CMS last night released a memo chastising Idaho.
Month: March 2018
Mental health providers are failing bisexual patients
Last fall, I made an appointment with a new psychiatrist, hoping to explore my options for more effective treatment for my lifelong struggle with depression and anxiety. Life under the Trump regime has taken a harsh toll on me as an openly queer/bisexual woman, and like so many of my friends and fellow advocates from various social justice movements and marginalized communities, my regular regimen of antidepressants and self-care simply isn’t cutting it anymore.
Having been to this ...
Surprise! The Trump administration just admitted it has to follow Obamacare
In an unexpected development, the Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) on Thursday reluctantly conceding that Obamacare “remains the law and we have a duty to enforce and uphold the law.”
The letter, from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, informs Idaho that insurers will not be allowed to sell illegal plans within that state which threatened to destabilize Idaho’s insurance markets...
Trump Administration Blocks Idaho’s Plan to Circumvent Health Law
The president has undermined the Affordable Care Act, but it “remains the law,” the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said. But she encouraged the state to keep trying.
The Health 202: Congress still can’t agree on stabilizing Obamacare marketplaces
The cost-sharing subsidies are again an issue.
Senator says GOP must work on health care reform
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., discusses her re-election campaign, gun reform, U.S. foreign policy regarding Iraq and Syria and lowering the cost of hearings aids as an example of a bipartisan DC win that doesn't get the coverage that fighting does.
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West Virginia teachers went back to school after getting 5 percent raise
The West Virginia teachers strike ended on Wednesday after the governor and the leaders of the House and Senate reached a deal on its ninth school day. It lasted longer than the 1990 statewide teachers strike.
West Virginia teachers, whose pay ranks 48th in the country by some estimates and who have gone without pay raises for several years, secured a 5 percent raise. That 5 percent raise also extended to all state employees.
Renita Benson, a remedial reading teacher, told th...
Wisconsin seeks to bring costly, ineffective drug testing to Medicaid
Over the past several months, Wisconsin lawmakers have waged a war on the state’s Medicaid program by requesting federal permission to add time-limits, work rules, and drug tests. But new data obtained by ThinkProgress suggests these drug tests are especially costly and virtually ineffective at enabling care. And if the Trump administration green-lights Wisconsin’s request, taxpayers will have to pay for it.
Requiring people who depend on government benefits to pee in a ...
Ted Cruz admits he just ignores Trump’s scandals
After calling candidate Donald Trump a “pathological liar” and “narcissist” during the 2016 presidential campaign, one might have thought that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) would have emerged as a critic of the president’s mounting ethical issues. He has not — and in an unusually candid comment on Wednesday, he made it clear why.
Asked about the chaotic Trump presidency on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Cruz said that he simply ignores the chaos and s...