House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's release of her drug pricing plan last week means that both chambers of Congress are officially working to pass drug pricing legislation, with the White House closely monitoring.
Why it matters: For the time being, each chamber is moving ahead on their own version. Pelosi's was met with some trepidation by progressives, while Sen. Chuck Grassley has his work cut out to convince some of his Republican colleagues to support his bill.
The number of procedures taking place in outpatient surgery centers — where people go under the knife and return home the same day — is expected to rise from 23 million in 2018 to 27 million in 2021, according to estimates from consulting firm Bain & Co.
Why it matters: Surgeries in freestanding centers cost less than those that happen in hospital outpatient departments, which is why many insurers and policymakers are pushing for this shift.
Sen. Bernie Sanders released his 2020 plan to cancel $81 billion in existing medical debt, reform collections practices and change bankruptcy rules this weekend.
Why it matters: The proposal speaks directly to the issues of surprise medical bills and hospitals' lawsuits against patients — issues that have only recently entered the political lexicon.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has decided to allow a second Ebola vaccine to be distributed to certain areas of its country — a move that the World Health Organization praised as a key tool to halting further expansion of the deadly virus.
Why it matters: The DRC initially resisted some of the recommendations from the WHO, including one to approve testing another experimental vaccine. But DRC's new leader of the Ebola response in the Ministry of Health is trying new activities to halt the outbreak, which as of Sept. 19 killed about 2,111 people and infected roughly 3,157 people (in both probable and confirmed infections).
Conservative leaders are circulating data to White House staff that claims adults who vape will turn on President Trump if he follows through with his planned ban on flavored e-cigarettes, Axios has learned.
Between the lines: The data (shown below) reveals that the number of adult vapers in key battleground states greatly outweighs the margins by which Trump won those states in 2016 — and they argue it could cost him reelection.
As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) surges in the polls to a consistent second place behind former Vice President Joe Biden, heightened attention has exposed her to more serious efforts to attack her by other members of the Democratic field.
Driving the news: In recent days, Biden and Mayor Pete Buttigieg criticized Warren for dodging questions about whether her Medicare for All proposal will raise taxes on middle-class Americans, according to USA Today. Both Buttigieg and Biden oppose abolishing private insurance under Sen. Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All plan, and instead favor a "public option."
