Scott Morrison will outline plans to forgo revenue intended to fund NDIS but says government can still fund program
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The Turnbull government will use the looming May budget to dump plans to increase the Medicare levy to fund the national disability insurance scheme, in a shift intended to reframe the tax debate before the next election.
Scott Morrison will use a speech to business economists on Thursday to confirm the about face on a measure the government outlined in the 2017 budget.
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Month: April 2018
BREAKING: Republican Debbie Lesko wins Arizona special election
Republican Debbie Lesko has won the Arizona special election to replace Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), defeating her Democratic rival Hiral Tipirneni, according to the Associated Press. (The New York Times and the Washington Post have similarly called the race for Lesko.)
BREAKING: Republican Debbie Lesko wins special U.S. House election in Arizona, keeping seat in GOP control.
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 25, 2018
The race, in Arizo...
Opioid treatment gap in Medicare: methadone clinics
Despite the nation's deepening opioid crisis, the Medicare drug program for the elderly covers methadone only when prescribed for pain
How Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo blew it at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to vote against the nomination of Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State on Monday — which would be the first such vote for a secretary of state nominee.
CIA Director Pompeo, who would replace Rex Tillerson (who was fired in March), has thus far not received the support of a single Democrat on the SFRC (nor Kentucky Republican Rand Paul).
Bracing for the SFRC vote, Trump tweeted on Monday morning that it was partisan politi...
Trump’s big idea for health insurance excludes maternity care and barely covers addiction treatment
The Trump administration’s “affordable alternative” to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is short-term health plans, but a new Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) study published on Monday shows just how bare-bones this coverage actually is.
A KFF review of short-term health health plans offered on two large private insurance websites, eHealth and Agile Health Insurance, in 45 states and Washington, D.C. shows these plans rarely if at all pay for essential coverage: no plan...
In Arizona special election, Democrats try to focus on the district while sending a national message
GLENDALE, AZ—On Saturday, more than 100 people packed into a high school lunchroom in Glendale, Arizona to hear Hiral Tipirneni, the Democratic nominee to replace former Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), speak before heading out to knock on doors in hopes of bringing more Arizona voters into the fold.
Tipirneni is running in Arizona’s eighth district, which President Donald Trump won by more than 20 points just less than a year and a half ago. But two recent polls (one an internal pol...
The Supreme Court’s original sin in gerrymandering cases
Few matters capture the pathology of the Roberts Court more completely than the two Abbott v. Perez cases, a pair of identically named racial gerrymandering cases that the Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday.
The Perez cases are about partisan gamesmanship. In 2013, the state of Texas admitted in a brief filed in a federal court that their “redistricting decisions were designed to increase the Republican Party’s electoral prospects at the expense of the Democr...
Trump administration health announcement is latest blow to transgender Americans
The Trump administration’s campaign to make life more difficult for transgender Americans entered a new phase this weekend. On Saturday, according to the New York Times, the administration announced that it would gut an anti-discrimination statute when it comes to health care access for transgender patients.
The rule, passed under the Obama administration in 2016, had prevented health care providers receiving federal financial assistance — including those receiving Medic...
Ahead of Arizona vote, Republican Debbie Lesko holds a clinic in tamping down expectations
Debbie Lesko put on a masterclass in expectations setting early Saturday.
Lesko, a Republican, is locked in an increasingly tight race with Democrat Hiral Tipirneni to replace former Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), who resigned from the House last year after news that he asked a staffer to be his surrogate became public.
On paper, Lesko has little reason to be nervous. Less than a year and a half ago, Trump won this Arizona district by 21 points, and in most polls in the weeks lead...
Tennessee governor to sign Medicaid work requirement funded by welfare dollars
A philosophical change to the country’s largest public health insurance program is underway, as states one-by-one try to implement Medicaid work requirements. Tennessee is the latest state to try to make work conditional of Medicaid eligibility. At least 22,300 are expected to drop health insurance, according to the state’s own estimate.
On Thursday, the state Senate sent Gov. Bill Haslam (R) a bill that directs Tennessee to submit a federal waiver to impose work require...