Category: Healthcare Law

The Wall Street Journal: McConnell says GOP will have new health plan soon after Obamacare repeal

Congress will quickly devise a new health-insurance system after moving to repeal the Obama administration’s signature health-care law in coming days, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday, despite growing questions within the Republican Party over the GOP’s strategy. “We will be replacing it rapidly after repealing it,” the Kentucky Republican said Sunday on CBS.

Editorial, Jan. 8, 2017: Reform, dona t repeal, Obamacare

If Republican’s can’t convince Americans they have a replacement that’s better than the Affordable Care Act, then they’ll own the results. Which leads to the sneaking suspicion they don’t have an alternative that will provide equal or better coverage for about 20 million Americans who were able to obtain health insurance through Obamacare.

Paul: Trump backs health repeal, replacement at same time

A Republican senator who challenged Donald Trump for the White House nomination says the president-elect “fully supports” repealing President Barack Obama’s health law only when there’s a viable alternative to replace it. Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Congress are moving toward a vote on repeal legislation in coming weeks, but they anticipate a transition period of months or years to a replacement.

Republicans face early stumbling blocks on Obamacare repeal

Republicans are unanimous in their desire to “repeal and replace” President Barack Obama’s signature health care law — but they are already flirting with not having the 50 votes needed to pass the bill in the Senate. Republicans have 52 seats in the Senate, meaning they can only afford to lose three members of their caucus before they cannot pass legislation without Democratic votes.

Editorials from around New England

Republican congressmen made a troubling move on Monday, voting in a private meeting to severely weaken the House’s independent ethics panel one day before the new GOP-led Congress was set to get to work. Republicans sought to make the non-partisan Office of Congressional Ethics subject to oversight by the House Ethics Committee, which is run by lawmakers, the very people the Office of Congressional Ethics is meant to police.

Poll: Most Americans Say Don’t Repeal Obamacare Without A Replacement

An overwhelming majority of people disapprove of Republican lawmakers’ plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act without having a ready replacement for the health care law, according to a poll released Friday. And judging by the letter-writing and lobbying in the first week of the new Congressional session, many health care and business groups agree.

The fight to defund Planned Parenthood has very little to do…

In a one-two punch, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday that Republicans plan to defund Planned Parenthood when they try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. Thursday morning, Planned Parenthood launched a national campaign focused on keeping Republicans in Congress from gutting the healthcare law, and from passing legislation to “defund” the organization.

Dems want probe of Trump Cabinet pick over stock sales

Top Senate Democrats said Thursday that the House ethics office should investigate whether stock sales by a congressman who is now one of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks broke any laws. The Democrats cited a Wall Street Journal report last month that Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., had traded over $300,000 worth of shares in health care companies over the past four years while pushing legislation that might affect those stocks’ values.

Planned Parenthood would lose funding as part of Obamacare repeal, Ryan says

House Speaker Paul Ryan leaves a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 5. Republicans plan to strip Planned Parenthood of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding as part of their rapid push to repeal President Obama’s health-care reforms, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday. Ryan said a defunding measure would appear in a special fast-track bill that is expected to pass Congress as soon as next month: “Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill,” he said at a news conference, in response to a question about plans to defund the organization.

Analysis: Health care battle could decide balance of power

The messaging battle is over on repealing and replacing President Barack Obama’s health care law, and the balance of power in Washington may be at stake. Democrats believe they already lost the public opinion fight over the law once, when they pushed through the Affordable Care Act in the first place, and Republicans grabbed hold of the issue to drive Democrats into the minority.

Sen. Sherrod Brown To Fight Obamacare Repeal, Push For…

A new Republican president-elect and an allied GOP-led Congress is eager to take the nation from a predictable health market during the last two years of the Obama administration to a new era of uncertainty. This inauspicious forecast comes from Open Minds , which touts itself as having “monitored everything happening in the sectors of the health and human service field serving complex consumers” since 1987.

Repeal ‘Obamacare’, but don’t hurt consumers, says Mike Pence

The Senate voted 51-48 to begin debating a budget that will prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block future Republican legislation to scuttle the landmark health care law Donald Trump’s “first order of business” as president will be to repeal and replace “Obamacare,” but Republicans must avoid hurting consumers as they do it, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said at the Capitol on Thursday. President Barack Obama visited Congress, too, 16 days before leaving the White House, championing his landmark overhaul before Democratic lawmakers and urging them to remind voters of how the statute has helped them.

