Mastercard’s main business is providing payments card technology, but it turns out that the same tech can be used for much higher purposes: saving lives in some of the poorest countries in the world.
The big picture: Thanks to a partnership between Mastercard and Gavi, the global vaccination alliance, children will be given a "digital birth certificate" that looks a lot like a standard credit card. That card can then be taken into any clinic, which will be able to see exactly which vaccinations the child has received and which shots are still needed.
Republicans and Democrats took to the Sunday morning talk shows to react to Friday's decision by a federal judge in Texas to throw out key provisions of the Affordable Care Act — a ruling that could make its way to the Supreme Court and ultimately impact millions of Americans.
What they're saying: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed the conservative judge's decision as "an awful, awful ruling" on NBC's "Meet the Press," claiming that in addition to eliminating protections for pre-existing conditions, it would have far-reaching impacts on funding for opioid treatment, drug prices and women's health issues. Schumer said Democrats would fight the ruling "tooth and nail," and that they would put a vote on the floor "urging an intervention in the case."
"An explosive court ruling to wipe out Obamacare has revived the acrimonious health care battle in Washington and tossed a political bomb in President Trump’s lap as he gears up to run for re-election," Bloomberg's Sahil Kapur writes.
The big picture: "The casemay not be resolved in the courts before 2020, legal experts said, which could make ita defining issue in the race for the White House and Congress...Democrats immediately jumped on the Friday night ruling to warn that health care coverage for millions of Americans was at stake."
Beto O'Rourke ran a decidedly progressive Senate campaign in 2018, especially for a Democrat running in deep-red Texas. But now activists on the left are questioning his ideology and if he's progressive enough to represent their party in 2020.
Why it matters: The left is where the energy is in today's Democratic Party. Nearly half of Democratic voters describe themselves as liberal, up 17 percentage points from a decade ago, according to Pew Research Center. After Bernie Sanders didn't get the nomination in 2016, expect the activist base that organized behind him to be even more demanding of all 2020 candidates.
The Affordable Care Act, President Obama's signature achievement, may be headed back to the Supreme Court after a conservative federal judge in Texas struck down the individual mandate as unconstitutional last evening.
Be smart: This really could end with the Affordable Care Act being wiped out. There’s no guarantee that a more conservative Supreme Court won’t just let the law die.
A federal judge declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional Friday, ruling that the entire law must be struck down because Congress invalidated the tax penalty for not buying health insurance — the basis for the Supreme Court's 2012 ruling that declared the law constitutional.
Why it matters: The long-awaited ruling by the Texas judge isn't the last word on the issue. A spokeswoman for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says the state is already planning an appeal, per Bloomberg. But it leaves the entire future of Barack Obama's health care law uncertain — and is sure to put President Trump and congressional Republicans on the defensive, as it would mean the end of protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
