ObamaCare quietly leaves mark on Medicare despite repeal push

Republican efforts to repeal ObamaCare will likely leave Medicare untouched, meaning former President Obama will leave his mark on the popular health program for more than 58 million elderly and disabled “There are changes to Medicare that are in the ACA that have taken effect that people are benefiting from today,” Juliette Cubanski , Kaiser Family Foundation Medicare policy program associate director, told The Hill Extra. “Medicare, the way it is now, is really popular.

ACA replacement a growing concern

As Republicans try to unite around a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, one of the most popular parts of the law will be among the most difficult to replace: the guarantee of health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

Pre-existing conditions complicate health care replacement

As Republicans try to unite around a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, one of the most popular parts of the law will be among the most difficult to replace: the guarantee of health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. The challenge of providing insurance for Americans who have no other alternative has some congressional Republicans considering whether to ask the states to reboot high-risk pools, an option with a rocky history.

Pre-existing conditions complicate health care replacement

As Republicans try to unite around a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, one of the most popular parts of the law will be among the most difficult to replace: the guarantee of health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. The challenge of providing insurance for Americans who have no other alternative has some congressional Republicans considering whether to ask the states to reboot high-risk pools, an option with a rocky history.

Important public forum

… appointed, and the Senate confirmed on a party line vote, Atlanta’s Rep. Tom Price as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Price, like his friend Speaker Paul Ryan, wants to do away with traditional Medicare and change the age of …

U.S. 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.

House GOP discusses Obamacare replacement ideas – but does not call them a plan

House Republicans left a highly anticipated meeting on health care Thursday with some new details on the options GOP leaders are considering to replace the Affordable Care Act – but without the fully formed plan that those leaders and President Trump have promised. The meeting in the Capitol basement included presentations from leaders of key House committees and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, and it was intended to give lawmakers more information ahead of a week-long recess where many of them will be meeting constituents eager for details on what will replace the health care law the GOP has pledged to repeal.

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.

Tom Price as HHS Secretary: A Disaster for U.S. Health Care

The Senate’s vote to confirm Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., as secretary of health and human services, while widely expected, should set off national alarm bells. Price’s congressional track record, combined with his extensive health-policy paper trail, have shown him to be unabashedly pro-big-business and contemptuous of human needs – particularly when it comes to women’s and poor people’s needs.

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.

Senate confirms polarizing pick for health secretary

A polarized Senate voted early Friday morning to confirm Tom Price, the conservative Georgia congressman who has been one of Congress’s most vehement opponents of the Affordable Care Act, as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The 52-47 vote made Price the latest in a series of controversial Cabinet nominees whom the Senate’s Republican majority has been strong enough to muscle through on party-line votes.

Is GOP really softening on Obamacare?

… in Congress rethinking their opposition to the ACA in light of concerns that constituents will lose access to health care, or because of the push-back from an insurance industry troubled by uncertainty? While the challenges of dismantling the ACA …

HHS Nominee Tom Price Targeted Panel That Urged Fewer Cancer Screenings

If the last few years are any guide, one group that may find itself in the crosshairs of Rep. Tom Price, President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is an influential panel of medical experts. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, a group of mostly physician and academics from top universities, reviews medical practices to see whether they are supported by research and evidence.

Senate Democrats, GOP at loggerheads over ACA repeal, HHS nominee

Senate Democrats on Tuesday grilled Rep. Tom Price, MD , President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, on a host of healthcare issues, but most prominently regarding Republican intentions to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Price was on the hot seat for four hours during a Senate Finance Committee hearing considering his nomination for HHS Secretary.

Senate Democrats, GOP at loggerheads over ACA repeal, HHS nominee

Senate Democrats on Tuesday grilled Rep. Tom Price, MD , President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, on a host of healthcare issues, but most prominently regarding Republican intentions to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Price was on the hot seat for four hours during a Senate Finance Committee hearing considering his nomination for HHS Secretary.

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.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act will kill more than 43,000 people annually

David Himmelstein is a professor of public health at the City University of New York at Hunter College, a Lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. Steffie Woolhandler is a professor of public health at the City University of New York at Hunter College, a Lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Trump Adviser Kellyanne Conway Says Obamacare – Penalty’ Will End

Kellyanne Conway, a key adviser to President Donald Trump, said the new administration plans to end the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most people have health insurance, a step that could destabilize the law’s markets. Conway, in an interview airing Sunday on NBC News’ “Sunday Today With Willie Geist,” appeared to indicate that the law’s requirement that most employers offer coverage to their full-time workers would also end.

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.

With Trump pick Tom Price, cool heads can prevail on health reform

The Senate committee hearing for Rep. Tom Price , nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, demonstrated some fundamental differences between the two major parties on health policy – differences that may have to be overcome or set aside if the Affordable Care Act will be replaced. Democrats and Price “went around a a number of times,”a s Sen. Murphy said, on the difference between health insurance for all and “access to” health insurance for all.

Republican senator would let states keep Obamacare if they want

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy is making an offer to Democrats he hopes they won’t refuse: If their states like Obamacare, they can keep it. A doctor who worked for decades in charity hospitals and clinics before joining Congress, Cassidy plans to introduce soon an updated version of his health care plan aimed at giving states flexibility to keep Obamacare, nix it entirely or transition to a new system of health savings accounts and automatic health plan enrollment.

HHS nominee Price sees ‘access’ to coverage as health reform goal – Wed, 18 Jan 2017 PST

Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services and one of Congress’s most vehement critics of the Affordable Care Act, told senators on Wednesday that “it is absolutely imperative” for the government to ensure that all Americans “have the opportunity to gain access” to insurance coverage – a more modest goal than the incoming president has set forth in recent days. In a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee committee, Price laid out the central elements of his years-long attempt to replace the ACA along conservative lines.

Trump Nominee to Face Questions About Obamacare, Stock Trades

Democrats plan to make the Georgia Republican, a leading critic of Obamacare who authored his own conservative alternative to the law in Congress, defend his and Trump’s records on entitlement reform and health insurance. While Trump is in sync with Hill Republicans and Price on the need to repeal and replace Obamacare, he has split with his party on some of the details of reform.