Missouri Attorney General and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Josh Hawley allowed “out-of-state political consultants” to give “direct guidance and tasks to his taxpayer-funded staff,” according to a report by The Kansas City Star.
Among other things, The Star reports that Hawley’s political consultants helped oversee the attorney general office’s rollout of “Missouri’s lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, which Hawley announced in June 20...
health care
“Do you abuse more than one drug at a time?”: Wisconsin to drug screen people on Medicaid
In addition to imposing 80 hours of work per month, Wisconsin will require that Medicaid recipients complete a drug screening questionnaire to keep their health coverage.
While the Trump administration rejected Wisconsin’s bid to drug test Medicaid recipients, the Department of Health Services (DHS) told ThinkProgress on Friday that the state will ask them the same questions they already ask people on cash assistance as a condition of eligibility. The “D...
Transgender women celebrate monumental health care court victory
It was the first case outcome of its kind: a total of $780,000 in damages for two transgender women who were denied medically necessary health care because of their gender identity. It was also likely the first time a court found that facial feminization surgery was medically necessary.
The women now hope that if eight jurors in Wisconsin could be convinced that transgender people deserve access to health care related to their identities, others might be inspired to fight for what t...
This is how much more expensive health care premiums will be in 2019 thanks to Trump
Health care premiums will be up to 16 percent higher in 2019 than they would have been had the Trump administration not worked so hard to chip away at the Affordable Care Act.
A new study released Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the Trump administration’s decision to repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate and expand skimpy short-term health plans have made premiums across the board — whether on the Obamacare marketplace or not — an average of 6 percent h...
Big Tobacco raises record-breaking $17.5 million to defeat Medicaid expansion in Montana
A Montana ballot initiative has incurred the wrath of Big Tobacco, which has spent a record-breaking amount of money to defeat it this November. Should it succeed, 100,000 people could lose health coverage.
The tobacco industry raised nearly $17.5 million to defeat I-185, a measure that gives health care to people earning up to 138 percent of the poverty level by taxing tobacco. Montana expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2016, but only until July 2019. To avoi...
Scott Walker shamelessly lies about protecting pre-existing conditions during Trump rally
During a rally with President Trump on Wednesday night, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) shamelessly lied about his position on pre-existing conditions.
“I want to reinforce it to everyone — we will always cover people like my wife with preexisting medical conditions,” Walker said, referring to his wife Tonette, who has Type 1 diabetes. “Don’t believe the lies. Don’t believe the lies!”
Walker has good reason to pay lip service to prot...
Trump blatantly lies about Republicans’ position on pre-existing conditions
With the midterm elections two weeks away, President Trump is leading Republican candidates in outright lying to constituents. And one of the most popular lies, which Trump tweeted out Wednesday morning, actually tries to convince voters that Republicans hold one of Democrats’ positions on health care — and that Democrats don’t hold it.
Republicans will totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions, Democrats will not! Vote Republican.
&...
How do rape exceptions for abortion work? They don’t.
Over the past year, Dr. Shanthi Ramesh performed abortions for seven sexual assault survivors and she recalls Medicaid insurance only paying for two.
It didn’t matter that they were all technically eligible for Medicaid — meaning, they were all poor enough to receive public health insurance — or that a doctor, in her professional opinion, believed they were raped. She says four of the seven women did not report their assaults to local law enforcement and, so, insurance ...
How do rape exceptions for abortion work? They don’t.
Over the past year, Dr. Shanthi Ramesh performed abortions for seven sexual assault survivors and she recalls Medicaid insurance only paying for two.
It didn’t matter that they were all technically eligible for Medicaid — meaning, they were all poor enough to receive public health insurance — or that a doctor, in her professional opinion, believed they were raped. She says four of the seven women did not report their assaults to local law enforcement and, so, insurance ...
It’s not an exaggeration to say the Trump administration wants to erase transgender people
A Sunday New York Times article revealed that the Trump administration is planning to impose a rule that would effectively erase the existence of transgender people under the law. Though the Times did not share the full memo draft it had reviewed, it detailed the memo’s plan to define sex across agencies as “either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with” — subject to genetic testing.
It’s the equivalent of impo...