I expect VP Harris to carry forward the Biden health agenda, not her own from when she was a candidate, and focus even more attention on reproductive rights. She may also break the silence on Republican plans to cut and cap Medicaid and limit eligibility for the program.

“Playing offense on abortion and health and signaling concern about kitchen table worries to voters are the most important roles health will play in the presidential election”. My latest column : kff.org/from-drew-altm…

It turns out we have a competitor, in the country of Georgia. Also nimble and trusted. I can’t speak to their research, polling or journalism but I bet it’s great.

Both Harris and Walz have been out front on medical debt. Don’t undersell the value of that as a campaign issue if they feature it. It affects a lot of people, the public understands it, and it approaches health as an economic issue.

Today a presidential candidate told an unchallenging Elon Musk (from SA) undocumented immigrants are “murderers” from Africa dumped here from prisons. Our survey shows all immigrants come to improve the lives of their families, just as our ancestors did. kff.org/racial-equity-…

Reading tea leaves on a Harris health strategy. Press the advantage she (and Dems generally) have on health. Show she is the candidate who cares about people's health care costs. Put her stamp on health, but don't give Trump and R's a big new Harris health plan to shoot at.

Drug price negotiation. Significantly lower than current prices. Still higher than some other countries. The administration can declare a big win. The left can ask for more. Drug companies can complain. People benefit. Goldilocks.

I feel like it’s a good time to resurface this 2019 op ed I had in the Wash Post. The media always clamors for detailed policy plans from candidates. It’s not always smart politics for candidates to produce them during campaigns. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

The NYT called Harris’s health proposals a “reboot.. not a new vision”. True, no big new health plan (or target for Trump). But making health care part of a broader focus on costs is a different vision of health- as an economic issue. The test will be how voters react.

Polls report and pundits constantly discuss who different issues favor in the election. But a lot of research says many vote more on hopes, fears, ideology, and views of the candidates themselves. They tell pollsters they are voting on issues but they aren’t. How do you vote?

Vice President Harris’s frames health as an economic issue. So do voters. My latest column: kff.org/from-drew-altm…

Haven’t listened to every second, but as far as I know Hakeem Jeffries is the first to mention Medicaid(?). It only covers 82 million Americans.

Making Project 2025 the symbol of right wing bad intentions has been an effective strategy for democrats. But there are other groups , who don’t get attention, with equally far reaching proposals in health whose leaders are also likely to be in a Trump administration.

The media wants policy details from candidates. Candidates resist, not wanting to expose policy tradeoffs for the media to scrutinize or opponents to attack. Voters mostly don’t vote on policy details. Getting policy details from candidates is like pulling teeth for a reason.

Almost equal shares of Americans identity as “ middle class” and “ working class”, but it feels like middle class out numbers working class 10 to 1 in political rhetoric. Does that add to working class Americans feeling left out, disrespected, and sympathetic to populism?

One person’s idea of “ waste” is another’s vital program. There’s a response most republicans would whisper to a Trump government efficiency and performance task force chaired by Elon Musk: please don’t complete the work until after the midterms.

Two questions Trump has not been asked (to my knowledge) or answered: Would you support cuts in federal Medicaid funding to states? Would you support  any policy that weakens protections for people with pre- existing medical conditions?