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With Alice Miranda Ollstein and Rachel Roubein
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Quick Fix
— Sen. Kamala Harris could bring new health policies to the national stage as Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick.
— Conservatives swiftly moved to highlight Harris’ record on issues like single-payer health care and abortion rights.
— HHS Secretary Alex Azar again blasted China over its handling of the coronavirus while praising Taiwan, the latest diplomatic volley from his international trip.
WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE — Where we're sparing a thought for Tyrone Gayle, the former aide to Harris who was stricken with cancer and died at age 30 right before her campaign began. He was a kind-hearted guy. Tips to [email protected] and [email protected].
Driving the Day
IT’s KAMALA — The California senator’s addition to the Democratic ticket could inject a new raft of policies into the national debate after three-plus years defined by the Trump agenda, following eight years of the Obama-Biden administration.
— Harris isn’t known for her health care positions and didn’t sit on the Senate’s health committee, where she would have built a record on fights that have defined the past three years like health insurance changes, payment reform and surprise bills. Instead, she’s made her name more prominently on issues like criminal justice, immigration and social justice.
Some of that weakness on health care may have shown through during the Democratic primary, when Harris was repeatedly pressed to explain her health plan (more on that below) and seemed to stumble on the details.
But as a candidate and senator, Harris has frequently pushed policies to boost health equity for vulnerable Americans. That message could resonate during a pandemic that’s frequently put immigrants and communities of color at risk, and in a moment of national reflection on race.
— Prepare for renewed messaging on 'Medicare for All' too. The issue helped define Harris’ short-lived presidential campaign — and not for the best, given her frequent shifts, POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn and Carla Marinucci write in a closer look at Harris' policy positions.
Harris initially embraced Sen. Bernie Sanders’ single-payer bill in 2017 and doubled down on eliminating private insurance during the campaign, before backtracking and pitching her own solution that sought to split the difference: giving Americans the choice of enrolling in tightly regulated private health insurance plans or picking a public one.
Some health experts have praised Harris’ plan as an interesting, pragmatic compromise. But the evolving stance exposed her to attacks from both the left and the right, including charges of political opportunism by Sanders’ supporters.
— The Trump campaign already has zeroed in on Harris’ health plan in the first ad released against her on Tuesday, saying that she rushed to the “radical left” by “embracing Bernie’s plan for socialized medicine [and] calling for trillions in new taxes.” It may offer Trump a way to revitalize some of his earlier attack lines after struggling to effectively tar Biden as a socialist.
Still, some Democrats hope that Harris’ support of universal coverage will be a fig leaf to progressives who have complained that Biden’s plan to build on the Affordable Care Act is too incremental.
It's also possible that Harris' health plan will be quickly overshadowed. "Health care could play a big role in this election, but it's going to hinge much more on President Trump's record on the pandemic and efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act than on the details of the Biden-Harris platform," Kaiser Family Foundation's Larry Levitt mused.
POWERFUL GROUPS CHEER, CONDEMN HARRIS’ RECORD ON ABORTION AFTER VP NOD — Both sides of the abortion debate quickly mobilized to highlight Harris’ record on women’s reproductive rights, with Planned Parenthood, NARAL and other groups on the left praising Harris and anti-abortion groups including Susan B. Anthony List and March for Life condemning her “extremism” on the issue and vowing to spend heavily to sway voters against the ticket, POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.
— At issue: Harris’ sponsorship of bills in the Senate that would eliminate the longstanding ban on federal funding for abortion, end the ban on foreign aid for international groups that counsel women on abortions and prohibit states from passing “medically unnecessary” laws that restrict abortion, Alice writes.
The groups also point to her time as California’s attorney general, where she launched an investigation and sent agents to search the home of an activist who recorded sting videos at Planned Parenthood clinics, and her bid last year for the Democratic nomination, in which she proposed a Voting Rights Act-style preclearance system that would make it harder for states to pass abortion restrictions.
“It is no surprise Joe Biden chose such an extremist as his running mate,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA List and the national co-chair of Pro-Life Voices for Trump. “If elected, they will immediately begin rolling back President Trump’s pro-life gains, as well as longstanding policies like the Hyde Amendment. They will stack the Supreme Court with pro-abortion ideologues, setting the pro-life cause back for generations. Together, Biden and Harris constitute the most pro-abortion presidential ticket in American history."
“Abortion was always going to be an issue in this election, but the stakes just got higher,” said Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins.
Pro Analysis is here to help you get up-to-speed quickly on emerging issues, understand the power dynamics of who’s involved and how the process may unfold. As a DataPoint subscriber, Pro Analyses are sent directly to your inbox. You can also find them on our newly improved Pro Experience.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES RURAL HEALTH PAYMENT MODELS — The CMS Innovation Center unveiled new ways of paying for health care in rural areas, where care is less accessible and the rate of preventable deaths is higher than in cities. The move comes after Trump signed an executive order on the issue, first reported by POLITICO, last week in a pre-election effort to bolster his health care record.
What the models will do: The payment experiments aim to give up-front dollars to cash-strapped providers and grant them more flexibility to create their own health care programs, such as helping patients out with transportation or giving them gift cards.
— One option will give 15 rural communities up to $5 million to try to transform care, and is slated to start next summer. Another track will invest in rural accountable care organizations, tentatively scheduled to begin in January 2022.
AZAR USES TAIWAN TRIP TO BLAST CHINA ON CORONAVIRUS — HHS Secretary Alex Azar attacked China on Tuesday night over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, again using his trip to Taiwan to criticize the actions of the Chinese government.
Azar during a press call blasted China as secretive and uncooperative, comparing the nation unfavorably with Taiwan’s “transparency, openness, collaboration and cooperation” and accusing its leaders of withholding crucial information about Covid-19 that would have helped the rest of the world mount a more effective defense.
— Azar insisted the trip was primarily meant to celebrate Taiwan’s handling of Covid-19. But the visit was sure to inflame Beijing on its own, and Azar has not shied away from any opportunity to slam the Chinese government over Covid-19 or its resistance to granting Taiwan observer status at the World Health Organization.
— The HHS secretary had less to say about an ally in the region: South Korea. Azar ignored a question about whether he agreed with Trump’s suggestion during an Axios interview that South Korea could be faking its Covid-19 death figures, and his office did not immediately respond to PULSE’s follow-up on the topic.
Azar also downplayed comparisons between Taiwan and South Korea’s successful containment of the virus and the U.S.’s uncontrolled spread, telling reporters the circumstances of the outbreaks as well as the “cultural, social, legal norms” are different.
US STRIKES DEAL FOR MODERNA VACCINE DOSES — The federal government is paying $1.5 billion for 100 million doses of Moderna’s experimental coronavirus vaccine, POLITICO’s Zachary Brennan reports.
The government will also have the option to buy another 400 million doses as part of the agreement. That ups the public funding for Moderna’s vaccine to $2.48 billion — including support for clinical trials, manufacturing and other development activities — and is among several vaccine purchases made so far by the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed.
What We're Reading
WaPo's Laurie McGinley profiles the FDA's Peter Marks — "the man who will call the 'balls and strikes' on the coronavirus vaccine in his hands."
Meanwhile: Russia's fast-tracked coronavirus vaccine is raising safety fears, Nature's Ewen Callaway reports.
After her trial was twice delayed by the coronavirus, disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes faces a March 2021 court date, Ethan Baron writes for the Mercury News.
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