Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, pitched his vision for the future of health care countrywide at a Fox News town hall Monday night and was met with cheers from the audience.
After Sanders explained why he would rather have the federal government provideing health insurance than private companies, Fox News anchor Bret Baier decided to pose the question to the audience. The audience, Baier said, included a lot of Democrats, Republican...
health care
Bernie Sanders releases new Medicare for All bill, includes win for disability rights activists
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) released a new version of his Medicare for All bill on Wednesday, keeping true to form by championing one of the most ambitious health policies in the country. So far, the proposal has the support of more than a dozen Democrats, including fellow 2020 candidates Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Kamala Harris (CA), Elizabeth Warren (MA), and Cory Booker (NJ).
The Sanders bill expands the traditional Medicare program, by covering...
Health care and insurance industries are spending a lot of money to defeat Medicare for All
Medicare for All has attracted widespread support in the Democratic Party. But the ambitious overhaul of the nation’s health care system faces a major threat: big spending by health care and insurance interests determined to preserve the status quo.
A ThinkProgress analysis found that those industries, part of a coalition called the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, donated nearly $1.2 million in the 2017-2018 election cycle to Democratic members of four key House commit...
Donald Trump’s ‘party of health care’ has spent a decade failing to repeal and replace Obamacare
After a bruising midterm election in which widespread insecurity over the future of health care helped pace extraordinary gains for Democrats, allowing them to retake the House of Representatives, President Donald Trump has decided to re-up this failed strategy.
This week, the White House let it be known that the administration would not defend the Affordable Care Act in a case that could end in the wholesale invalidation of the Obama-era health care reform law. Such a result would ...
Arkansas asks Trump administration to appeal judge’s decision to block Medicaid work rules
Arkansas officials remain fully committed to the state’s Medicaid work requirements despite being dealt a heavy blow from a federal judge who blocked the first-ever policy. Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said during a press conference Thursday that he asked the Trump administration to appeal the federal judge’s decision.
“I believe there should be consequences if people do not exercise responsibility,” he told reporters.
On Wednesday, a federal judge blocked ...
Federal judge blocks Arkansas and Kentucky Medicaid work requirements
A federal judge struck down work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky on Wednesday, temporarily blocking one of the Trump administration’s most consequential health policies.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the federal government did not properly justify the need for the work requirements given the number of people who would lose health coverage.
This is the second time Boasberg blocked Kentucky’s Medicaid work requirements. In June 2018, he said...
What will happen if the Trump administration wins the lawsuit to repeal Obamacare?
Nearly every U.S. resident would be impacted in some way if the Trump administration gets its way and the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) is invalidated in court.
Susan Lyon of California, for example, is deeply concerned for her husband and business partner who has Parkinson’s disease. Without the ACA, she suspects her insurance would charge a lot more because of her husband’s pre-existing condition. She purchases health insurance through the ACA’s Small Business Healt...
Remember when Republicans vowed to be the party to protect pre-existing condition coverage?
After the president and Republicans repeatedly promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions, the Trump administration on Monday evening said it supports a federal judge’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional, adding that it will seek to repeal the sweeping health care law in its entirety.
The Justice Department filed a brief letter in the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit telling the court that it agrees with Judge Reed O’C...
States legislatures shore up Obamacare with 2020 prospects uncertain
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...
Low-income New Hampshire residents sue Trump administration over Medicaid work requirements
Low-income residents in New Hampshire are suing the Trump administration for approving the state’s Medicaid work requirement, a group of health advocacy organizations announced Wednesday.
This is the third legal challenge against the administration’s most consequential health policy. The administration has already allowed eight states to condition Medicaid eligibility on reported work.
The administration first approved New Hampshire’s work requirement in Nov...