Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņ•īl

Skip to main content

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.

Subscribe Follow Us
  • Trump 2.0

    Trump 2.0

    • Agency Watch
    • State Watch
    • Rural Health Payout
  • Public Health

    Public Health

    • Vaccines
    • CDC & Disease
    • Environmental Health
    All Public Health
  • Audio Reports

    Audio Reports

    • What the Health?
    • Health Care Helpline
    • Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņ•īl Health News Minute
    • An Arm and a Leg
    • Health Hub
    • HealthQ
    • Silence in Sikeston
    • Epidemic
    All Audio
  • Special Reports

    Special Reports

    • Bill Of The Month
    • The Body Shops
    • Broken Rehab
    • Deadly Denials
    • Priced Out
    • Dead Zone
    • Diagnosis: Debt
    • Overpayment Outrage
    • Opioid Settlement Tracking
    • Eleven Minutes
    All Special Reports
  • More Topics

    More Topics

    • Elections
    • Health Care Costs
    • Insurance
    • Prescription Drugs
    • Health Industry
    • Immigration
    • Reproductive Health
    • Technology
    • Rural Health
    • Race and Health
    • Aging
    • Mental Health
    • Affordable Care Act
    • Medicare
    • Medicaid
    • Children’s Health

  • Vaccine Policy in Colorado
  • Family Separation
  • Shakeup at U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
  • Ebola
  • ACA Enrollment

WHAT'S NEW

  • Vaccine Policy in Colorado
  • Family Separation
  • Shakeup at U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
  • Ebola
  • ACA Enrollment

Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

  • Email

Monday, Apr 1 2024

Full Issue

A Health Care Election? Voters Say It's No Longer A Top Issue

A new Gallup Poll ranks health care as the 16th-most important problem facing Americans today. This is a big departure from polling in recent election cycles when the issue was much higher on voters' priority list.

In a striking departure from recent voting and polling trends, healthcare has tumbled to the 16th-most important problem facing Americans today, according to Gallup data released Friday. At first glance, this shift is bewildering, especially considering the central role healthcare played in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 election cycles. Americans now list the nation’s top problems as immigration (28%), the government (20%), the economy in general (12%), inflation (11%), poverty, hunger and homelessness (5%), unifying the country (4%), crime/violence (4%), and so on. ... Healthcare continues to be a pivotal issue, but its impact now permeates a broader array of societal concerns, reshaping our understanding of what constitutes a ā€œhealthcare issue.ā€ (Pearl, 4/1)

President Biden and top Democrats have spent weeks mounting a full-scale blitz to tout the Affordable Care Act, including ads, social media posts, speeches — and a video that blasts rival Donald Trump for ā€œrunning to ā€˜terminate’ the ACA.ā€ Trump — who as president pushed to kill the law and last November reiterated that he wants to ā€œreplaceā€ it — has angrily countered on social media that Biden ā€œDISINFORMATES AND MISINFORMATES ALL THE TIME,ā€ and that all Trump wants to do is make the 14-year-old law better. (Diamond, 3/30)

In other government news —

A joint media investigation into "Havana syndrome," a mysterious health condition that's affected U.S. diplomats and government officials, has found evidence that a Russian military assassination unit may be responsible. "60 Minutes" noted that the findings from its five-year probe with The Insider and Der Spiegel that Russia's GRU Unit 29155 may be behind the neurological symptoms marked the first evidence linking a foreign adversary to the cases. (Falconer, 3/31)

A coalition of 22 state attorneys generalĀ isĀ calling on Congress to address ā€œthe glaring vaguenessā€ that has led to legal cannabis products being sold over the counter across the country — including sometimes from vending machines or online. AĀ letter dated March 20Ā addresses the consequences ofĀ Republican lawmakers’ choice to legalize hemp production inĀ the 2018 omnibus Farm Bill — a decision that perhaps inadvertently led toĀ a multibillion-dollar marketĀ in intoxicating cannabis products that are arguably federally legal. (Elbein, 3/30)

Migrants with disabilities can’t access the asylum system the way others can, according to a complaint that advocacy organizations filed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier this week. (Bohra, 3/29)

On the effort to lower the price of drugs —

A recent tweak to a Medicaid formula could be behind the shake-up to inhaler products, a series of changes that have both benefited and harmed patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. (Clason, 3/29)

Tricare beneficiaries with prescriptions for specialty drugs can now get more of them at the lower copays of Tricare Home Delivery with the addition of Accredo, a specialty pharmacy, to the program. Two pharmacies, Express Scripts and Accredo, are now part of Tricare Home Delivery. Defense Health Agency officials confirmed that some users will have mail-order prescriptions with both Express Scripts and Accredo if they have both non-specialty and specialty prescriptions. (Miller, 3/29)

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

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Stay informed by signing up for the Morning Briefing and other emails:

Recent Morning Briefings

  • Friday, May 29
  • Thursday, May 28
  • Wednesday, May 27
  • Tuesday, May 26
  • Friday, May 22
  • Thursday, May 21
More Morning Briefings
RSS Feeds
  • Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņ•īl
  • Special Reports
  • Morning Briefing
  • About Us
  • Republish Our Content
  • Contact Us

Follow Us

  • RSS

Sign up for emails

Join our email list for regular updates based on your personal preferences.

Sign up
  • Editorial Policy
  • Privacy Policy

Ā© 2026 KFF