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As a part of a media blitz geared toward girls voters, Vice President Kamala Harris this week rolled out a plan for Medicare to supply in-home long-term care providers. It’s fashionable, notably for households struggling to look after each younger kids and older family, however its huge expense has prevented comparable plans from being carried out for many years.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden referred to as out former President Donald Trump by title for having “led the onslaught of lies” concerning the federal efforts to assist folks affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton. Even some Republican officers say the misinformation about hurricane reduction efforts is threatening public well being.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Shefali Luthra of The nineteenth, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins colleges of public well being and nursing and Politico.
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan to develop Medicare to cowl extra long-term care is fashionable however not new, and previously has proved prohibitively costly.
Former President Donald Trump has deserted help for a drug value coverage he pursued throughout his first time period. The thought, which might decrease drug costs within the U.S. to their ranges in different industrialized nations, is vehemently opposed by the drug trade, elevating the query of whether or not Trump is softening his laborious line on the problem.
Abortion continues to be the most important well being coverage subject of 2024, as Republican candidates — in what appears to be a replay of 2022 — attempt to distance themselves from their help of abortion bans and different limits. Voters proceed to favor reproductive rights, which creates a model downside for the GOP. Trump’s going forwards and backwards on his abortion positions is an exception to the tack different candidates have taken.
The Supreme Court returned from its summer time break and instantly declined to listen to two abortion-related circumstances. One case pits Texas’ near-total abortion ban in opposition to a federal legislation that requires emergency abortions to be carried out in sure circumstances. The different challenges a ruling earlier this 12 months from the Alabama Supreme Court discovering that embryos frozen for in vitro fertilization have the identical authorized rights as born people.
The 2024 KFF annual employer well being advantages survey, launched this week, confirmed a roughly 7% enhance in premiums, with common household premiums now topping $25,000 per 12 months. And that’s with most employers not masking two fashionable however costly medical interventions: GLP-1 medicine for weight reduction and IVF.
Also this week, excerpts from a KFF lunch with “Shark Tank” panelist and generic drug discounter Mark Cuban, who has been consulting with the Harris marketing campaign about well being care points.
Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week they suppose it is best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: KFF Health News’ “A Boy’s Bicycling Death Haunts a Black Neighborhood. 35 Years Later, There’s Still No Sidewalk,” by Renuka Rayasam and Fred Clasen-Kelly.
Shefali Luthra: The nineteenth’s “Arizona’s Ballot Measure Could Shift the Narrative on Latinas and Abortion,” by Mel Leonor Barclay.
Jessie Hellmann: The Assembly’s “Helene Left Some NC Elder-Care Homes Without Power,” by Carli Brosseau.
Joanne Kenen: The New York Times’ “Her Face Was Unrecognizable After an Explosion. A Placenta Restored It,” by Kate Morgan.
Also talked about on this week’s podcast:
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