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President Trump promised this week to send cards worth $200 to seniors to help them pay for their prescription drugs, but it's unclear how he will be able to pull it off — or how legal it is. If he can, that's $6.6 billion to a key voting bloc weeks before Election Day. "Under my plan, 33 million Medicare beneficiaries will soon receive a card in the mail containing $200 that they can use to help pay for prescription drugs," Trump told a crowd in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday. "Nobody has seen this before. These cards are incredible. The cards will be mailed out in coming weeks." (Lupkin, 9/25)

The last time a president used an obscure law to spend billions of Medicare dollars without congressional approval, Republican lawmakers called it a political ploy, a technicality, a way to write a “blank check” to help win an election. They launched investigations and issued subpoenas. But that was when President Obama was in charge. Now, it’s President Trump who’s using the same little-known Medicare law for a maneuver that even some Republicans admit is more brazen than Obama’s attempt. And so far, Republicans are silent. (Florko and Facher, 9/25)

The White House did not provide a clear explanation for where the money for the program would come from. A White House official said Thursday evening that the spending would be offset by a program to lower drug prices by tying them to lower prices in other countries, a plan called “most-favored nation.” But that plan, while it has been proposed, has not gone into effect yet, meaning that there currently are no savings from it. The Wall Street Journal then reported on Friday that the money would be coming from the Medicare Trust Fund, which appears to be a more realistic source of funds. (Sullivan, 9/27)

President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale has been hospitalized after he threatened to harm himself, according to Florida police and campaign officials. Police officers talked Parscale out of his Fort Lauderdale home after his wife called police to say that he had multiple firearms and was threatening to hurt himself when he was hospitalized Sunday under the state’s Baker Act. That act allows anyone deemed to be a threat to themselves or others to be detained for 72 hours for psychiatric evaluation. (Lemire and Spencer, 9/28)

The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to overhaul the way communities test their water for lead, a policy change that will be pitched ahead of Election Day as a major environmental achievement for a president not noted for his conservation record. But a draft of the final rule obtained by The New York Times shows the E.P.A. rejected top medical and scientific experts who urged the agency to require the replacement of the country’s six million to 10 million lead service lines, an expensive but effective way to avoid crises like the one still afflicting Flint, Mich. (Friedman, 9/27)

Kaiser Health News and PolitiFact: Trump’s Executive Order On Preexisting Conditions Lacks Teeth, Experts Say 

Protecting people with preexisting medical conditions is an issue that has followed President Donald Trump his entire first term. Now, Trump has signed an executive order that he says locks in coverage regardless of anyone’s health history. “Any health care reform legislation that comes to my desk from Congress must protect the preexisting conditions or I won’t sign it,” Trump said at a Sept. 24 signing event. With the executive order, Trump said, “This is affirmed, signed and done, so we can put that to rest.” Health law and health policy experts say Trump has put nothing to rest. (Greenberg, 9/28)