US uninsured rate hit record low last year

The nation’s uninsured rate tumbled further last year, hitting the lowest rate on record, according to new government data that underscored what is at stake in the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. In the first nine months of 2016, just 8.8 percent of Americans lacked health coverage, survey data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

GOP lawmakers face angry constituents at town halls

The voter identified himself as a cancer survivor, and he had something to say to Republican Rep. Justin Amash : “I am scared to death that I will not have health insurance in the future.” The comment earned 61-year-old retiree Paul Bonis a standing ovation from the crowd packed into a school auditorium in Amash’s Michigan district Thursday night.

Tom Price sworn in as health and human services secretary

Rep. Tom Price of Georgia was sworn in Friday as health and human services secretary, setting the stage for the conservative to play a leading role in dismantling President Barack Obama’s health care law. Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath to Price hours after he won Senate confirmation on a narrow 52-47 vote early Friday.

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… Act during a 90-minute primetime debate on CNN Tuesday. President Donald Trump has promised to repeal and replace the health care law, often referred to as Obamacare, while Democrats have vowed to defend former President Barack Obama’s landmark …

Uncertain future for Californiaa s anti-smog efforts: Thomas Elias

Cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are down about three percent over the last 40 years in California, even as state population is up by well over one-third, better than 15 million, and far more smog-belching vehicles than ever clog the roads. This is a major public health achievement, and the single biggest reason behind it is the 45-year-old federal Clean Air Act and its provisions for California waivers.

Commentary: Trump and Obama’s legacy

… to go down in history. Obamacare was passed into law to give some 20 million Americans the opportunity to purchase health Insurance through private Insurance companies subsidized by the Federal government. But from the start it wasn’t presented …

Guess Who Can’t Wait for Trumpcare?

… hasn’t been a particularly popular law since its passage in March 2010. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll, which has been conducted on a near-monthly basis since Obamacare’s passage, just a handful of months have …

NORC Poll: Broad worries about potentiala

Though “Obamacare” still divides Americans, a majority worry that many will lose coverage if the 2010 law is repealed in the nation’s long-running political standoff over health care. AP-NORC Poll: Broad worries about potential health care loss WASHINGTON – Though “Obamacare” still divides Americans, a majority worry that many will lose coverage if the 2010 law is repealed in the nation’s long-running political standoff over health care.

Health pick Price grilled

President Donald Trump’s choice to become health and human services secretary told a Senate committee Tuesday that the new administration believes that people with existing illnesses should not be denied health insurance. But Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., committed to no details on that or any aspects of how Republicans will reshape the previous president’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Ambition isn’t always blind

On a fairly regular basis back in the day, state Sen. Barack Obama would walk up to the Senate press box and bum cigarettes off me. That was when people could smoke in the Senate chambers and back when both of us smoked.

Trump looks to steady ship after fraught start

… actions designed to get back to Trump’s agenda. Already there have been moves to roll-back President Barack Obama’s health care reforms and freeze some regulations in the pipeline. A pledge to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem …

Barack Obama Will Me Missed

… increase in healthcare costs since 1960. Medicare is stable until at least 2030, and 16.5 million more Americans have health insurance, reducing costs to the general population. He wasn’t always successful. The national debt has doubled. The poverty …

Trump order paves way for agencies to weaken health law

Cathey Park of Cambridge, Massachusetts wears a cast for her broken wrist with “I Love Obamacare” written upon it prior to U.S. President Barack Obama’s arrival to speak about health insurance at Faneuil Hall in Boston October 30, 2013. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque President Donald Trump is ordering federal agencies to undermine Obamacare through regulatory action, a move that could weaken enforcement of the requirement for Americans to buy health coverage and give insurers leeway to drop some benefits.

Trump opens first full day on job at church

… under the Affordable Care Act , which might include enforcement of the penalty for people who fail to carry the health insurance that the law requires of most Americans. President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Friday giving federal …

Trump signs executive order that could gut Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate

President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Friday giving federal agencies broad powers to unwind regulations created under the Affordable Care Act, which might include enforcement of the penalty for people who fail to carry the health insurance that the law requires of most Americans. The executive order, signed in the Oval Office as one of the new president’s first actions, directs agencies to grant relief to all constituencies affected by the sprawling 2010 health care law: consumers, insurers, hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, states and others.

#DonaldTrump signs first order on Obamacare

… programs while developing “a free and open market in interstate commerce for the offering of healthcare services and health insurance.” Health experts had speculated that Trump could expand exemptions from the so-called individual mandate, which …

Health care field awaits another seismic shift

A patient receives dental work at the Straka Terrace clinic this week in Oklahoma City. [Photo by Paul Hellstern, The Oklahoman] As a mother checked in at the front desk of a south Oklahoma City health clinic, her two young boys made laps around her as they chased one another.

Ap Photos: Long-married Bushes hospitalized together

Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, have been married for 72 years – longer than any U.S. presidential couple. This week, they are being treated in the same Houston hospital, and receiving well-wishes from President Barack Obama, President-elect Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton as well as their son, former President George W. Bush.

Lena Dunham, Wilson Cruz to speak at Planned Parenthood rally

The Tuesday rally in Sacramento, just three days before President Barack Obama leaves office, reflects mounting concerns over national politics and the future of the reproductive health organization, which has 115 affiliated centers in California alone, serving 800,000 patients. Women’s health groups are concerned that a Trump presidency could enable a Republican-controlled Congress to make good on its threats to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding by making it ineligible for Medicaid reimbursement.

Trump promises health care ‘for everybody’

President-elect Donald Trump wants health “insurance for everybody,” he told The Washington Post, no small feat in a country where millions are uninsured. The Republican has long lashed out at President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, campaigning on a pledge to repeal and replace it.

Trump: ‘Insurance for everybody’ in plan

President-elect Donald Trump said in a weekend interview that he is nearing completion of a plan to replace President Barack Obama’s signature health care law with the goal of “insurance for everybody,” while also vowing to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid.