President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of celebrity doctor and failed Senate candidate Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) marks the latest potential shakeup of federal health agencies, and adds new uncertainty to the future of Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
If confirmed, Oz would take the helm of a $1.5 trillion agency that is essentially the federal government’s insurance provider. It sets payments rates for do...
Affordable Care Act
Meghan McCain on Harris invoking her father: ‘Democrats want to reinvent history’
Meghan McCain, the daughter of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), pushed back against Vice President Harris's mention of her father at a rally earlier this week, claiming Democrats are trying to "reinvent history."
"Now, I know democrats want to reinvent history and turn my Dad into any illusion you guys need him to be depending on the political moment you need to bastardize his memory for…" Meghan McCain wrote in a post on social platform X.
"But please don’t make me ...
The Electoral College endangers the republic, but don’t blame the Framers
Our presidential elections suffer from a crisis of confidence.
Scores of anxious Americans await Nov. 5 with grave fears about integrity and fairness. Democrats decry the possibility of a candidate winning without a popular vote majority, and more than half of Republicans believe the 2020 election was stolen.
Many factors have brought us to this moment, but the strange mechanism known as the Electoral College ranks high among them.
Twice in the last ...
Dems push ahead on ACA subsidies
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Warren warns of ‘profoundly serious consequences’ of a Trump victory
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned of “profoundly serious consequences” if former President Trump wins the upcoming election.
Warren, in an op-ed published Saturday in The New York Times, criticized Trump for his non-answer to a question about repealing the Affordable Care Act during this week’s presidential debate.
“After ducking and weaving, he came up with: ‘I have concepts of a plan.’ Uh, that’s not a plan,” Warren wrote.
The Massachusetts senator s...
Trump on ObamaCare repeal: ‘I have concepts of a plan’
Former President Trump said during Tuesday night’s debate he was interested in trying to repeal ObamaCare again, but indicated he doesn’t have a plan to replace it.
“We are working on things. We’re going to do it. We’re going to replace it,” Trump said.
Trump has railed against the health care law since his first presidential campaign, when many Republicans were issuing calls to “repeal and replace” the law.
Republicans were a sin...
Affordable Care Act tax credits work despite fraud and should be expanded
A controversial analysis authored by a long-time critic of the Affordable Care Act claims that a policy that expanded and improved Health Insurance Marketplace premium tax credits for 20 million Americans should be discontinued due to fraud. Fraudulent insurance enrollment by some insurance companies and their agents should be — and is being — targeted by the administration and Congress.
But saying that fraudulent enrollment makes the tax credit unsuccessful skirts...
Reforming 340B vital for affordable medication for low-income patients
When the 340B drug pricing program was established in 1992, Congress intended for the program to help low-income and uninsured patients with their prescription drugs. The pharmaceutical companies whose drugs are covered by Medicaid are required to participate in the program, offering discounts for drugs to patients on average at 25 to 50 percent of the wholesale acquisition cost.
Unfortunately, today, the 340B program is failing those it was meant to serve. There i...
Harris vows Biden-era health care programs will get bigger if she’s elected
Vice President Kamala Harris laid out her economic agenda Friday, and much of her plan involves taking the health care accomplishments made by the Biden administration further.
Speaking in North Carolina, Harris vowed that under her administration, Medicare negotiations would continue and grow to encompass all Americans, not only Medicare beneficiaries.
“Just yesterday we announced that we are lowering the price by up to 80 percent for 10 more lifesaving drugs, and I...
Republican notions of ‘progressive’ and ‘populist’ don’t match reality
When it comes to fighting for real American values, progressives have been leading the charge since day one.
Who got women the right to vote? Progressives. Who stood up to end segregation? Progressives. And who created the lifelines of Social Security and Medicare? You guessed it — progressives.
But today, we've got venture capitalist Republicans masquerading as working-class heroes, dragging the word progressive through the mud.
Don't be fooled by th...