Category: US News

Kasich v Tiberi: Who’s Driving Who On ACA?

… last year when he tried for the second time in 16 years to run for president, wants President Barack Obama’s health care law to continue, especially the law’s expansion of Medicaid. Kasich’s concern is to not repeal the Medicaid expansion part …

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Disabled Veterans Report Discrimination, Targeting At Export-Import Bank

Disabled veterans working at the Export-Import bank are reporting that management is trying hard to oust them from the agency. Two disabled veterans at the Trade Credit Insurance Division of the Export-Import bank say that management is forcing them to move to the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and increasing their working hours, despite the fact that they suffer from debilitating medical conditions.

Dozens rally to keep Affordable Care Act

… affordable care act is repealed, more than 110 thousand jobs in Illinois would be lost by 2019. The fear of losing health care has also sparked across the nation. More than 11 point 5 million people have signed up for coverage through the federal …

Ap Fact Check: The audacity of hype

… coming off. In his first month, Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus package into law, as well as a law expanding health care for children and the Lilly Ledbetter bill on equal pay for women. Trump has vigorously produced executive orders, which …

Trump’s Timeline with Russia: Stranger Than Fiction

Dan Rather recently remarked about the current Russia scandal rocking Washington, “If a scriptwriter had approached Hollywood with what we are witnessing, he or she would probably have been told it was way too far-fetched for even a summer blockbuster.” 1987 -Donald Trump meets with then-U.S.S.R. communist government officials in Moscow to discuss a joint partnership deal to build a hotel in the city.

Traumacare: son of ACA

… places.” He said the best hope is to “learn how to put it all together so we can move forward.” K. John McConnell, Health Economist & Director of the Center for Health Systems Effectiveness, Oregon Health & Science University, cautioned that it took …

The Shameful Republican Assault on Medicaid

… lawmakers outlined proposals that are familiar from a plan that Ryan put out last year . They included expanded health savings accounts, financial aid for the establishment of high-risk pools at the state level, and the replacement of income-based …

A Big Week for Health Care

A Big Week for Health Care – “In the fight to save the ACA, next week is absolutely pivotal,” Topher Spiro tweeted on Thursday, referring to the health care law. “And YOU can help…” – The fight for the law is really a fight to prevent millions of people from losing health insurance and, by extension, medical care.

Three ways Republicans want to replace Obamacare

House GOP members met Thursday to hear more from committee leaders about efforts to replace the massive health reform law. In a presentation, Representatives Greg Walden of Oregon and Kevin Brady of Texas explained how the party wants to overhaul America’s health care system through the use of tax credits, health savings accounts and changes to Medicaid funding, among other measures.

Trump nominee has decried Medicaid for fostering dependency

In this Jan. 10, 2017 file photo, Seema Verma, left, then President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, gets on an elevator in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. Verma, the businesswoman selected by President Donald Trump to oversee Medicaid, the health care program for 74 million low-income Americans, has said the program is structurally flawed at its core by policies that burden states and foster dependency in the poor.

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.

Medicaid exposes rifts within the GOP over the programa s future after the ACA

Seema Verma, nominated to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, testifies at her confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee. As congressional Republicans move from talking points to details of how to abolish the Affordable Care Act, behind-the-scenes jockeying over the future of Medicaid demonstrates the delicate trade-offs the GOP faces in trying to steer health policy in a more conservative direction.

Paul Ryan faces major test in selling his plan to replace Obamacare

House Speaker Paul Ryan , R-Wis., spent Tuesday on a door-to-door tour of the Capitol in hopes of salvaging his plan to repeal and largely replace the Affordable Care Act by spring. The day-long blitz comes as Republicans in Congress have made virtually no visible progress in recent weeks on overhauling the health-care system, according to interviews with several senior GOP aides.

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.

US senators propose bill to improve volcano monitoring

U.S. senators in Alaska, Washington and Hawaii have proposed legislation intended to improve volcano monitoring efforts and early warning capabilities. The measure would put the Alaska, Cascades and Hawaiian volcano observatories into a connected system and create a 24-hour Volcano Watch Office to provide ongoing situational awareness of active volcanoes in the U.S. and its territories.

Letter: Trump vs. Obama

… no help from Republicans, Obama brought us back from worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, expanded health care to many millions more Americans, reined in many crooked practices of Wall Street, as well as health insurance companies’ …

Bernie Sanders: Trump’s ‘racist’ immigration moves distract from health reform

Sen. Bernard Sanders accused President Trump on Sunday of using his “extreme vetting” order and raids on illegal immigrants to distract from his decision to stack the Cabinet with bankers and billionaires and potentially overhaul popular health programs. Mr. Sanders , Vermont independent and hero of the progressive left, said U.S. vetting systems are “very, very strong,” so Mr. Trump should not be trying to temporarily halt the American refugee program or migrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

AARP lays down marker on Medicare

Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly vowed to protect Medicare because so many older Americans depend on the federal program to help cover their health-care costs. One of the most influential senior lobbying groups wants to remind Trump of his promise.

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.

Health insurers say they need insurance protection from big claims

In Minnesota’s individual market, health insurers can lose big money if they wind up with a disproportionate share of sick patients who rack up massive bills. Of the roughly 336,000 Minnesotans who were covered by individual plans at some point during 2015, slightly less than 2a …percent – or 5,300 people – generated roughly 40 percent of all medical bills, according to the state’s trade group for insurers.

Activists on both sides of abortion issue protest across the US

Antiabortion groups have called demonstrations at more than 200 Planned Parenthood locations throughout the United States on Saturday to urge Congress and President Donald Trump to strip the women’s health provider of federal funding. Antiabortion activists have said they were energized by the election of Republican Trump, who selected their long-time ally Mike Pence as vice president and nominated conservative jurist Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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.