Jun 9, 2020 - Health

HHS to send $25 billion to Medicaid and safety net providers

Elmhurst Hospital Center, a safety-net hospital in New York City. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday it is distributing $25 billion to health care providers most at risk of financial collapse from the coronavirus pandemic. Facilities that treat predominantly poorer patients had been largely shut out from previous relief funding, which drew criticism from health policy experts.

Details: HHS will send $15 billion to doctors, hospitals and other providers that mostly see Medicaid patients and have not received coronavirus bailout funds yet, as well as $10 billion to safety net hospitals and facilities that treat large amounts of indigent patients. This money will come from a $175 billion fund Congress created earlier this year.

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Drew Altman, Kaiser Family Foundation
Sep 17, 2020 - Health

Poll: Biden beats Trump on health care, but it's not the top issue

Reproduced from the Kaiser Family Foundation; Chart: Axios Visuals

Swing voters in three swing states prefer Joe Biden over President Trump on health care and the coronavirus — but those aren't their most important issues, according to the latest KFF-Cook Political Report poll.

The big picture: The economy is the most important issue to these voters, and they give the advantage there to Trump. But Biden dominates the next tier of issues in this poll of swing voters in Arizona, Florida and North Carolina.

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Orion Rummler
Sep 16, 2020 - Health

CDC director suggests face masks offer more COVID-19 protection than vaccine would

CDC director Robert Redfield suggested in a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that face masks are "more guaranteed" to protect against the coronavirus than a vaccine, citing the potential for some people to not become immune to the virus after receiving the shot.

What he's saying: "These face masks are the most important, powerful public health tool we have. And I will continue to appeal for all Americans, all individuals in our country, to embrace these face coverings. I've said if we did it for 6, 8, 10, 12 weeks, we'd bring this pandemic under control," he said.

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Alexi McCammond
Sep 16, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Biden: "I trust vaccines, I trust scientists, but I don’t trust Donald Trump"

In remarks in Delaware on Wednesday, Joe Biden made clear that he trusts the scientists on a coronavirus vaccine but not President Trump, laying out a list of three criteria he wants the administration to meet to ensure the process is not politicized.

Why it matters: Republicans have been criticizing Biden and other Democrats as being anti-vaccine in the wake of recent comments about whether they’d take a vaccine approved by the Trump administration on an expedited timetable.

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