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...
health care
Cory Booker launches 2020 campaign with attempt to rewrite Big Pharma history
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is running for president, hoping, as he said in his announcement video last week, to “channel our common pain back into our common purpose.”
The former Newark mayor announced his campaign Friday morning, doing away with the pesky business of exploratory committees and “testing the waters” to plunge right into the fray. He spent his first day on a breakneck sprint, doing three radio interviews — all with hosts of color — bef...
What single-payer advocates want to hear from 2020 Democratic primary contenders
In the fall of 2017, with more than three years to go before the next presidential election, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced Medicare for All legislation in the Senate. The bill racked up a long list of high-profile co-sponsors, many of whom were already being talked about as 2020 contenders.
Since then, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) — all co-sponsors of Sanders bill — have jumped into the Democratic fray. So, to...
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...
84 days after residents voted for Medicaid expansion, Utah lawmakers want to repeal or cap it
The Utah state legislature returns to work on Monday and GOP lawmakers are already proposing multiple bills that hobble a successful ballot measure to expand health care to more low-income residents.
Utah State Sen. Allen Christensen’s (R) bill would prevent the ballot initiative — “Proposition 3,” which was approved in November and allowed for a clean Medicaid expansion — from going into effect. It would do so if the federal government approves a waive...
It’s Day 27 of the shutdown, and McConnell is mounting a futile effort to codify Hyde
In the midst of the longest-ever government shutdown in U.S. history, Senate Republicans have instead decided to consider a bill on Thursday to codify existing restrictions that make it harder for low-income people to get abortions.
The bill codifies the Hyde Amendment — a provision that passes annually and prohibits federal Medicaid dollars from covering abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment — among other things. The bill is unlikely to get the ...
Federal judge blocks Trump’s rollback of birth control mandate in 13 states and D.C.
A federal judge on Sunday blocked the Trump administration’s roll back of Obamacare’s birth control mandate, protecting contraceptive coverage for residents living in 13 states and Washington, D.C.
The administration’s policy, which allows more employers to avoid providing their employees birth control coverage, was supposed to take effect on Monday.
But a California district judge sided with Democratic attorneys general who sued the administration, temporar...
Native health contractors vote to work without pay to care for their own community during shutdown
The partial government shutdown forced employees with Native American Lifelines (NAL), a nonprofit contracted by the Indian Health Service (IHS), to make an impossible decision: work without pay or be laid off. The majority of staff chose the former.
NAL employees, who provide a host of health services to Native Americans, are likely to miss a paycheck next Friday because the president won’t sign a budget deal that doesn’t include money for a border wall he said Mexico w...
Trump’s rollback of birth control mandate could go into effect next week unless courts block it
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...
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...