Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Of The Union: Some Experts Say Trump's Goal Of Halting HIV Transmissions In America Is Achievable, Realistic
President Trump is expected to announce in his State of the Union speech a national commitment to end transmission of the virus that causes AIDS, with a goal of stopping its spread in this country by 2030. A senior administration official with knowledge of Mr. Trump鈥檚 preparations confirmed the plan on Monday, in advance of the address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening. Government scientists have been working for months on the plan, which calls for an expanded effort to prevent infections and to treat those with H.I.V. (Pear and Rogers, 2/4)
Few other details were available Monday, but any effort to eradicate new HIV diagnoses would almost certainly have to focus on black and Hispanic men who have sex with other men, people between the ages of 25 and 34 and residents of Southern states. Those groups have for years borne a disproportionate share of new HIV diagnoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, there were 38,739 new HIV diagnoses in the United States, according to the CDC. An estimated 1.1 million people had the virus in 2015, the CDC said, with about 15 percent of them undiagnosed. (Bernstein, Sun and Goldstein, 2/4)
Trump鈥檚 team has indicated the president may make overtures to Democrats by delivering a 鈥渦nifying鈥 message that contains proposals they could support, such as reforming prescription drug pricing, a commitment to end AIDS in the U.S. by 2030 and an infrastructure package. But it鈥檚 unclear how much of the speech will be dedicated to bipartisan themes compared with appeals to Trump鈥檚 base, typically the president鈥檚 go-to move in times of crisis. (Fabian, 2/5)
A guide to separating fact from fiction on subjects Trump is expected to address in Tuesday night's speech: What a difference a year makes. From predicting that the Affordable Care Act would "implode" and "explode," Trump now regularly claims credit for stable premiums under the health law. He's likely to keep repeating it, even though he's wrong. "The average benchmark exchange premium will decline for the first time in 2019 thanks to President Trump's policies," states a Jan. 20 White House information sheet, referring to the marketplace exchanges set up under "Obamacare." (Yen and Woodward, 2/4)
The White House primarily sees the speech鈥攈is second address to the nation on border security in the past month鈥攁s key to its efforts to win a public-relations battle in the standoff with congressional Democrats over border-wall funding, which led to the 35-day shutdown that left 800,000 workers without pay for weeks. (Ballhaus, 2/4)
Trump's first State of the Union address, delivered last January, was the third-longest ever delivered, clocking in at 1 hour and 20 minutes. That鈥檚 a near-historic amount of time, and just nine minutes shy of the overall record, which goes to President Bill Clinton鈥檚 final State of the Union address in 2000. Clinton also claims the No. 2 spot with his 1995 address, which lasted 1 hour and 25 minutes. (Forgey, 2/4)