Trump: Anyone Who Thinks Repeal Is Dead ‘Does Not Know The Love And Strength’ Of Republican Party
President Donald Trump took to Twitter over the weekend to vow that efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act are still on-going. Meanwhile, now that Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress, they also own the political ramifications of health care, and Medicare-For-All may serve as a gut-check for some Democrats in the Trump era.
USA Today:
Trump Claims He Will Rally On Health Care
President Trump expressed confidence Sunday — both on social media and the golf course — that he and aides can somehow resurrect their attempt to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law. Hours before hitting the links with one of his critics on health care — Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — Trump tweeted: "Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!" (Jackson, 4/2)
The Associated Press:
Health Care Defeat Means GOP Risks Blame In '18 Elections
The crash of the House Republican health care bill may well have transformed an issue the party has long used to bash Democrats into the GOP's own political nightmare. Since former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul was enacted in 2010, Republicans have blamed Democrats for rising premiums and diminished choices of insurers and doctors in many markets. Repealing Obama's law has been a paramount GOP campaign promise that helped them grab control of the House that year, the Senate in 2014 and elected Donald Trump to the White House last November. (Fram, 4/1)
CNN:
Democrats' Medicare-For-All Litmus Test
Democrats eying the 2020 presidential contest could soon face a "Medicare-for-all" litmus test from the party's progressive base. After last month's failure of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal Obamacare, progressives are going on offense, mounting a new push for single-payer health insurance. (Bradner, 4/3)
In other national health care news —
The New York Times:
The Next Battle In The War Over Planned Parenthood
Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, was poring over a spiral notebook in her bare-bones office here when she was asked about President Trump’s latest attempt to cut a deal on abortion. Days earlier, the Trump White House had floated a trial balloon: If Planned Parenthood would quit performing abortions, it could keep roughly $550 million in annual federal funding. (Stolberg, 3/31)
Reuters:
U.S. Zika Vaccine Begins Second Phase Of Testing
Researchers have begun the second phase of testing of a Zika vaccine developed by U.S. government scientists in a trial that could yield preliminary results as early as the end of 2017. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Friday the $100 million trial has already been funded and will proceed, irrespective of the $7 billion in cuts to the National Institutes of Health budget proposed by the Trump Administration over the next 18 months. (Steenhuysen, 3/31)
Stat:
Hospitals Rush To Get Accelerated Visas For Foreign Medical Residents
[For] some of the 3,814 non-US citizens who graduated from foreign schools and who won coveted residencies in the United States, it’s unclear whether they’ll be able to start work on time in the summer. That’s because a program that allows employers to fast-track H-1B visa applications for their employees has been suspended as of Monday. US immigration officials announced the change just a month ago — and Match Day, when new residents learn where they will be placed was March 17 — leaving some hospitals rushing to figure out who needed this kind of visa and to apply before “premium processing” would no longer be an option. (Boodman, 4/3)
The Associated Press:
A 'Sci-Fi' Cancer Therapy Fights Brain Tumors, Study Finds
It sounds like science fiction, but a cap-like device that makes electric fields to fight cancer improved survival for the first time in more than a decade for people with deadly brain tumors, final results of a large study suggest. Many doctors are skeptical of the therapy, called tumor treating fields, and it's not a cure. It's also ultra-expensive — $21,000 a month. (4/2)
The Washington Post:
The Scary Reason Doctors Say Kids Need HPV Vaccinations
When actor Michael Douglas told a reporter that his throat cancer was caused by HPV contracted through oral sex, two themes emerged that had nothing to do with celebrity gossip. The first was incredulity — since when was oral sex related to throat cancer? Even the reporter thought he had misheard. The second was embarrassment. This was too much information, not only about sexual behavior but also about one’s partners. Douglas apologized, and maybe the world was not ready to hear the greater truth behind what he was suggesting. That was four years ago. (Schaaff, 4/2)