Trump’s Medicaid crackdown comes for Arkansas

March 5, 2018 health, health care, medicaid, News

On Monday, Arkansas became the third state to make unprecedented changes to its nearly 53-year old Medicaid program, the government-run insurance program for the poor and disabled. The state will now add work requirements and other restrictions as part of a nationwide conservative agenda to cut Medicaid rolls. In Arkansas, enrollment is expected to shrink by thousands.

The Trump administration allowed Arkansas to add an 80-hours-per-month work rule to its Medicaid program. The state...

How one US state saved $240 million in health care spending

March 1, 2018 health care, Ideas, News, obamacare, United States

Quartz

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Obamacare repeal is back, and it is stupider than ever

February 28, 2018 health care, News, obamacare, texas

The sun rises. The sun sets. Young people fall in love. Taxes are paid. People die. And Republicans make newer, dumber attempts to repeal Obamacare.

It’s an endless, unbreakable cycle of meritless lawsuits, half-baked legislation, and disingenuous political rhetoric. It would be hilarious if hundreds of thousands of lives weren’t at stake.

The latest effort to kill Obamacare is a lawsuit brought by 20 Republican governors and attorneys general alleging that, since...

‘They’re hungry for it’: Democrat Randy Bryce says Medicare for All will help him defeat Paul Ryan

February 27, 2018 health care, News, politics

Randy Bryce has a plan to take down House Speaker Paul Ryan. It all boils down to this: be everything Ryan isn’t and promote everything he refuses to promote.

“I’m the kind of person that we need to get rid of him… I’m the opposite of what he is,” Bryce, a Democrat who’s challenging Ryan in Wisconsin’s first district, told ThinkProgress on Tuesday.

Bryce outlined what he sees as the path to unseating the speaker, touting a new, 18-point po...

Virginia Senate Republicans just torpedoed the state’s Medicaid expansion

February 22, 2018 health care, medicaid, News

Just four months ago, Virginia’s gubernatorial race saw historic voter turnout — as casting ballots at the time meant extending Medicaid coverage to 400,000 people. On Thursday, voting paid off.

Virginia is currently one of 18 states that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) despite a majority of residents’ support. But the state is inching closer to expanding Medicaid insurance: The Republican-controlled House on Thursday overwhelming vote...

An Idaho insurance company is skirting Obamacare law. Will the Trump administration stop it?

February 14, 2018 health, health care, News, obamacare

Blue Cross of Idaho submitted five health plans to Idaho insurance regulators on Tuesday that do not comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to local reports. The move has serious repercussions on people’s health care — and if the Trump administration allows the state to bypass the federal health law, other states could soon do the same.

If approved, Blue Cross of Idaho will begin selling plans in March that charge people with pre-existing conditions and old...

Trump’s budget cuts Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, breaking core campaign promise

February 12, 2018 Donald Trump, health care, medicaid, Medicare, News

When he began his presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to “save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts.”

This is a promise, however, President Trump would like to break. Trump’s 2018 budget proposal that would cut all three programs, which help the most vulnerable in American society, by billions of dollars.

Fox News’s website tells readers that Medicare is spared “as he promised during the 2016 campaign,” but a cursory...

Adding work rules to expand Medicaid is a false choice, activists say

February 12, 2018 health care, medicaid, News, politics

A lot has changed since Virginia’s gubernatorial race last November yielded the highest voter turnout in 20 years. Then, health care moved people to the polls, as casting ballots at the time meant extending health care to 400,000 people. Despite historic Democrat gains, Republicans maintained control of the state house. Now, Medicaid expansion is subject to unprecedented conditions.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) sought to expand Medicaid eligibility to people making up to 133 ...

The Trump administration wants to allow states to impose lifetime coverage limits on Medicaid

February 6, 2018 health care, medicaid, News, Trump administration

The Trump administration is taking aim at Medicaid yet again, specifically with lifetime coverage limits, according to a McClatchy report Monday evening.

Just weeks after unveiling guidance that will allow states to impose Medicaid work requirements, Trump’s Health and Human Services agency is reportedly attempting to limit the number of months adults have access to the safety net program. The cap, if approved, would be the first of its kind in Medicaid’s history.

ThinkProgress

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Republican who voted to repeal Obamacare draws challenge from cancer survivor

February 5, 2018 congress, health care, News, politics

An Arkansas state legislator who survived cancer announced Monday that he’s running for Congress, hoping to take down his district’s current Republican representative, who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Clarke Tucker, a Democrat, told ThinkProgress Monday that his own experience with bladder cancer last year helped him realize just how real the consequences of repealing the ACA would be.

“Thankfully, I had access to great health care, but it ...