Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
If Joe Biden Is Elected President, Would He Make Ending Cancer His Signature Issue?
[Joe] Biden鈥檚 announcement that he will run for president in 2020, however, has resurfaced his dream: a White House that makes cancer a signature issue, backed by a politician whose life was so publicly upended by the disease. With much of the early debate in the Democratic primary centering on health care, Biden鈥檚 stint as cancer-advocate-in-chief and orchestrator of the Obama administration鈥檚 鈥淐ancer Moonshot鈥� could give him the opportunity to make the disease, its treatments, and his own grief central to the presidential election. (Facher, 5/14)
This is one of those inside-the-Beltway exchanges that probably leaves many Americans scratching their heads. Harris, a 2020 presidential hopeful, is a co-sponsor of Sen. Bernie Sanders鈥檚 plan to create a 鈥渟ingle-payer鈥� government-run health-care system. It鈥檚 called Medicare-for-all since it will be more all-encompassing than the current government-run program for the elderly. Harris made these remarks after Tapper asked her if she wanted to clarify comments she had made in a CNN town hall in January. At the time, her remarks 鈥渓et鈥檚 eliminate all of that鈥� were widely interpreted to mean doing away with private insurance. In her recent appearance, she argued that in context she was talking about health-care bureaucracy today. (Rereading the full exchange, she has a point.) She said she did think there was a role for private insurance in the government-run system. (Kessler, 5/14)
Kaiser Health News: Eric Swalwell鈥檚 Tweet About Georgia鈥檚 New Abortion Restriction Only Slightly Off-Key
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law Tuesday the state鈥檚 latest abortion restriction. Political reaction to the measure, which prohibits the procedure once a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat 鈥� usually at about the six-week mark 鈥� was swift. ... Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, was among the critics who weighed in. 鈥淭he so-called 鈥榟eartbeat鈥� law outlaws abortion before most women even know that they鈥檙e pregnant,鈥� Swalwell posted on Twitter. 鈥淭his is one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in our country.鈥� (Luthra, 5/14)