New health benefits among major K-12 reforms of 2017

A new day in health care is slowly on its way for Washington's K-12 school teachers, classroom aides, part-time bus drivers and even lunchroom workers. The new school insurance program, approved by the Legislature in June, is not going to be a quick fix.

Obama’s health care law still needs some patchwork

Mario Henderson leads chants of "save Medicaid," as other social service activists, Medicaid recipients and their supporters stage a protest outside the building that houses the offices of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Thursday, June 29, 2017, in Jackson, Miss. Soaring prices and fewer choices may greet customers when they return to the Affordable Care ActAos insurance marketplaces in the fall of 2017, in part because insurers are facing deep uncertainty about whether the Trump administration will continue to make key subsidy payments and enforce other parts of the existing law that help control prices.

FDA Targets Cigarettes in Broadening of Fight Against Addiction

Eight years after it was given the power to meaningfully change smoking in America, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration moved to do so. Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act -- a law enacted under a Democratic Congress and then-President Obama -- to cut the level of nicotine in cigarettes to nonaddictive levels.  "A lot of people have been thinking about this for a long time, including experts in the agency, including myself," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday.

Higgins introduces bill to open up medicare to more people

At the same time Senate Republicans were considering ways to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a few House Democrats offered up their solution to improve it. "This is the best plan that is being proposed today from a practicality standpoint," Rep. Brian Higgins, D-NY-1, said.

LGBT outrage over Trump ban on transgender military service

Most LGBT-rights activists never believed Donald Trump's campaign promises to be their friend. But with his move Wednesday to ban transgender people from military service, on top of other actions and appointments, they now see him as openly hostile.

Today in the peanut gallery

This revised iteration of BCRA - which included an amendment by Sen. Ted Cruz to allow non-Obamacare plans back on the market paired with $100 billion in funding to partially offset the Medicaid cuts - was subject, because of the Senate budget rules, to a 60-vote threshold for a procedural vote. It failed handily, 43 to 57, with nine Republicans and all of the Democrats opposing it.

Senate opens ‘Obamacare’ debate at last but outcome in doubt

Prodded by President Donald Trump, a bitterly divided Senate voted at last Tuesday to move forward with the Republicans' long-promised legislation to repeal and replace "Obamacare." There was high drama as Sen. John McCain returned to the Capitol for the first time after being diagnosed with brain cancer to cast a decisive "yes" vote.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) returns to the U.S. Senate July 25, 2017 in…

Sen. John McCain returns to the U.S. Senate July 25, 2017 in Washington, DC. McCain was recently diagnosed with brain cancer but returned on the day the Senate is holding a key procedural vote on U.S. President Donald TrumpA*s effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

John McCain will return to the Senate on Tuesday

Sen. John McCain will be returning to Washington for business on Tuesday, a week after news broke that he was diagnosed with brain cancer following a surgery the week before to remove a blood clot from above his left eye. John McCain will return to the Senate on Tuesday Sen. John McCain will be returning to Washington for business on Tuesday, a week after news broke that he was diagnosed with brain cancer following a surgery the week before to remove a blood clot from above his left eye.

John McCain to return for pivotal U.S. Senate vote on health care

Committee chairman Senator John McCain asks a question during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Marines United Facebook page on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S. March 14, 2017. Committee chairman Senator John McCain asks a question during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Marines United Facebook page on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S. March 14, 2017.

McCain to return for pivotal U.S. Senate vote on healthcare

Senator John McCain will make a return to the U.S. capitol on Tuesday to play what could be a crucial role in keeping Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare afloat. McCain, who is battling brain cancer at his Arizona home, is set to help decide whether the repeal push will move forward or perhaps be abandoned entirely.

How California can save a Obamacarea

Hell hath no fury like a president scorned. And with the embarrassing collapse of the GOP-controlled Senate's plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, many health care experts predict that Donald Trump and his administration will do whatever it takes to “let Obamacare fail,” as the president put it last week.