KATHLEEN SEBELIUS

The Biden administration is actively searching for ways to safeguard abortion access for millions of women.

The most influential anti-abortion group in Kansas politics is urging voters in mailers to remove five of the seven justices on the state Supreme Court.

The Affordable Care Act is now secure in the framework of the nation’s health care programs, and Democrats are eager to leap above and beyond.

A lawyer, not a doctor, his main experience with the health care system came through helping to pass the Obama-era Affordable Care Act and defending it when Donald Trump was president. AdBecerra also will also be the point man on Biden's health care agenda, which includes insurance for all Americans, deputizing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and tackling persistent racial and ethnic disparities in the health care system. Prescription drugs and health insurance will lead to major legislative battles. “It’s a different time and it’s a time of tremendous opportunity in health care,” he said. But during committee hearings several indicated a willingness to work with on prescription drugs, rural health care and other matters.

The measured approach is drawing praise in some corners for being realistic -— but criticism from others for its caution. “I found it fascinating that yesterday the press asked the question, ‘Is 100 million enough?'" You can’t do 100 million in 100 days.’ Well, we’re — God willing — not only going to 100 million. Trump provided an overreach of his own in May 2020, when he said the nation had “prevailed” over the virus. Trump’s lax approach and lack of credibility contributed to poor adherence to public safety rules among the American public.

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden's choices for his health care team point to a stronger federal role in the nation’s COVID-19 strategy, restoration of a guiding stress on science and an emphasis on equitable distribution of vaccines and treatments. “We are still going to have a federal, state and local partnership,” commented Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the nonprofit American Public Health Association. “These are not turf-conscious people,” said Drew Altman, CEO of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, a clearinghouse for health care information and analysis. A Secretary Becerra “can't get up every morning and think only COVID,” she said. That challenge faces widespread skepticism among minorities that the health care system has their best interests in mind.

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden's choices for his health care team point to a stronger federal role in the nation’s COVID-19 strategy, restoration of a guiding stress on science and an emphasis on equitable distribution of vaccines and treatments. “We are still going to have a federal, state and local partnership,” commented Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the nonprofit American Public Health Association. “These are not turf-conscious people,” said Drew Altman, CEO of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, a clearinghouse for health care information and analysis. A Secretary Becerra “can't get up every morning and think only COVID,” she said. That challenge faces widespread skepticism among minorities that the health care system has their best interests in mind.

WASHINGTON – Joe Biden faces a decision unlike any other incoming president: whether to back a short-term national lockdown to finally arrest a raging pandemic. But the debate has been livelier among members of the coronavirus advisory board Biden announced this week. One member, Dr. Michael Osterholm, suggested a four- to six-week lockdown with financial aid for Americans whose livelihoods would be affected. That's a sign of the tough dynamic Biden will face when he is inaugurated in January. But Biden himself fueled some of the confusion about his stance on lockdowns during the campaign.

And just like the Trump administration, Biden is expected to aggressively wield the rule-making powers of the executive branch to address health insurance coverage and prescription drug costs. With COVID-19 surging across the country, Biden's top health care priority is whipping the federal government’s response into shape. “We’re going to work quickly with the Congress to dramatically ramp up health care protections, get Americans universal coverage, lower health care costs, as soon as humanly possible,” the president-elect said earlier this week. A factor that may work in Biden's favor is that many Republicans want to change the subject on health care. Coronavirus relief legislation could provide an early vehicle for some broader health care changes.

Trying to pull back the veil on health costs to encourage competition, the Trump administration on Oct. 29, will finalize requirements for insurers to tell consumers up front the actual prices for common tests and procedures. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)WASHINGTON – Trying to pull back the veil on health care costs to encourage competition, the Trump administration on Thursday finalized a requirement for insurers to tell consumers up front the actual prices for common tests and procedures. A related Trump administration price disclosure requirement applying to hospitals is facing a federal lawsuit from the industry, alleging coercion and interference with business practices. The idea behind the new regulations on insurers is to empower patients to become better consumers of health care, thereby helping to drive down costs. The Trump administration's initiative drills down more deeply to try to get at the prices actually paid by insurers.

But if the event were held in the West Wing or in another area of the White House that is regarded as a federal room, White House officials would be prohibited from attending even while off-duty. The officials said the events on the White House grounds were consistent with previous presidents using the White House residence for political videos. Any government employees who may participate will do so in compliance with the Hatch Act, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. "Political parties come and go, but it doesnt belong to one political party or the other.The Trump administration is hardly the first to mix business with politics. The Trump administration has repeatedly stepped over the line, ethics experts said.

President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, in Washington. And it suggests that the president is increasingly out of step with the federal governments own medical and public health experts. Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus task force coordinator, warned this week that the virus has become extraordinarily widespread." What were seeing is that scientists will no longer be cowed by the White House.Until recently, the medical experts on the White House coronavirus task force have walked a tightrope. Birx, until recently, had largely stayed on the presidents good side, though her rosy depictions of the pandemic fight drew recent skepticism from Democrats and other public health officials.

President Donald Trump, speaks before a ceremony for Vice President Mike Pence to swear in Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., as Chief of Staff of the Air Force in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, in Washington. And it suggests that the president is increasingly out of step with the federal governments own medical and public health experts. Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus task force coordinator, warned this week that the virus has become extraordinarily widespread." What were seeing is that scientists will no longer be cowed by the White House.Until recently, the medical experts on the White House coronavirus task force have walked a tightrope.