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Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Friday called for a sevenfold increase in the country’s testing, as he laid out further plans for fighting the pandemic in a speech taking aim at President Trump. Biden is making the worsening pandemic a central theme in the closing days of the election, after hammering Trump on it throughout the campaign. He followed up Thursday night’s debate with a speech on the coronavirus response in Delaware on Friday. (Sullivan, 10/23)

President Donald Trump is heading into the final nine days of the 2020 election with a new nationwide explosion in coronavirus cases and a second outbreak in the top ranks of his own White House — all while he tries to sell an alternate reality to voters. ... “We are coming around, we’re rounding the turn, we have the vaccines, we have everything,” Trump said at a rally in Londonderry, N.H., on Sunday. “Even without the vaccines, we’re rounding the turn. It’s going to be over.” (Kumar and Cook, 10/25)

With the US election just over a week away, Hamrin is one of millions of Americans who’s been heading to the polls this fall with healthcare and drug prices as their top voting issue. The United States’ massive, largely private and very expensive health industry has ranked as a top voter concern for years, and helped drive Democrats to victory in the midterm elections of 2018, when the party took control of the House of Representatives. (Glenza, 10/26)

While President Trump and former vice president Biden hardly talked about their healthcare policy at their two debates, both have a distinct vision for how healthcare in the U.S. should change. The two candidates are about as far apart as they can get on the subject. Below is a primer on their plans for healthcare policy, COVID-19, and the opioid crisis. (Reader, 10/24)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact: Arguing To Undo The ACA. Harming Medicare. Do They Go Hand In Hand?

A Biden campaign ad out this month attacks President Donald Trump for pushing to slash Medicare benefits. A campaign spokesperson said the claim comes from the administration’s support for a legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act that seeks to nullify the entire law. (Stapleton, 10/23)

President Donald Trump’s campaign again asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday to block North Carolina’s plan for counting absentee ballots that arrive after the Nov. 3 Election Day, the latest legal tussle in a wide-ranging fight over mail-in voting. The campaign initially filed the application on Thursday after a U.S. federal appeals court decision last week left in place North Carolina’s plan, dealing a setback to Trump’s re-election campaign. (10/25)

Elections office staffers prepared rigorously for the expected surge in mail-in and drop-off voting this fall: They renewed their training, learned the new rules, got masks and protective gear ready and adjusted their working hours. But they were not prepared for the thank-you notes. Tucked into the return envelopes with some ballots were handwritten missives from voters in Fairfax and Loudoun counties: “Thank you for what you do.” “Thanks for making my vote count.” A Halloween sticker or two also appeared. (Sullivan, 10/25)

With Election Day just around the corner, many Americans are on edge. Nearly 70% of respondents said the elections are a significant source of stress, according to a survey out this month from the American Psychological Association. The survey also found that a majority — 77% — are worried about the country's future, says Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association. "Seventy-one percent said that this is the lowest point in our nation's history that they can remember." (Chatterjee, 10/26)