Category: US News

Trump ally sparks outrage for wishing for Obama’s death

A Donald Trump ally has ignited widespread outrage after wishing for US President Barack Obama’s death and making racially charged comments about the first lady. Carl Paladino-a businessman who served as a co-chairman of the president-elect’s New York State election campaign-made the incendiary jabs in a year-end feature published on Friday in Artvoice, a weekly newspaper in upstate New York.

North Carolina: No longer a democracy

… for Arkansas: Let’s stay ahead of North Carolina. One step would be avoiding a bathroom bill. Alas ….. Sign-ups for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act continue to rise even as a Republican Congress and president-elect prepare to …

BC-US-Obama Legacy,ADVISORY, US

Few presidents have entered the White House carrying as many expectations as Barack Obama. The first black president and the first of his generation, Obama arrived promising to end wars, restore economic stability, improve health care, expand equality, reimagine our politics and, yes, bring new hope and change.

Mental health malfeasance

The 21st Century Cures Act signed by President Barack Obama contains smart, well-designed mental-health provisions. But unless President-elect Donald Trump and Tom Price, his nominee for secretary of health and human services, “drain the swamp” at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Center for Mental Health Services, many of the new law’s useful provisions could be negated or undone by the permanent bureaucracy.

Populism, real and phony

… Trump’s Cabinet choices show which way the wind is blowing. Both his pick as budget director and his choice to head Health and Human Services want to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and privatize Medicare. His choice as labor secretary is a …

Populism, real and phony

… Trump’s Cabinet choices show which way the wind is blowing. Both his pick as budget director and his choice to head Health and Human Services want to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and privatize Medicare. His choice as labor secretary is a …

Nurses Call on Senate to Reject Tom Price as HHS Secretary Policies…

Nurses Call on Senate to Reject Tom Price as HHS Secretary Policies Would ‘Substantially Erode Our Nation’s Health and Security’ WASHINGTON – National Nurses United later Thursday called on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, as well as the full Senate, to reject the nomination of Rep. Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Commentary: Wrapping up a tumultuous year

… Readmission Program Act, which was included in the 21st Century Cures Act. It would require the Department of Health and Human Services to adjust its readmission penalty for hospitals whose readmission rates it deems are too high. This program was …

Planned Parenthood Is Under Attack In Texas, And Media There Are Failing The Challenge

Texas media are omitting crucial information in reports on the state’s move to cut off Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood, including that Texas’ decision was largely based on debunked videos by an anti-abortion activist group, the Center for Medical Progress, and that the move will negatively impact women’s health. In contrast, reporting by online outlets geared toward women put Texas media to shame, explaining that the evidence behind the policy decision is misleading and that the defunding will have dire consequences for women’s health in Texas.

Uninsured rate hits new low due to Obamacare: Report

More Americans now have health insurance than ever before, with the uninsured rate declining across all 50 states because of the Affordable Care Act , according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund released Wednesday. Following full implementation of the ACA’s health coverage provisions in 2014, every state experienced a decline in the percentage of uninsured working-age adults and low-income adults, the report stated.

Medicare’s Part B demo defeated but requires vigilance

As President-elect Trump continues to assemble his cabinet and designate key posts at the Department of Health & Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services , patient advocates must remain vigilant and poised to protect access to life-saving medicines. For the past several months Patients for Medicare Access fought on behalf of patients to delay a CMS proposed pricing model for Medicare Part B. The proposal, while well intentioned, is bad for patients from the outset.

Uninsured rate hits new low due to Obamacare: report

More Americans now have health insurance than ever before, with the uninsured rate declining across all 50 states because of the Affordable Care Act , according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund released. Following full implementation of the ACA’s health coverage provisions in 2014, every state experienced a decline in the percentage of uninsured working-age adults and low-income adults, the report stated.

Activists Defend ACA, March To Republican Party Headquarters

A small but boisterous group marched from Capital Community College to the Connecticut Republican Party headquarters on Pratt Street Tuesday afternoon, chanting, singing and protesting what they called “President-elect Donald Trump and his allies’ massive attack on every aspect of our families’ health care.” Once they arrived at the statewide GOP headquarters about 5:30 p.m., organizer Dan Durso rang the bell to the GOP office several times, but no one answered.

A fiscal hawk to OMB

President-elect Donald Trump has named Rep. Mick Mulvaney as his director of the Office of Management and Budget, signaling his intent to slash spending and address the deficit as president. Mulvaney, 49, was elected to Congress in 2010 in the wave that brought a cohort of younger, staunchly conservative members into the House.

Trump immigration plan could cost the U.S. billions

President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to overturn an executive order that provides temporary protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children could cost the country tens of billions of dollars, a new study finds. Put in place by President Obama six years ago, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has helped hundreds of thousands of young people – known as the DREAMers – come out from the shadows and get valid driver’s licenses, enroll in college and legally secure jobs.

Under Trump, America Will Turn Into Poland? Nahhh — America Will Be Worse.

In The Washington Post , Anthony Faiola describes what’s happening in Poland, and strongly suggests that America under Donald Trump could be very similar: In the land of [the] Law and Justice [Party], anti-intellectualism is king. Polish scientists are aghast at proposed curriculum changes in a new education bill that would downplay evolution theory and climate change and add hours for “patriotic” history lessons.

California push to cover illegals under Obamacare may fail

Time is running out for the administration to approve California’s push to allow illegal immigrants to use its Obamacare exchange, likely dooming the effort as President Obama prepares to hand the reins over to President-elect Donald Trump. The 2010 health law specifically banned illegal immigrants from signing up for Obamacare, with Capitol Hill Democrats fearing at the time that it was too politically charged.

California push to cover illegals under Obamacare may fail

Time is running out for the administration to approve California’s push to allow illegal immigrants to use its Obamacare exchange, likely dooming the effort as President Obama prepares to hand the reins over to President-elect Donald Trump. The 2010 health law specifically banned illegal immigrants from signing up for Obamacare, with Capitol Hill Democrats fearing at the time that it was too politically charged.

The new OMB’s director’s first order of business? Standing up to Trump.

AS THE federal government has grown, so has the power and responsibility of the White House-based agency charged with keeping tabs on spending, revenue and regulation. The director of that agency, the Office of Management and Budget, is much more than the president’s bean-counter; he or she is a key player on policy, as well as, traditionally, the voice of fiscal responsibility both within the executive branch and in the public arena.

GOP Says It Plans to Replace Obamacare With “Universal Access”

Responding to criticism that repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would leave millions without health insurance, House Republicans have announced that their goal in replacing the PPACA is to guarantee “universal access” to health care and coverage, not necessarily to ensure that everyone has insurance, according to an article in The New York Times. “Our goal here is to make sure that everybody can buy coverage or find coverage if they choose to,” a House leadership aide told journalists.

Democrats

… cuts. Schumer promised “some heck of a hearing” for Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), President-elect Trump’s nominee to be Health and Human Services secretary. Schumer and Sanders both pointed out that while Trump campaigned on a promise to not touch …

Will Republicans regret repealing Obamacare?

… the Republican rallying cry for six years, and their constituents expect them to fulfill that promise. But stripping health insurance from 22 million Americans without a replacement plan could incur serious wrath from voters — and they’re nowhere …