health insurance, meaning coverage that met their needs and was reasonably affordable. Researchers from Columbia University, the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University conducted a study of children’s health insurance coverage between 2016 and 2021. Of the more than 200,000 children that … |
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Idaho is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let it enforce a near-total abortion ban while the state appeals a lower court ruling that the ban conflicts with a federal emergency care law. In an emergency application posted Monday, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador (R) asked the justices to overrule an injunction issued by a federal appeals court that prevents the state from prosecuting physicians who perform abortions … |
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| New diabetes drug Mounjaro is more effective for weight loss that the popular drug Ozempic, a new analysis found. The analysis conducted by Truveta Research found that patients taking Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro were “significantly more likely” to experience 5 percent, 10 percent and 15 percent loss of their body weight while taking the drug than those who were taking Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic. Using … |
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Join The Hill in DC on Dec. 7: U.S. Healthcare’s Annual Checkup | National Press Club | SIGN UP
Join The Hill for its biannual health care summit exploring the intersection of health and politics. We’ll explore such topics as the doctor shortage, rising health care costs, the consequences of an aging population, game-changing treatments for cancer and weight-loss drugs, the role of AI in health care and more. Speakers include: -
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), chair, Ways & Means Subcommittee on Health
- Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), co-lead, Congressional Caucus on Black Women & Girls
- Ramsey Alwin, president & CEO, NCOA
- Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, president, AMA
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Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, CEO, FNIH
- Nancy Glick, Director of Food and Nutrition Policy, NCL
- Dr. Céline Gounder, editor-at-large, Public Health
- Dr. Clifford Hudis, CEO, ASCO
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Dr. Karen Knudsen, CEO, ACS CAN
- Lori Reilly, COO, PhRMA
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Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching: |
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The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a lawsuit on behalf of women denied abortions for medically complex pregnancies
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A House Oversight subcommittee holds a hearing Wednesday on federal agencies’ post-pandemic telework policies
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CDC Director Mandy Cohen will testify Thursday during a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on how the agency can rebuild public trust
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Branch out with a different read from The Hill: |
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Tackling climate change and alleviating hunger: States recycle and donate food headed to landfills |
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (AP) — When Sean Rafferty got his start in the grocery business, anything that wasn’t sold got tossed out. But on a recent day, Rafferty, the store manager for ShopRite of Elmsford-Greenburgh in New York, was preparing boxes of bread, donuts, fresh produce and dairy products to be picked up by a food bank. It’s … | |
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Local and state headlines on health care: |
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‘This guy is a charlatan’: University of Florida turns against Joe Ladapo (Politico)
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Rural medics get long-distance help in treating man gored by bison (KFF Health News)
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Virginia localities sue pharmaceutical giants over insulin costs (Washington Post)
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Health news we’ve flagged from other outlets: |
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Some Republicans were willing to compromise on abortion ban exceptions. Activists made sure they didn’t. (ProPublica)
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Unvaccinated and vulnerable: Children drive surge in deadly outbreaks (The New York Times)
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Will first FDA-approved at-home test for gonorrhea, chlamydia ease the epidemic? (NBC News)
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Most read stories on The Hill right now: |
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Former President Trump’s company no longer prepares the sweeping financial statements now under scrutiny in his civil fraud trial in New York, … Read more |
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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday said he spoke with Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) “at some length” during the holiday recess “about his options” … Read more |
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Opinions related to health submitted to The Hill: |
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You’re all caught up. See you tomorrow! |
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