Dr. Leana Wen’s vision for Planned Parenthood is deceptively simple: “This is Health Care.”
On Thursday, Wen, Planned Parenthood’s new president, announced the organization’s new way forward, affirming an obvious truth that bears repeating: reproductive health care — like contraception, abortion, or comprehensive sex education — is health care, period.
“I’m deeply troubled by how health care — specifically reproducti...
health care
Maine’s Gov. LePage uses final days in office to resist expanding Medicaid
Gov. Paul LePage (R-ME) will leave office in January — but not before using his final few months in the governor’s mansion to resisting providing health care to an additional 70,000 low-income Mainers.
A Maine judge ordered LePage this week to follow through on expanding the Medicaid program in the state, setting a December 5 deadline for the state to make meaningful progress on setting up the health care expansion.
It’s the latest development in a protracte...
Pfizer ends deal to placate Trump, announces plan to raise prices on 41 prescription drugs
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer will raise prices on 10 percent of its prescription drugs in January, ending a brief period in which the company halted price increases in an effort to appease President Donald Trump.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the Pfizer news Friday. The paper reported that Pfizer would raise prices on 41 drugs by an average of about 5 percent, though three drug prices will be raised by 3 percent and one will be raised by 9 percent.
Trump negotiated ...
Republican who crafted health care repeal is officially ousted from Congress
As the final votes are tallied and Democrats continue to notch midterm election victories this week, Republican incumbents were toppled in New Jersey and California by opponents who built campaigns focused on affordable and accessible health care.
Former Obama administration official Andy Kim was officially declared the winner in New Jersey’s 3rd district Wednesday, ousting Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ). MacArthur was one of the left’s biggest health care foes, and earned th...
Getting Obamacare plans to cover abortion is hard. Trump is trying to make it even harder.
The Trump administration wants insurers to send Obamacare enrollees two separate, monthly bills if the plan covers abortion services, per a new proposed regulation that creates more administrative burden for patients and companies alike.
It wouldn’t matter if the patient never had an abortion. The administration would require insurance companies to send two different invoices to patients who purchase Obamacare plans: one for the standard monthly fee for the insurance policy an...
West Virginia and Alabama voters approve dangerous anti-choice ballot initiatives
Voters in Alabama and West Virginia approved ballot initiatives on Tuesday that will update the state constitutions to declare that abortion rights are not guaranteed, a move that will severely curtail reproductive rights in the states. In Oregon, voters blocked a similar ballot initiative that would have prevented taxpayer dollars from covering abortions for Medicaid beneficiaries and public employees.
Pro-choice and anti-choice advocates in all three states campaigned for weeks pr...
Democrats winning the popular vote won’t be enough to save Americans’ health care from Republicans
The 2010 election was a historic disaster for the Democratic Party. Republican House candidates won the national popular vote by 6.8 percentage points and took a commanding majority as a result. It marked the end of President Obama’s legislative agenda and the beginning of an era when Republicans demanded massive concessions just to keep the government open.
Now imagine that 2018 is the mirror image of 2010 — that is, that Democrats win the popular vote by the exact same...
Meet the state Senate candidate who’s trying to convince Tennessee’s 1 percent to support Medicaid
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE — Kristen Grimm has just realized she forgot to clean out her minivan. She gushes her apologies as she pulls open the driver’s side door, revealing a passenger seat littered with palm cards and newspapers. Her backseat, filled with yard signs, an extra coat, and a change of shoes is also not rider-ready.
But her dismay about the messy car doesn’t — or rather, it can’t — last long before she’s on to the next thing: A phone call from a fr...
The US now has more than 56.7 million freelance workers—and they vote
Freelancers are on the rise. And they’re rising up.
A new report from Freelancers Union and Upwork estimates that there are now 56.7 million Americans freelancers, an increase of 3.7 million in the past five years.
“The s...
