Republicans Shy Away From ACA Messaging In Campaign Ads As Dems Focus On Preexisting Conditions Protections
Health care is a hot topic during the final stretch before the midterm elections. In a shift from years past, Democrats are trying to use the health law as a weapon against Republicans. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is promising to protect Medicare -- just like he did when campaigning for 2016. But this time around he has a record showing that he supports cuts to Medicare and other safety net programs.
The New York Times:
No. 1 Aim Of Democratic Campaign Ads: Protect Pre-Existing Conditions
In years past, Obamacare was the stuff of Republican attack ads. No more.This cycle, even Democrats running in red states are unapologetically putting health care at the center of their campaign messages. There’s a reason: Republican efforts to overhaul the health care system last year were deeply unpopular. (Sanger-Katz, 9/17)
The New York Times:
Taking Page From 2016, Trump Claims Democrats Will Destroy Safety Net
President Trump had a blunt message for Montana voters last week, an unapologetic reprise of the promise to protect Medicare and Social Security that he used during the 2016 presidential campaign to successfully appeal to older, blue-collar voters. “They’re going to hurt your Social Security so badly, and they’re killing you on Medicare. Just remember that. I’m going to protect your Social Security,” Mr. Trump said at a campaign rally in Billings on behalf of Matt Rosendale, a Republican Senate candidate. (Shear, 9/14)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Few Safeguards For Foster Kids On Psych Drugs
Thousands of children in foster care may be getting powerful psychiatric drugs prescribed to them without basic safeguards, according to a federal watchdog's investigation that finds a failure to care for youngsters whose lives have already been disrupted. The report due Monday from the Health and Human Services inspector general's office found that about 1 in 3 foster kids from a sample of states were prescribed psychiatric drugs without treatment plans or follow-up, which are considered standard for sound medical care. (9/17)
Stat:
Gottlieb Pitches 'Subscriptions' To Encourage Pharma To Make New Antibiotics
The Food and Drug Administration is talking with other federal agencies and even the private Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about new ways to encourage drug makers to develop more antibiotics, agency Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a speech Friday. The problem Gottlieb wants to address is twofold. First, as bacteria become immune to the current arsenal of antibiotic medicines, more than 20,000 Americans are dying each year from these hard-to-treat infections. Drug companies, however, have few financial incentives to develop better drugs. (Swetlitz, 9/14)
CNBC:
HHS Supports FDA's Proposed E-Cigarette Crackdown, HHS Chief Azar Says
Regulators aren't going to allow what they're calling an epidemic of e-cigarette use among teens become a "pathway to nicotine dependency," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told CNBC on Friday. The e-cigarette craze has driven what's arguably the largest uptick in teen nicotine use in decades after years of driving cigarette smoking rates to record lows. Teens who would have never smoked cigarettes are happily inhaling fruity flavors, sometimes without realizing it is packed with nicotine, an addictive substance. (LaVito, 9/14)
The New York Times:
Don’t Use Infant Walkers
More than 230,000 children younger than 15 months were treated in emergency rooms for injuries incurred while using infant walkers from 1990 to 2014. An analysis published in Pediatrics has found that 6,539 of them had skull fractures, 91 percent of them from falling down stairs. The devices are banned in Canada, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that they be banned in the United States as well. (Bakalar, 9/17)
Stat:
Addiction Doctors Try To Bring Care To Patients, Rather Than Vice Versa
The San Francisco program, run by the city’s public health department, is one of a handful of novel programs around the country that are taking the unusual step of delivering comprehensive treatment to people with addiction — wherever they are. These programs aim to help patients who can’t or won’t jump through the hoops of health care bureaucracy — appointments, referrals, paperwork, even obtaining a photo ID. It is one of the rare policy ideas that is giving health officials hope for reducing overdose deaths, even as Congress nibbles around the edges of the crisis and the Trump administration grows increasingly hostile to some harm-reduction initiatives. (Facher, 9/17)
The New York Times:
Low-Dose Aspirin Late In Life? Healthy People May Not Need It
Should older people in good health start taking aspirin to prevent heart attacks, strokes, dementia and cancer? No, according to a study of more than 19,000 people, including whites 70 and older, and blacks and Hispanics 65 and older. They took low-dose aspirin — 100 milligrams — or a placebo every day for a median of 4.7 years. Aspirin did not help them — and may have done harm. (Grady, 9/16)