| | | | |  | | By Daniel Payne | Presented by The American Hospital Association | | | | | | 
Doctors are increasingly supporting Democratic lawmakers and speaking out about the upcoming presidential election. | Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images | DOCS' POLITICAL PULSE — America’s doctors, in the wake of the pandemic and rollback of nationwide abortion rights, are shifting left. Democrats are taking note, your host reports. Doctors are giving nearly twice as much to Democrats as Republicans this cycle, and some are broadcasting the hazards they see in a second Trump administration on social media and in their communities, looking to recruit their colleagues to the cause. Kamala Harris’ campaign is urging her physician supporters on, encouraging doctors to take advantage of their role as “trusted messengers.” Nearly 1,600 people signed up for a recent call for Health Care Providers for Harris, hosted by her campaign, which raised more than $100,000. “Elections do matter for your health,” Dr. Suhas Gondi, an internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who’s involved with the organizing, said. “It’s hard for me to not be engaged in politics.” But not all doctors are happy with the shift left — and with the shift further into political engagement generally. They say physicians risk losing already-deteriorating trust in the health care system by engaging with the politics of the day. Though nearly all doctors agree that they shouldn’t bring up politics in the exam room, they’re split on whether to use their platform in communities to speak out on political issues that increasingly have direct impacts on the kinds of care they’re allowed to give patients. “I think that physicians take for granted, a little bit, the respect that we’re still held in,” Dr. Adam Cifu, an internist in Chicago, said. “That’s on shakier and shakier ground. And with how polarized the country is, almost anything you say can be held against you by half the people you see.” WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE. I’m Daniel Payne, filling in for Ben and Chelsea. Find more reporting from me and my colleagues at Future Pulse, our newsletter about where health care is headed. And don’t forget to send your tips, scoops and feedback to dpayne@politico.com and follow along at @_daniel_payne. And, as always, you can share your leads, insider insights and comments with bleonard@politico.com and ccirruzzo@politico.com and follow them @_BenLeonard_ and @ChelseaCirruzzo.
| | | | A message from The American Hospital Association: Hospitals care for patients and keep communities healthy. But access to care is at risk. Tell Congress to protect patient access to care and services. Learn more: https://www.aha.org/advocacy/action-center | | | | | | | 
Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance, said Sunday that former President Donald Trump has plans to deregulate health insurers. | Stephen Maturen/Getty Images | VANCE SPEAKS ON HEALTH PLANS — Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, told NBC on Sunday that Trump would focus on deregulating health insurers and suggested he would push for people with different risk profiles to be put into different pools for coverage. Vance said Trump’s plan would “not have a one-size-fits-all approach that puts a lot of people into the same insurance pools, into the same risk pool,” while ensuring everyone remains covered. That approach, championed in previous GOP attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act , has previously led to people with pre-existing conditions paying far more for skimpier coverage. Vance said much of Trump’s plan would come down to “deregulating the insurance market.” NBC’s Kristen Welker suggested to Vance that he was saying Obamacare would stay in place under another Trump administration — which Vance didn’t deny. Vance said Trump chose to “build upon” the ACA, though the former president actually supported repealing the bill while in office. His comments come days after Trump said he had “concepts of a plan” for an ACA replacement. On abortion: Vance said Trump wouldn’t support a national abortion ban but stopped short of saying the former president would veto a ban should Congress pass it. “I think that I’ve learned my lesson on speaking for the president before he and I have actually talked about an issue,” Vance said on NBC. More from our Mia McCarthy on Vance’s abortion comments here.
| | HEALTH AND HEAT — Government agencies steer billions of dollars away from regions that suffer from extreme heat, E&E’s Thomas Frank reports. That’s having a major impact on the health of the growing number of Americans who experience extreme heat each year. Federal programs have historically been focused on helping heat homes, not cool them, written in a time when heating costs were soaring and climate change wasn’t widely understood. Programs that pay residential energy bills and assist with home weatherization, for example, are applied unevenly: Arizona, Florida and Hawaii have received an average of $131 per person from the two programs, while Maine, North Dakota and Vermont have received an average of $982 per person. Why it matters: Heat-related deaths are on the rise across the country, creating new challenges and needs across nearly all walks of life. The issue is getting new traction in federal rules the Biden administration announced this summer.
| | LIVE EVENT ON WEDNESDAY:
THE FUTURE OF PATIENT CARE AND ACCESS
Join us on Wednesday, Sept. 18, starting at 8:30 a.m. ET, as we dive into how health care delivery innovations fueled by AI and tech are empowering providers to focus more time and resources on patients.
Watch our keynote conversation with HHS’ Micky Tripathi, assistant secretary for technology policy and acting chief artificial intelligence officer. Stick around for a panel conversation with Nancy Howell Agee, CEO of Carilion Clinic; Andrea Downing, president and co-founder of The Light Collective; Kolaleh Eskandanian, VP and CIO of Children’s National Hospital; and Hafeezah Muhammad, founder and CEO of Backpack Healthcare.
RSVP to attend and watch here. | | | | PANDEMIC PREP — The National Institutes of Health has established a network to research pathogens scientists believe are high risk for causing a future pandemic, the agency announced Friday. The Research and Development of Vaccines and Monoclonal Antibodies for Pandemic Preparedness network is expected to get about $100 million a year from the agency and will research “prototype pathogens,” which are in the families of viruses known to infect humans. Understanding the related viruses could shed light on high-risk pathogens that pose serious threats to humans worldwide. The ReVAMPP network will focus on viruses related to diseases such diseases as dengue, yellow fever, measles, mumps, chikungunya and more — and looks to create vaccine candidates and monoclonal antibodies, which researchers hope will lay the groundwork should a new disease threat emerge. Eight projects across the U.S. will be funded through the network, with the Research Triangle Institute in Durham, North Carolina, serving as the center for coordination and data-sharing. Sound familiar? The agency said it hopes to build on similar work it’s done for years — some of which helped speed the development of vaccines and treatments for Covid-19.
| | | | A message from The American Hospital Association:   | | | | | CLOSE-CONTACT CONCERNS — A close contact of a Missouri patient diagnosed with avian flu was ill at the same time, POLITICO’s David Lim reports. The household contact wasn’t tested for avian flu and has since recovered, but the illness is raising concerns over whether the CDC is doing enough to track the risk of human-to-human transmission. The agency reported Thursday that the person who tested positive for bird flu had no close contacts who showed signs or symptoms of transmission. Then, on Friday, the CDC disclosed in a report that a close contact had become ill and recovered without being tested for the disease. Even so: The CDC reassured the public last week that the health risk of avian flu is low at this time and that simultaneous symptoms don’t necessarily indicate person-to-person transmission but could mean the patients were exposed at the same time. Background: Public health officials have for months been tracking a strain of avian flu that’s been infecting not just birds but also dairy cows. This year, 14 people in the U.S. have tested positive for bird flu. All were workers who had direct contact with infected poultry or dairy cows and have since recovered.
| | | | Francis Collins explores why the pandemic didn’t unite the American public in The Atlantic. CBS News reports that nearly half of Americans plan to skip their Covid and flu shots. The Washington Post reports that America’s older adults are increasingly living alone.
| | | | A message from The American Hospital Association: Hospitals care for patients and keep communities healthy. But access to care is at risk. Tell Congress to protect patient access to care and services.
Learn more: https://www.aha.org/advocacy/action-center | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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