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In another nod to primary rival Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton is proposing to increase federal money for community health centers and outlining steps to expand access to health care across the nation. Clinton's campaign says the proposal is part of her plan to provide universal health care coverage in the United States. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also is reaffirming her support for a public-option insurance plan and for expanding Medicare by letting people age 55 year and older opt in. (Lucey and Thomas, 7/9)

The presumptive Democratic nominee's proposal would double funding for primary care services at Federally Qualified Health Centers, which serve populations with limited access to health care. Community health care centers have been a key priority for Sanders, I-Vt., who successfully fought for the inclusion of $11 billion in funding for such centers in the Affordable Care Act of 2010. (Gaudiano, 7/10)

And she said she would seek to expand federal funding by $40 billion over the coming decade for community-based centers that provide primary health care services. Under that proposal, funding would be doubled for “federally qualified “ health centers, which serve about 25 million low income people in the U.S., many of whom are minorities and reside in hard to reach rural areas, according to Clinton campaign. Sanders made community health care centers a key priority during his primary challenge to Clinton this year and has long championed increased funding for the program. (Pianin, 7/11)

"We have more work to do to finish our long fight to provide universal, quality, affordable health care to everyone in America," Clinton said. "Already, the Affordable Care Act has expanded coverage to 20 million Americans. As president, I will make sure Republicans never succeed in their attempts to strip away their care and that the remaining uninsured should be able to get the affordable coverage they need to stay healthy." (Lee, 7/9)

The document itself is largely symbolic, but it's taken on more weight this year as Clinton moves left to appeal to Sanders' supporters. Sanders, who clashed with Clinton during the primary over his support for a single-payer health care system, praised the Clinton plan in a press call Saturday morning. (Cook, 7/9)

In a press call with reporters Saturday timed to coincide with the plan's release, Sanders applauded the move, calling it an "important step forward." "I congratulate Secretary Clinton for this extraordinary initiative," he said. "It will save lives, it will ease suffering and it will improve healthcare in America and it will cut healthcare costs." (Neidig, 7/9)

As Hillary Clinton prepares to take another big step toward supporting liberal calls for universal health care coverage, a new study concludes that Donald Trump’s proposals for replacing Obamacare would strip nearly 18 million mostly low-income Americans of their current coverage. The study by the non-partisan Center for Health and Economy provides the first detailed analysis of the presumptive GOP nominee’s scattershot proposals on health care. They include removing barriers to the sale of health insurance across state lines, expanding the use of health savings accounts to mitigate the cost of high-deductible insurance policies and allowing households to deduct premiums from their taxable income. (Pianin, 7/8)

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is nothing like the party's previous nominees, so it isn't surprising that the GOP health policy platform only days ahead of the convention remains largely unknown—very unlike 2012 or 2008. Health policy experts say there is even considerable uncertainty about who will drive the health platform at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland starting July 18. ... The big question is whether the presumptive nominee and his campaign will embrace, as the basis for the platform, all or part of the comprehensive health policy white paper released last month by House Speaker Paul Ryan and other top House Republican leaders to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. That 35-page document includes controversial proposals to cap and cut spending on Medicare and Medicaid and tax employer health benefits. (Meyer, 7/9)

Republican Donald Trump will deliver a speech on veterans' health care reform Monday, his latest in a series of prepared remarks aimed at articulating his policy agenda and convincing still-reticent Republicans that he has the discipline and control to mount a credible general election bid against likely rival Hillary Clinton. Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, will be speaking in Virginia Beach, Virginia, not far from the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, where he first unveiled his plan to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs last October, promising to modernize the system, while minimizing wait times for patients and improving care. (Colvin, 7/11)

This is the second in a series of videos about health care promises from presidential candidates that “sound like a good idea.” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News explores why proposals to regulate drug prices may not be such a good idea after all. (Rovner, Ying and Nguyen, 7/11)