POLITICO's Pulse Check

POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein and Adam Cancryn join Dan Diamond to discuss what's getting missed in the presidential debates about Medicare-for-all, from the likely Senate math in 2021 to the complications posed by Obamacare repeal.

The PBS NewsHour/POLITICO presidential primary debate will be held on Thursday Dec. 19 and also televised on CNN.

MENTIONED ON THE SHOW

Alice's story with Alex Thompson and Holly Otterbein about how Medicare-for-all proposals caused trouble for candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.

Adam's story about the Partnership for America's Health Care Future, the industry-backed group working to kill Medicare expansion.

Dan's story about how the Obama administration weakened the Affordable Care Act's cost-cutting measures to preserve jobs during the recession.

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HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma are the two most important health officials in the Humphrey building — but they've spent months disagreeing on policy, personnel and priorities. The longstanding cold war between them has heated up amid questions over Verma's use of outside public relations contractors.

On this episode of "Pulse Check," POLITICO's Dan Diamond joins colleagues Adam Cancryn and Rachana Pradhan to discuss the team's recent reporting on the Azar-Verma relationship, what it means for the Trump administration's policies and where it's all headed.

MENTIONED ON THE SHOW

Verma's faced congressional inquiries and an inspector general probe following a POLITICO report that she directed millions of federal dollars toward PR communications contracts that benefited her personal brand.

Azar and Verma's battles have affected big ideas — like the administration's plans to replace Obamacare — and smaller moments like who gets to announce new regulations, POLITICO reported last week.

Azar also has clashed with the White House — and specifically Joe Grogan, the domestic policy council chief — over policy ideas.

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One-third of the nearly 9 million veterans who receive healthcare from the VA live in remote, rural areas across the country, and delivering treatment when and where it’s needed most can prove challenging.

Hear from two health experts who are leveraging telehealth technologies to break down the barriers to heath care for America’s veterans.

This special branded episode of Pulse Check was produced by POLITICO’s in-house brand content studio, POLITICO Focus. POLITICO’s editorial team was not involved in the creation of this episode.

A disclaimer from our Sponsor, Philips: Sentry Score is a predictive algorithm for the adult intensive care unit (ICU) that shows a patient’s probability of receiving an intervention within 60 minutes. Sentry Score patient risk predictions are continuously updated as new vital sign data are received providing deeper insights into the patients’ trajectory, which can potentially provide the opportunity for earlier intervention. Sentry Score is a proprietary, locked, algorithm developed as a regression Machine Learning model using patterns of vital sign data from Philips eICU Research Institute (eRI) associated with clinical interventions. References to AI within this podcast are related to the application of Machine Learning in the algorithm development; Sentry Score is not actively changing.

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In the fourth episode of POLITICO's miniseries on the VA, "Pulse Check" and POLITICO's Arthur Allen sit down with Sen. Jon Tester, the ranking member of the Senate committee overseeing the VA.

Tester walks through how lawmakers have tailored legislation to boost the VA, where he thinks senators should push on oversight and what worries him about the agency's direction.

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In the third episode of POLITICO's miniseries on the VA, "Pulse Check" and POLITICO's Arthur Allen sit down with a permanently disabled veteran who relies on the agency.

Today,  J.R. Wilson talks about his experience after getting injured during an Army parachuting accident, how he's relied solely on VA services to help with his recovery and his concern that privatizing the agency would harm its specialized quality of care.

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In the second episode of POLITICO's miniseries on the VA, "Pulse Check" and POLITICO's Arthur Allen delve deeper into the challenges of the long-troubled agency.

Today, former VA Secretary David Shulkin discusses his rocky tenure leading the agency under President Donald Trump, how he he tried to implement changes before being fired and what he sees as the biggest risks to the VA's future.

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On this Veterans Day, "Pulse Check" and POLITICO's Arthur Allen kick off a four-episode miniseries: what does the future of the VA look like? 

Today, we talk to former VA social worker Andrea Plate, author of the upcoming book, "Madness: In the Trenches of America’s Troubled Department of Veterans Affairs," about the challenges of caring for veterans amid funding crunches, structural problems and a battle for the agency's soul.

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The National Cancer Institute estimates that over 1.7 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed annually. Advancements in science and technology are paving the way for new cancer treatments that can make a huge difference for patients. And yet, many people don’t have access to them.

Hear from two health care leaders working to provide cancer patients with innovative, effective and affordable treatments.

This special branded episode of Pulse Check was produced by POLITICO’s in-house brand content studio, POLITICO Focus. POLITICO’s editorial team was not involved in the creation of this episode.

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When there's an Ebola epidemic — or a natural disaster — that could threaten the world, a team at CDC springs into action: the Division of Global Health Protection, which deploys disease detectives and helps stand up emergency operations to fight the problem.

Capt. Nancy Knight, MD, joined POLITICO's Dan Diamond to debrief on global health crises and the world's response, part of a special pop-up podcast at the Milken Institute's "Future of Health" summit.

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An organ donation can save a life — or at least that's the message hammered home across public health, in advertisements or even when getting a driver's license. 

But why does the U.S. system fail to recover so many transplantable organs? And why are some donated organs even thrown away?

Greg Segal of ORGANIZE joined POLITICO's Dan Diamond to discuss the current problems and the promising future for organ donation, part of a special pop-up podcast at the Milken Institute's "Future of Health" summit.

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