The cost-free birth control of thousands is at risk unless Democratic attorneys general prevail in court this week. The Trump’s administration’s rollback of the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate is scheduled to go into effect on Monday, unless a federal judge blocks it.
The administration chipped away at the mandate by significantly broadening an employer’s ability to seek an exemption and choose not provide employees contraceptive coverage. In Nove...
health care
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...
New Congress’ history-making members got a Day 1 visit from Medicare for All activists
“Please count us as allies,” said a staffer for Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) to grassroots activists who were wearing Medicare for All t-shirts and were gathered in the congresswoman’s newly-minted office Thursday.
Pressley’s staff were among many of the House of Representatives’ freshmen class that warmly welcomed dozens of advocates who visited the offices Thursday. It didn’t matter that they were early for open house; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cort...
A eulogy for the most incompetent House majority in modern history
Long before Donald Trump’s second-place finish somehow landed him in the White House, Republicans in Congress promised a package of benefit cuts, privatization, and tax cuts for the wealthy that were so cruel, American voters literally refused to believe they were real. In 2012, a Democratic super PAC decided not to campaign against future Speaker Paul Ryan’s package of Medicare vouchers and upper income tax cuts after participants in a focus group “simply refused to beli...
Trump has a story of how his presidency’s going. Here’s what the numbers say.
According to Donald Trump, who was elected president just over two years ago, his administration is among the greatest in history, with the greatest economy in American history and a nation finally respected again. As he told Bob Woodward this summer, “nobody’s ever done a better job than I’m doing as president.”
The United Nations could not hold back a laugh in September when Trump said in a speech: “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more ...
The dangerous stigma against pregnant women addicted to opioids
Being a pregnant woman in America is a complicated affair. Once a woman starts expecting, social and medical attitudes shift to view her a vehicle of her child’s health. This approach routinely puts women at risk—particularly when the woman in question is addicted ...
Alabama asks conservative SCOTUS to take up anti-abortion case, eyeing Roe v. Wade
The Alabama attorney general officially asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to review a lower court’s decision that a state law prohibiting a common method used for second-trimester abortions is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit against Alabama’s dilation and evacuation (D&E) ban is the second anti-abortion case before the Supreme Court. There are at least 11 other cases at the appeals level, meaning more anti-abortion cases can land on the Supreme Court’s 2019 doc...
Even conservatives are shocked at how wrong the latest anti-Obamacare ruling is
On Friday, a George W. Bush-appointed federal judge specifically chosen by Republican governors and attorneys general to decimate the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) did what he often does: he struck down a policy enacted by elected Democrats using spurious legal reasoning.
But while United States District Judge Reed O’Connor’s tortured argument that the whole of Obamacare is now unconstitutional since congressional Republicans removed its individual mandate ...
Healthcare.gov open enrollment ends December 15. Here’s everything you need to know.
The annual open enrollment for people who purchase insurance on Healthcare.gov ends December 15, and so far, enrollment is lagging compared to last year.
Sign-ups on Healthcare.gov, the federally-run marketplace that 39 states use, are down 545,929, or 11.7 percent, from last year with three days left to go, according to data released Wednesday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Notably, the number of new consumers enrolling dropped by 19.7 percent. So far, about ...
Older workers are the economy’s most underrated natural resource
This story is part of What Happens Next, our complete guide to understanding the future. Read more predictions about the Future of Aging.
The world is changing for seniors, and they in turn are changing the world.
Today’s longevity...
