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If there is a coherent theme to this year’s election, it is the growing economic frustration of working Americans. While trade has been the chief scapegoat, a major culprit has received much less attention: the rising cost of health insurance. (Regina E. Herzlinger, Barak D. Richman and Richard J. Boxer, 11/2)

Big Blue has found yet another business application for its precocious cognitive computing system. IBM Watson Health is collaborating with the biopharmaceutical company Celgene to develop a new platform for evaluating the safety of drugs—both before and after they hit the market—the two companies are announcing this morning. The new offering, “Watson for Patient Safety,” will gobble up anonymized medical records, claims data, and millions of electronic submissions to the FDA about potential drug side effects (known as individual case safety reports) to see if it can learn about the hidden dangers of medicines before they become too costly. (Sy Mukherjee and Clifton Leaf, 11/1)

The U.S. just reached an important milestone that will help more children grow to reach their full potential. Following the sharpest two-year decline in child uninsured rates on record, the U.S. made history with 95 percent of children covered by health insurance. The only age group with a better rate of health coverage are seniors who hover around 99 percent coverage rates thanks to the success of Medicare. The improvements for children were driven by the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. (Joan Alker, 11/1)

Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence, while campaigning with Donald Trump, is again urging a complete repeal of Obamacare, echoing Trump’s view that it is an unmitigated disaster. Pence a couple of years ago struck a deal to expand Medicaid pursuant to the provisions of Obamacare in exchange for some waivers. Is he a hypocrite for now calling for its total repeal? (Jennifer Rubin, 11/1)

President Obama once promised that the Obamacare exchanges would make buying insurance as easy as selecting a TV on Amazon. Just a few clicks, and you could comparison-shop and pick the plan that’s right for you. In a way, the president was right: The marketplaces set up under the Affordable Care Act make a really confusing and expensive purchase a lot easier. But insurance remains a complex financial product. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 11/1)

There are 1,485 active projects, aimed at increasing health care access and outcomes for these populations. Proponents of Medicaid expansion fail to acknowledge these facts. They also overlook the fact that more than half of the state-run Affordable Care Act exchanges have collapsed due to financial insolvency and that several of the nation's largest health insurers have withdrawn from the exchanges altogether. Indeed, Texas' largest insurer has proposed premium increases of more than 50 percent, saying that Obamacare "is not a financially stable business model." None of these things improve access to care. (John Colyandro and Tom Aldred, 11/1)

Medical research has made staggering progress in saving lives and reducing human suffering. For the last 50 years, life expectancy has increased by more than three hours every day. This is very real for me. I had cancer when I was 30, and I was successfully treated. Subsequently, through research, I learned that my treatments had been developed only 10 or 15 years before 1984, when I was diagnosed. So I have a very keen sense of the importance of the work underway here in Boston. That is why investing in life sciences was a major priority for me when I was president of Harvard, and today I still believe more can and should be done to fully exploit the potential of biomedicine, both for Boston and for the world at large. (Lawrence Summers, 11/1)

Although Type 1 diabetes is still more common among children, Type 2 diabetes — previously called adult onset or non-insulin-dependent diabetes — is becoming more common among adolescents and even younger children. Type 2 diabetes occurs in children as young as 6, and is increasing at an alarming rate, primarily due to the epidemic of obesity in children and adolescents. Type 2 diabetes is also more common among some ethnic groups, such as African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans. (Janine Sanchez, 11/1)