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Morning Briefing

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Wednesday, Jan 31 2018

Full Issue

Trump Briefly Touches On Individual Mandate Repeal, Opioid Epidemic In State Of The Union

President Donald Trump touted Republicans' steps toward gutting a crucial part of the health law and said efforts to crack down on immigration will help the opioid epidemic. Media outlets fact check these and other statements.

President Trump challenged Democrats on Tuesday night to join him in overhauling immigration policies and in rebuilding the nation鈥檚 infrastructure in his first State of the Union address. Speaking to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Trump hailed what he called the 鈥渆xtraordinary success鈥 of his administration鈥檚 first year, and largely steered clear of the nationalist rhetoric, political attacks and confrontational tone that have been his calling cards both as a candidate and as a commander in chief. (Hirschfeld Davis and Shear, 1/30)

Reporters from The New York Times checked the facts, falsehoods and statements in need of context from President Trump鈥檚 first State of the Union address. Watch a replay along with real time analysis here and an annotated transcript of the speech. (1/30)

Congress did repeal the unpopular requirement that most Americans carry insurance or risk a tax penalty but that takes effect next year. It's a far cry from what Trump and the GOP-led Congress set out to do last year, which was to scrap most of the sweeping Obama-era health law and replace it with a Republican alternative. The GOP blueprint would have left millions more Americans uninsured, making it even more unpopular than "Obamacare." (1/30)

[Trump] squeezed in remarks on a handful of specific other issues including health care, which had dominated his first year in office, when he applauded Republicans鈥 repeal of the requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty as removing 鈥渢he core鈥 of the Affordable Care Act. (Nicholas, Radnofsky and Hughes, 1/31)

President Trump made no mention of repealing or replacing ObamaCare during his first State of the Union address on Tuesday, cementing how far the issue has fallen off of the GOP鈥檚 agenda. Republicans on Capitol Hill have largely moved away from gutting former President Obama鈥檚 signature health-care law, and Trump wasn鈥檛 expected to speak about repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in his speech Tuesday. (Roubein, 1/30)

According to the U.S. Centers on Disease Control and Prevention, about 40 percent of the opioid deaths in 2016 involved prescription painkillers. Those drugs are made by pharmaceutical companies. Some are abused by the people who have prescriptions; others are stolen and sold on the black market. The flow of heroin into the U.S. from Mexico is a major problem, but drugs that are brought from other countries don't all come over land borders. (1/30)

Trump pledged repeatedly to halt the opioid epidemic, vowing in October to 鈥渓iberate鈥 Americans from the 鈥渟courge of addiction.鈥 But neither the administration nor Congress has taken the major steps public health experts say are necessary fight the crisis 鈥 namely, pouring far more money into the effort. Trump in October decided against a national emergency that would have freed up new federal resources, opting inside to settle for declaring a 鈥減ublic health emergency鈥 that only allowed the redirection of existing resources. Since then, he鈥檚 yet to propose any new plan for tackling the epidemic and left key health and drug jobs vacant 鈥 prompting experts to conclude that not much of consequence is being done. (1/30)

In a wide-ranging State of the Union address Tuesday evening, President Trump endorsed Congress鈥檚 efforts to pass a bill allowing access to experimental treatments for patients with terminal conditions. So-called 鈥渞ight-to-try鈥 legislation was passed by the Senate last fall, but the effort has since stalled in the House. Vice President Mike Pence has endorsed a right-to-try bill. In February Trump gave his support to the legislation but he had not spoken publicly about the issue prior to Tuesday鈥檚 address. (Swetlitz, 1/30)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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