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Hillary Clinton's campaign sees no reason to put out an update on her health, chief strategist Joel Benenson said Thursday, smacking down Donald Trump's insinuations and calling on the Republican nominee to release medical records comparable to those put out by the Democratic candidate's campaign in July. Trump knows that there is no issue with Clinton's health, Benenson told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, remarking that it "must be driving his ego crazy that she's outworking him, outthinking him, connecting better with the American voters about the issues that matter in their life." (Gass, 8/18)

Newt Gingrich dismissed outright as "junk medicine" on Thursday theories about Hillary Clinton's state of health and treatment, after board-certified internist and media personality Drew Pinsky speculated that the Democratic nominee is not receiving a proper level of care. The former speaker of the House and Donald Trump ally responded on "Fox & Friends" after the show played a clip of Pinsky speaking Tuesday on KABC Radio's McIntyre in the Morning. In that segment, Pinsky said he was "gravely concerned" about Clinton's health, noting her doctor's 2015 assessment that showed a "1950 level sort of care" by the evaluation of himself and a colleague. (Gass, 8/18)

Hillary Clinton’s health care plan clearly intends to tackle affordability issues on Obamacare exchanges. Less clear is whether — or how — it deals with the increasingly prominent issue of insurer participation and financial viability in the marketplace. ... While some experts say addressing consumer affordability issues will, in turn, increase insurers’ profitability on exchanges, others say the Democratic nominee’s proposals fall short of addressing the issue. Some even say a public option, which she has proposed, would only make things worse for private plans by pushing premiums artificially lower. (Owens, 8/18)

So far in the 2016 presidential campaign, Medicare and retiree health plans haven’t been near the top of the burning issues’ list. But these important programs still deserve your careful attention when making your choice this fall. ... your options will be significantly influenced by the next president’s intentions for Medicare benefits and its financing, as well as health care plans for retirees under age 65. Let’s look at the positions Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have staked out, in alphabetical order. (Vernon, 8/18)

The drug industry is quietly troubled over Donald Trump’s tough talk on trade.The Republican presidential nominee has promised to aggressively renegotiate America’s trade deals — and to tear them up if need be. Those pledges are now rankling a biopharmaceutical sector that depends heavily on the deals to protect their intellectual property and, by extension, their entire business model. Provisions in the deals typically require participating nations to adhere to patent protections similar to those in the United States, to give companies relief if there is a delay in granting a patent, and to keep their clinical data confidential. (Scott, 8/18)