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...
health care
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...
Maryland could become the first state to stop participating in the federal family planning program
Maryland could be the first state to stop participating in the country’s only federal family program, should the Trump administration’s so-called gag rule go into effect.
On Saturday, the Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill that would end the state’s participation in Title X, if the administration prevents the program’s federal family planning funds from going to clinics like Planned Parenthood that provide abortion or refer patients for abortion elsewh...
‘I vote with my pancreas’: How the skyrocketing price of insulin became an 2020 election issue
Once a month, Sarah Stark makes the trip to her local pharmacy to pick up the insulin she needs to keep her diabetes in check.
She has health insurance through her job and uses a $100 manufacturer’s coupon to help defray the cost. Even so, she ends up paying a whopping $728.40.
Stark, 28, is not the only one to experience sticker shock when making the purchase. Invariably, the pharmacist who rings her up is taken aback by the price of the medication, and asks if she’s certai...
Trump administration defended Medicaid work requirements in court and it didn’t go well
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration had a hard time defending one of its most consequential health policies in federal court on Thursday.
The administration faced a lot of difficult questions from District Judge Jeb Boasberg, an Obama appointee, about why the court shouldn’t strike down Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky, as it has in the past. Boasberg listened to two separate but related lawsuits, challenging the legality of the states’ w...
In an unprecedented Senate bill, Democrats try to get federal dollars to pay for abortion
For the first time ever, Senate Democrats will introduce a bill that guarantees every person has access to abortion coverage if they receive health care through the federal government.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) will introduce the EACH Woman Act on Tuesday with support from at least nine other Democrats, including 2020 presidential candidates Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
On the other side of the chamber, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) will re-introduce,...
What does Medicare for All look like for people with disabilities?
More and more, the progressive rallying cry, Medicare for All, is garnering support. It’s now a frontrunner topic for Democratic presidential candidates, and members of Congress are introducing legislation for how it could actually work.
But does Medicare for All really include everyone? Disability rights activists say not really, if you’re basing it on the way Medicare, the health program for seniors and certain people with disabilities, works today.
“I think if you ask most...
Here’s what the Democrats’ new Medicare for All bill would do
On Wednesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) will introduce the Medicare for All Act of 2019, and already more than 100 House Democrats have said they support the bill.
ThinkProgress reviewed a section-by-section summary of the bill and participated in two press calls with the congresswoman and staff. Jayapal’s plan is likely the most ambitious yet among the crowded list of Democratic universal-coverage proposals.
The plan would fundamentally reshape the health care system...