While the Democratic Party determines where it wants to go next on health care — whether it’s Medicare for All, Medicare for America, or any one of the other 2020 health proposals — state lawmakers are shoring up the party’s signature policy, the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
So far in 2019, state legislatures in Colorado, Maine, Maryland, and New Mexico are moving bills to bolster the 2010 health law, like securing consumer protections for people with pre-exist...
Affordable Care Act
What does Medicare for All look like for people with disabilities?
More and more, the progressive rallying cry, Medicare for All, is garnering support. It’s now a frontrunner topic for Democratic presidential candidates, and members of Congress are introducing legislation for how it could actually work.
But does Medicare for All really include everyone? Disability rights activists say not really, if you’re basing it on the way Medicare, the health program for seniors and certain people with disabilities, works today.
“I think if you ask most...
Major hospital lobbying group comes out against ‘Medicare at 50’ bill
On Wednesday, Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would allow people to buy into Medicare beginning at age 50 — and already major players in the health care industry are coming out against it.
Around noon, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced “Medicare at 50,” legislation to let people between 50 and 64 years old buy Medicare coverage when they are shopping on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. It took industry lobbying groups only an hour to come out agai...
The investigations by Democrats that have Trump worried
Updated 8:30am EST Feb. 8 with information on Whitaker’s hearing.
“Adam Schiff?” Donald Trump said Feb. 6 at the White House, when asked about the Democratic congressman from California who chairs the House Intelligence Committe...
Idaho Republicans seek to limit Medicaid expansion against the will of voters
Idaho Republicans are looking into several proposals aimed at hobbling a successful ballot initiative to expand Medicaid in the state, joining a growing list of red states trying to limit health care coverage against the will of voters.
Republican lawmakers have considered plans to apply work requirements, co-pays, and lifetime limits. They also plan to ask the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to grant the waivers before the ballot initiative goes into effect on Jan....
Utah Senate passes bill limiting Medicaid expansion in favor of costly alternative
The Utah Senate voted Monday to partially repeal a ballot measure that would have expanded Medicaid to nearly 150,000 low-income residents in the state, weeks after voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots in favor of the initiative.
The legislation now moves to the state House, where it is also expected to pass. Gov. Gary Herbert (R) is also expected to sign the measure.
Senators voted 22-7 largely along party lines to pass GOP-sponsored legislation that would cap the pool o...
For Rep. Gwen Moore, quality coverage for people with pre-existing conditions is personal
Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) has cancer, but she’s fighting back and did so early.
The congresswoman, representing Wisconsin’s 4th congressional district for over a decade, was first diagnosed with small lymphocytic lymphoma in June; it’s a non-Hodgkin lymphoma where the cancer originates in the lymphatic system or the disease-fighting network throughout the body.
“It is sort of a silent kind of cancer,” she told ThinkProgress by phone. “Many peo...
Maine’s new governor moves to give health care to 70,000 people on her first day in office
Maine approved Medicaid expansion by a ballot initiative more than a year ago, but former Governor Paul LePage had blocked it from taking effect.
Thankfully, Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) knows how to keep a promise.
On Thursday, in her first executive order on her first day in office, Mills ordered Maine to move forward with Medicaid expansion, which is likely to provide health insurance for an additional 70,000 Maine residents.
Our new Administration w...
There’s no GOP backup plan for the anti-Obamacare lawsuit
Now that a federal judge in Texas has handed down an order striking down the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s individual mandate — and, with it, all 900-plus pages of the health law — what happens next?
That’s the question facing Republican lawmakers whose colleagues are party to the lawsuit, which was filed by 20 GOP-led states.
The lawsuit aims to strike down very popular provisions of the ACA, including but not limited to protections for pre-existing con...
Read Nancy Pelosi’s statement on the court ruling striking down the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act was overturned Friday night (Dec. 14) by a federal judge in Texas, who declared it unconstitutional in light of recent changes to the US tax code.
While the decision is expected to move on to the US ...
