Category: US News

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.

The CBO doesn’t deal in ‘alternative’ facts

President Trump during a reception with congressional leaders on Monday at the White House. Federal deficits are expected to rise for the first time in nearly a decade, driving up the federal debt to almost unprecedented levels, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office .

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.

Illinois to Congress: Don’t Be ‘Hasty’ with Health Law Repeal

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration has sent a letter to GOP congressional leaders asking them to avoid “hasty” or “incomplete” action as they proceed with a planned repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The Jan. 17 letter says Congress and the states “must work together” to achieve “important reforms” in health care policy.

Medicaid takes center stage as Democrats grill Tom Price

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump was emphatic that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that poor Americans can get the health care they need. But in Trump’s first days as president, it is becoming increasingly clear that he and his administration are open to making drastic changes to Medicaid – a move that could make it difficult for Trump to fulfill his impassioned campaign promise to take care of the poor.

Trump budget pick: Cut benefit programs; tax hikes on table

Budget Director-designate Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C. testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee. Budget Director-designate Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C. testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee.

“Dancing with the Stars” Co-Host Erin Andrews Reveals Battle with Cervical Cancer

Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office… — The governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, has prostate cancer, he said Tuesday.Dayton said that he learned of the diagnosis last week and that he might have… – Iran, Russia and Turkey agreed to launch a three-way mechanism to ensure compliance with the Syrian ceasefire as talks on the conflict concluded T… The American Soybean Association has communicated to the White House that the significant trade benefits U.S. farmers have achieved under the North American Free Trade A… A winter storm has blanketed parts of Western Nebraska and that means we’ve got postponements and/or cancellations for events today.

GOP senators present Obamacare alternative

… as an “Obamacare replacement plan.” The duo is promising that the proposal would give more power to the states on health care policy, increase access to affordable insurance and help cover millions of Americans who are currently uninsured. …

Facing skeptical lawmakers, state officials strike at critical KanCare report

The agency that oversees KanCare on Monday called a scathing federal report against the Medicaid program incomplete and criticized the quality of its analysis under intense questioning by lawmakers. Susan Mosier, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, defended the program and its employees in a tense appearance before the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.

What if Trump-care works in California? What if it doesna t? Thomas Elias

One problem in having a president who operates without much regard for facts, truth or consistency – one whose staff has devised the concept of “alternative facts” – is that when he says or promises something, no one can know whether he means it. So it was with President Trump’s mid-January promise of “health insurance for everybody,” including better coverage, more choice among policies, lower deductibles and no one left behind – far different from anything his Republican allies in Congress ever promised in their many efforts to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act .

US Supreme Court won’t hear ‘Sister Wives’ bigamy law appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it won’t hear an appeal from the family on TV’s “Sister Wives” challenging Utah’s law banning polygamy. The decision ends the family’s long legal fight to overturn a seldom used and unique provision of Utah’s law that the Browns and other polygamous families contend has a chilling effect by sending law-abiding plural families into hiding because of fear of prosecution.

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.

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 Set to Battle With GOP Over Budget Cuts

… is the entitlement part of the budget,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chairman, told The Hill. But that line of thinking runs counter to Trump’s campaign …

President Trump’s top six targets

… Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, signs his first executive order on health care on Friday. Picture: Evan Vucci/AP During an appearance on Fox News Sunday , Priebus also said that Trump was feeling the …

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 …

What if Trump-care works?

One problem in having a President who operates without much regard for facts, truth or consistency – one whose staff has devised the concept of “alternative facts” – is that when he says or promises something, no one can know whether he means it. So it was with President Trump’s mid-January promise of “health insurance for everybody,” including better coverage, more choice among policies, lower deductibles and no one left behind – far different from anything his Republican allies in Congress ever promised in their many efforts to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act .

Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

Steve Huffman, the thirty-three-year-old co-founder and C.E.O. of Reddit, which is valued at six hundred million dollars, was nearsighted until November, 2015, when he arranged to have laser eye surgery. He underwent the procedure not for the sake of convenience or appearance but, rather, for a reason he doesn’t usually talk much about: he hopes that it will improve his odds of surviving a disaster, whether natural or man-made.

Louisiana senator to unveil Obamacare replacement

Within hours of becoming the leader of the free world, President Trump’s first action took a swipe at President Obama’s landmark health care reform, signing an executive order that asks federal agencies to ease the burden of Obamacare. FOX 8 Political Analyst Mike Sherman says that pen stroke may simply be a nod to supporters that Trump’s promise to repeal Obamacare won’t be forgotten.

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 …

Great Expectations

… who rammed this law down America’s throat without knowing what was in it. A real replacement plan will emerge. Health care and health insurance should be two separate concepts. We can hope for holistic reform, such as interstate insurance sales to …

With executive order, Trump tosses a “bomb” into fragile health insurance markets

President Donald Trump’s new executive order instructing federal agencies to grant relief to constituencies affected by the Affordable Care Act has begun to reverberate throughout the nation’s health-care system, injecting further uncertainty into an already unsettled insurance landscape. The political signal of the order, which Trump signed Friday just hours after being sworn into office, was clear: Even before the Republican-led Congress acts to repeal the 2010 law, the new administration will move swiftly to unwind as many elements as it can on its own – elements that have changed how 20 million Americans get health coverage and what benefits insurers must offer some of their customers.

With executive order, Trump tosses a ‘bomb’ into fragile health insurance markets

The federal government forms for applying for health coverage are seen at a rally held by supporters of the Affordable Care Act, widely referred to as “Obamacare”, outside the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson, Mississippi, on Oct. 4, 2013. President Donald Trump’s new executive order instructing federal agencies to grant relief to constituencies affected by the Affordable Care Act has begun to reverberate throughout the nation’s health care system, injecting further uncertainty into an already unsettled insurance landscape.

The Damage Done: A Media Addiction

… I voted for Donald Trump because I wanted to see change in our country. One change I didn’t want to see was access to health care at Planned Parenthood blocked. But Republican congressional leaders have already promised to do just that, with a …