An Early Look at President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s Positions on Health Care arrives today from the The Association of Health Care Journalists in the form of an assemblage from Pia Christensen for the blog Covering Health.
Via links to coverage from NPR, Forbes and Stat, among others, to Trump’s positions from his website, she shares an array of news that might help gauge the future of science and medicine under Donald Trump’s watch.
What Does Donald Trump’s Win Mean For the Opioid Crisis and the Affordable Care Act?
An update on the opioid crisis from Stat’s Damian Garde:
“Trump also called on the Food and Drug Administration to speed up the review of new painkillers meant to deter abuse, something that would require the intervention of Congress. He promised to increase the number of patients doctors can treat for opioid addiction, which the Obama administration has already done.
All the while, the number of US deaths from opioid overdose has roughly quadrupled since 1999, reaching a record of more than 28,000 in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The problem is especially desperate in the rural corners of the Rust Belt, where Trump support proved strong on Tuesday.”
A word on the Affordable Care Act from Forbes Contributor Seth Chandler:
“In particular, President Trump should be able to bring Obamacare to its knees on day one simply by stopping payment on something known as “Cost Sharing Reductions.” If and when he does so, insurers will start pulling out of the Exchanges for the 2017 benefit year and it is not clear how many will re-enter even assuming Obamacare persists.”
Read more from Pia Christensen (@AHCJ_Pia) at Health Journalism.