Trump Tells Voters Preexisting Condition Protections Are Safe Even As His Administration Works To Get Rid Of Them
The Associated Press fact checks statements from President Donald Trump about what's going on with those popular provisions, the threat to which has voters worried just weeks before midterms.
The Associated Press Fact Check:
Trump's Falsehoods On Health Plan Protections
President Donald Trump isn't playing it straight when it comes to his campaign pledge not to undercut health coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions. Five weeks before midterm elections, he is telling voters that those provisions "are safe," even as his Justice Department is arguing in court that those protections in the Affordable Care Act should fall. The short-term health plans Trump often promotes as a bargain alternative to "Obamacare" offer no guarantee of covering pre-existing conditions. (10/1)
In other national health care news —
The New York Times/ProPublica:
Sloan Kettering Executive Turns Over Windfall Stake In Biotech Start-Up
A vice president of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has to turn over to the hospital nearly $1.4 million of a windfall stake in a biotech company, in light of a series of for-profit deals and industry conflicts at the cancer center that has forced it to re-examine its corporate relationships.
The vice president, Dr. Gregory Raskin, oversees hospital ventures with for-profit companies. As compensation for representing the hospital on the biotech company’s board, Dr. Raskin received stock options whose value soared when the start-up went public a little over a week ago. (9/29)
Politico:
Fight Over Fetal Tissue Splits HHS, Anti-Abortion Allies
Anti-abortion groups — normally staunch allies of the Trump administration — have turned their fire on the health department, accusing the agency of being complicit in abortions by refusing to end research projects using fetal tissue. The simmering fight spilled into public view on Monday night, as HHS abruptly terminated one longstanding contract with a fetal tissue provider while opening an audit of all federally funded research and practices related to fetal tissue, which is mostly obtained from abortions. (Diamond, 9/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Complex Reasons Sexual Assaults Go Unreported
The heated national debate about sexual misconduct has cast a spotlight on victims’ reluctance to report assault. The issue has been at the center of some of the most high-profile cases in the #MeToo era. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center, a Harrisburg, Pa., nonprofit, reviewed studies by the U.S. Department of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as academic legal research, and found only 5% to 20% of sexual-assault victims report attacks to law enforcement. (Bernstein, 9/29)
The Washington Post:
Sexual Assault Victims Are Reliving Their Trauma, Triggered By Kavanaugh Hearing
Painful. Gut-wrenching. Heartbreaking. Unbearable. That’s how women described listening to Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Christine Blasey Ford testified that Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. (Bloom, 9/28)
NPR:
Traumatic Moments Are Burned Into Memory, Scientists Say
In Thursday's testimony at Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, Christine Blasey Ford alleged Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party in 1982, when she was 15 years old and he was 17. Kavanaugh staunchly denied these allegations.But memory is fallible. A question on many people's minds is, how well can anyone recall something that happened over 35 years ago? (Chatterjee, 9/28)
Los Angeles Times:
In Need Of Life-Saving Surgery, He Was Promised Refuge In America. Just 15 Months Later, He Died — Still Waiting
Seid Moradi was elated when he found out his family had been approved to resettle in America. As non-Muslims who’d fled death threats in Iran, the family barely scraped by in Turkey. His sons had trouble finding work because of discrimination toward refugees. His wife picked through trash bins for food. And the family of six crammed into a friend’s apartment. Moradi’s case had a special urgency, however. He needed life-saving surgery for a bulging blood vessel by his heart. An American doctor, he was told, could perform the operation once he arrived in the U.S. (Kaleem and Etehad, 9/30)