Mar 18, 2017

Pence hints at more Trumpcare changes

David Nather

Bruce Lipsky/The Florida Times-Union via AP

Vice President Mike Pence said this afternoon that he and President Trump are open to more changes to the Obamacare replacement bill in addition to the Medicaid rewrites they've promised conservatives.

We'll continue to listen intently for ways to make this even better. — Pence to a crowd in Jacksonville, Florida.

He highlighted the changes Trump promised members of the Republican Study Committee yesterday: stopping more states from expanding Medicaid, letting states turn the program into block grants, and adding work requirements.

Why it matters: Pence is making a point of signaling to conservative Republicans that the administration is listening to them — but he's also tying the administration to a shift to the right that may not go over well in the Senate.

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Rebecca Falconer, Orion Rummler, Marisa Fernandez

U.S. coronavirus updates: White House studies models projecting virus peak

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

The White House and other institutions are observing several models to better understand and prepare cities for when the coronavirus is expected to peak in the U.S.

The state of play: The coronavirus is expected to peak in the U.S. in two weeks, but many states like Virginia and Maryland will see their individual peaks well after that, according to a model by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

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FDA authorizes two-minute antibody testing kit to detect coronavirus

Currently, it takes days to produce results from testing kits. Photo: Sergei Malgavko\TASS via Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency approval Tuesday for a serological testing kit produced by Bodysphere Inc. that can detect a positive or negative result for COVID-19 in two minutes.

Why it matters: Access to testing has improved in the U.S. thanks to commercial labs, but the average wait time for a patient's results is four to five days — with some reports of it taking more than a week.

Go deeperArrowUpdated 3 hours ago - Health