Bernie Sanders Holds Donald Trump Accountable For His Health Care…

On Wednesday, Bernie Sanders pulled an amazing move when he presented the senate floor with a massive printout of a 2015 tweet Donald sent promising not to cut funding for medicare and medicaid. In case you weren’t following, the Senate is currently in the process of debating whether or not to repeal Obamacare, so the savage exposA couldn’t come at a better time.

Obama, Pence To Visit Capitol Hill for Healthcare Talks

President Barack Obama is traveling to the Capitol to give congressional Democrats advice on how to combat the Republican drive to dismantle his health care overhaul. Vice President-elect Mike Pence is meeting with GOP lawmakers to discuss the best way to send Obama’s cherished law to its graveyard and replace it with – well, something.

Newhouse co-sponsors bills on healthcare, gun rights, abortion funding, undocumented immigrants

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., was sworn in Tuesday for his second term representing the 4th Congressional District and immediately added his name to several bills and resolutions. Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 to recognize 2nd Amendment rights by ensuring valid concealed carry permits issued in one state are valid for carrying concealed handguns in other states that also recognize their own residents’ right to conceal carry.

Honest, truthful scientist fired by DOE for not defending Obama’s climate action plan

The U.S. Department of Energy is the latest government agency to be exposed for putting politics over principle after it was revealed that a top DOE scientist was fired simply for telling the truth about climate change. Reports indicate that Noelle Metting was basically canned by the Obama administration when she was caught answering questions from a legislative committee honestly, which apparently is a major no-no when it comes to anything related to climate change policy .

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Senior House Democrats are extolling the benefits of President Barack Obama’s health care law in hopes of derailing Republican plans to gut the statute. Speaking to reporters Monday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says the GOP will begin its “assault” on the law when the 115th Congress convenes Tuesday.

Resistance at the Ready as GOP Licks Chops Over Regressive Agenda

Since Donald Trump was elected in November, House Speaker Paul Ryan has been poised to advance a GOP agenda. From slowing President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet confirmations to hampering GOP attempts to repeal Obamacare or defund Planned Parenthood, Democrats and allied progressive forces stand ready to resist the looming Republican agenda.

The Media Did Not Ask What Trump’s Replacement For Obamacare Would Be

In the lead-up to the election, prime-time news shows functionally abdicated any role in questioning what President-elect Donald Trump will offer in place of the Affordable Care Act and how it might affect the millions of Americans who gained insurance coverage as a result of the landmark law. Instead of asking pointed questions about Trump’s piecemeal policy proposals, TV personalities focused on negative stories like the 2017 premium hikes and conservative fearmongering about the potential of a so-called “death spiral.”

Judge Halts Enforcement of Federal Protections for Transgender Healthcare Services

The Human Rights Campaign , the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization, responded to a federal judge’s decision yesterday to issue an injunction blocking enforcement of federal protections set to go into effect today barring discrimination in healthcare services based on an individual’s gender identity, as well as reproductive health services.

Trump’s healthcare nominees are just what the doctor ordered

It has been widely reported that President-elect Trump’s nomination of Rep. Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon, to be the next secretary of Health and Human Services , and Seema Verma to be the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services , has drawn many cheers from Republicans eager to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. To be sure, replacing Obamacare would be a huge victory for conservatives, and Price has proved he is more than qualified to take on the task by authoring a comprehensive replacement plan in every Congress since 2011.

Commentary: Safety net faces dire threats from Trump, GOP

Poor Americans are facing the gravest threat to the federal safety net in decades as President-elect Donald Trump takes office accompanied by a Republican-controlled Congress. The risks to essential benefits for tens of millions of low- and moderate- income Americans include losing coverage extended to them by the Affordable Care Act , threats to the fundamental structure of the Medicaid health-insurance program for the poor, and further reduction of already squeezed funding for scores of other important programs serving the most vulnerable Americans.

GOP readies swift Obamacare repealwith no replacement in place

The first major act of the unified Republican government in 2017 will be a vote in Congress to begin tearing down Obamacare. But the euphoria of finally acting on a long-sought goal will quickly give way to the reality that Republicans – and President-elect Donald Trump – have no agreement thus far on how to replace coverage for about 20 million people who gained insurance under the health-care law.