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Most large employers say a "Medicare for All" system would lower the number of uninsured people in the United States, but they are concerned it could increase health care costs and taxes while stifling innovation and quality, a new survey shows. The concerns come as health industry groups seek to block momentum for plans from Democratic presidential candidates and lawmakers to expand Medicare through a single-payer program or to allow people under age 65 to enroll in the program. (McIntire, 8/13)

When Santa Barbara lawyer-turned-activist Ady Barkan settled in to watch the second round of the Democratic presidential primary debates late last month, he had no idea his story would be part of the heated discussion. Barkan, 35, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, watched from his wheelchair as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren described how he and his family had to raise money online to help pay for roughly $9,000 a month in health care costs not covered by his private health insurance. (Almendrala, 8/14)

One hundred and fifty years after the freed people of the South first petitioned the government for basic medical care, the United States remains the only high-income country in the world where such care is not guaranteed to every citizen. In the United States, racial health disparities have proved as foundational as democracy itself. “There has never been any period in American history where the health of blacks was equal to that of whites,” Evelynn Hammonds, a historian of science at Harvard University, says. “Disparity is built into the system.” Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act have helped shrink those disparities. But no federal health policy yet has eradicated them. (Interlandi, 8/14)

Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand is planning to hold a reproductive rights town hall in St. Louis, home of Missouri’s last remaining abortion clinic. A new state law bans most abortions at the eighth week of pregnancy. But the restrictions have yet to take effect and have been challenged in federal court. The New York senator has made defending women’s rights the bedrock of her presidential bid. (8/13)

At a time when antiabortion measures are sweeping the United States, one of the largest-ever surveys on abortion attitudes finds support for legal abortion has held steady. No more than a quarter of residents in any state supports a total ban despite the increasing political divide on the issue. The Public Religion Research Institute survey released Tuesday involves an extraordinarily large sample of 40,292 interviews measuring abortion attitudes throughout 2018, allowing it to produce nuanced results for individual states and for very small demographic groups. It found that Americans remain generally supportive of abortion rights, with 54 percent saying it should be legal in all or most cases and 40 percent saying it should be illegal. These numbers are nearly the same as a similar 2014 survey when 55 percent of Americans said abortion should be legal. (Cha and Clement, 8/13)

Lawmakers are reopening an investigation into generic drugmakers' pricing strategies after a multistate lawsuit exposed three companies' discussions on coordinating responses to an earlier congressional effort.House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) late Tuesday night demanded that generic drugmakers Teva, Mylan and Heritage explain messages suggesting they coordinated to blunt a 2014 probe by the lawmakers into lockstep pricing. (Owermohle, 8/14)