ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA — “We have to make America mentshlekhkeyt again,” Rabbi Arnold Rachlisl declared with a grin at Sabbath service at University Synagogue in Irvine, California.
The rabbi was clearly proud of his joke. Mentshlekhkeyt means “humanity” or “human decency” in Yiddish, he explained to the crowd gathered at the synagogue.
Many in the congregation Friday evening had not been aware that the campaign event for Katie Porter would begin with a Shabbat ser...
health care
How AI changed organ donation in the US
There used to be only three ways off of a kidney transplant waiting list. The first was to find a healthy person from within one’s own pool of friends and family, who perfectly matched both the recipient’s blood and tissue types, and possessed...
These 15 House incumbents scrubbed ‘repeal Obamacare’ from their re-election sites
With their party majority in extreme peril in November’s midterm elections, House Republicans are facing a dilemma. While they ran on a pledge to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, support for Obamacare now far exceeds support for the GOP-controlled Congress. Several incumbents have employed a bold strategy: hide the evidence of their position.
ThinkProgress examined the campaign websites of dozens of Republican incumbents in races deemed competitive by ...
Here’s what you need to know about the lawsuit trying to end Obamacare
In a lawsuit that’s been labeled “absurd” and “ludicrous” by legal experts, conservative and liberal alike, Texas and 19 other conservative states are suing to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) once and for all, as past Republican efforts failed to do so.
On Wednesday, Federal Judge Reed O’Connor, a wildcard who’s ruled against Obamacare multiple times, will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit brought forward in February. O’Connor is expected t...
Republicans who opposed pre-existing condition protections backtrack as midterms near
Ten Republican senators introduced new legislation on Thursday that aims to protect people with pre-existing conditions should an anti-Obamacare lawsuit succeeded in court. But a closer look reveals that the bill doesn’t completely safeguard people’s coverage as current health laws does. Instead, it’s likely an attempt to fend off criticism ahead of the midterm elections.
The new legislation was introduced just two weeks before court hearings begin on the case of ...
Half of sick Americans are uninsured or have affordability problems despite health coverage
Nearly one in two sick Americans cannot afford health care, even those with health insurance, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.
While the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) coverage expansions and consumer protections have dramatically reduced the uninsured rate to just under 11 percent, the United States still has a massive affordability problem.
About 15.5 percent of non-elderly people who have insurance either skipped or delayed medical care, citing cost...
Trump administration reportedly poised to approve restrictive changes to Medicaid
The Trump administration is preparing to approve a number of changes to Medicaid — the government health care program that provides coverage to low-income people — that could leave tens of thousands of people without coverage.
As Politico first reported Friday, the administration is set to approve waivers from some states that would impose work restrictions and allow questions about illegal drug use to be included on applications for Medicaid.
The report comes two...
Medicaid work requirements to cause over 5,000 low-income Arkansans to lose health care
In Arkansas, residents on Medicaid need to report 80-hours-a-month of work or service online to keep their health insurance under new requirements. So far, more than 5,000 people have failed to do so, jeopardizing their continuous coverage.
About 5,426 people who qualify for the public health insurance program designed for low-income people failed to report 80 hours of work in June and July, according to the latest numbers from Arkansas’ Department of Human Services. If they f...
This Illinois Independent candidate bills himself as pro-choice. But there’s a catch.
Voters in Illinois’ 3rd congressional district will have an alternative to incumbent Democrat Rep. Dan Lipinski and Republican nominee Arthur Jones, the former head of the American Nazi Party — and his name is Justin Hanson.
Hanson, a write-in Independent candidate, says on his website that the “campaign was formed to take a stand against an avowed member of the Nazi Party who seeks to capture this District’s seat in Congress.” But in addition to provi...
Study finds New York state’s proposed single-payer system financially feasible
A proposed single-payer health care system in New York state is economically viable and could insure a million people currently without coverage, according to a study from RAND Corp. released Wednesday.
The analysis, which looks at the New York Health Act, was commissioned by the New York State Health Foundation. It makes a number of charitable assumptions about the institution and implementation of the single-payer system, but ultimately concludes the plan would be a cost-effective...