Healthcare & Policy News
Reporting on health care policy, insurance coverage, and federal health programs. Includes news updates and conservative commentary from The Daily Signal.
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- News
These States Reopened a Month Ago After COVID-19 Shutdowns. Here’s What Happened.
Among states that reopened their economies about a month ago, most logged about the same number of COVID-19 cases, though some had more cases and others saw a decline. The closest thing to a discernible pattern is that Western and Midwestern states performed better than Southern states in terms of fewer new cases of the…Fred Lucas -
- Opinion
What Do We Know About Status of Pandemic? Here’s Some Data to Put It in Perspective
As states reopen across the country, it’s important to understand both where the COVID-19 pandemic has spread and where it is progressing or receding. To further that effort, my colleagues and I at The Heritage Foundation built a tracker that uses publicly available data to provide some basic information, on a county-by-county basis, about the disease. By…Drew Gonshorowski -
- Opinion
One Man’s ‘Adventure’ Quarantined on a Cruise Ship During COVID-19
Burt Quick, a retired California police chief, took a cruise with his wife last winter only to be quarantined on the ship for five days when other passengers got sick with COVID-19. Quick and his wife then spent two weeks quarantined at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia along with hundreds of other cruise ship passengers….Virginia Allen -
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How COVID-19 Shows Church More Than a Building
Creativity and determination are two of the most appropriate words to describe many churches’ response to COVID-19. Stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures closed the doors of houses of worship across America, so without the ability to meet in person, some churches went out of their way to practice their faith in new and creative…Virginia Allen -
- Opinion
How Big Abortion Has Circumnavigated State Restrictions Amid COVID-19
If there were a fire in your house, what would you save? It’s a timeless question, and one that’s been relevant in the COVID-19 pandemic. State officials have been forced to ask: To prevent loss of life from the novel coronavirus in our state, what should stay open? What is “essential”? As state officials asked…Brittany Jones -
- Opinion
There’s Plenty of Blame to Go Around for COVID-19 Pandemic
The big coronavirus debate is between blaming President Donald Trump and blaming China for the pandemic. The usual suspects are lined up on each side. To anybody who pauses to think for a second, it’s clear the two options are not mutually exclusive. But that’s still how the debate is playing out in the press….Neil Patel -
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Sens. Cruz, Lee Outline How US Should Move Forward After COVID-19 Crisis
Taking a fresh look at deregulation and at “decoupling” the U.S. from China economically will be key for renewed job growth after the COVID-19 crisis ends, Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Wednesday. “I fully expect over the next coming weeks and months and years, we are going to have an extended…Fred Lucas -
- Opinion
School Districts Owe Taxpaying Parents a COVID-19 Refund
When elementary and secondary schools began closing in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, most parents assumed they would reopen in a matter of weeks. Instead, schools across the country have remained closed and will likely remain closed for the rest of the academic year. When states closed schools, most encouraged school districts to move…Lindsey Burke -
- Opinion
Why Beating COVID-19 Will Require Strong Public-Private Partnership
Leading biopharmaceutical research and development companies, in the United States and in other countries, are working nonstop to develop a vaccine to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. In this crisis, government policy must be especially supportive of the research community. In short, public policy must not only ensure that any such vaccine is safe and effective,…Robert Popovian -
- Opinion
Trump Aims to Power Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery With Regulatory Relief
To help jump-start an American economy that’s stalled because of the coronavirus, President Donald Trump is looking to an unlikely source of power: The hardworking Americans who have always made it go. Instead of trying to regulate a recovery—as many of his predecessors have done in difficult times—the president is launching a new round of…Anthony Campau -
- Opinion
COVID-19 Crisis Is Giving New Power to Bureaucrats, Politicians
Is it important to have racial or sexual diversity in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic? Heather Mac Donald suggests that some think it might be in her City Journal article “Should Identity Politics Dictate Vaccine Research?” The funding priorities of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest…Walter E. Williams -
- Opinion
The UN Is Using COVID-19 to Push Abortion. The US Is Rightly Pushing Back.
One would think that key international organizations responding to the COVID-19 pandemic would maintain a laserlike focus on the physical and economic damage it has done. But just last week, the acting administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development had to write to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to urge that the United Nations stay…Grace Melton -
- Opinion
A Memorial Day Like No Other in the Era of COVID-19
This Memorial Day, during the time of COVID-19, will be different from all others. Many cemeteries likely will have new restrictions, making it more difficult for visitors to pay their respects. Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place for more than 400,000 active-duty service members, veterans, and their families, is closed to the public, although…Thomas Spoehr -
- Opinion
What’s the Real Data? A Look at the Relevant Statistics of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Would you believe that over half of the counties in the U.S. have had no COVID-19 deaths? This, as it turns out, happens to be true. Drew Gonshorowski, a research fellow in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation, and Kevin Dayaratna, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, join The Daily Signal…Rachel del Guidice -
- Opinion
The Media’s Double Standard on States’ Different Approaches to COVID-19
America’s economy is in the early stages of “reopening” after dealing with the coronavirus pandemic for months. It’s a process that won’t be easy, simple, or without hiccups. Meanwhile, many in the mainstream media are being true to form in making it a game of ensuring conservatives and Republicans look like reckless, heartless monsters for…Jarrett Stepman -
- Opinion
Scientists Are Studying Hydroxychloroquine as a Preventative Drug for COVID-19
President Donald Trump is again at the center of another hydroxychloroquine controversy after he disclosed earlier in the week that he has been taking the drug as prophylaxis in a manner being investigated for use by front-line health care workers. Media outlets and left-wing politicians predictably have been quick to criticize the president for that,…Kevin Pham -
- News
Legislators, Pro-Life Advocates Denounce Planned Parenthood Receiving $80 Million in Coronavirus Funding
Lawmakers and pro-lifers slammed Planned Parenthood following a report from Fox News saying that the nation’s largest abortion provider applied for and received over $80 million in coronavirus funding. Fox News’ "Tucker Carlson Tonight" reported Tuesday evening that 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates applied for and received a total of $80 million in coronavirus funding loans from the…Mary Margaret Olohan -
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7 Highlights From National Coronavirus Recovery Panel’s New Recommendations
State and local governments should get ready to reopen K-12 schools, but also prepare hospitals and public transportation systems for a possible second wave of COVID-19, according to a new round of recommendations from the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission. The new suggestions, released Tuesday, are part of the fifth phase of the commission’s work, which…Fred Lucas -
- Opinion
Liberals’ Latest Coronavirus Package Shows Why Americans Loathe Congress
In the pantheon of great lines suitable for induction into “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations” is Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2010 comment about Obamacare: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” While that seemed outrageous and even comical to many at the time, it has become an all-too-familiar pattern…Cal Thomas -
- Opinion
How Franciscan University of Steubenville Is Helping Students in Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic
Franciscan University of Steubenville recently announced a new way it will help students: covering tuition costs for the fall 2020 semester for all incoming full-time undergraduate students enrolled in its on-campus programs. Father Dave Pivonka, president of Franciscan University of Steubenville, joins the podcast to talk about how and why Franciscan University chose to do…Rachel del Guidice