It has been 51 days since Congress allowed the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to expire. Since then, states have been grappling with the reality that nine million children may soon lose critical health care coverage.
While CHIP has historically received support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, this year, Congress has allowed disagreements over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to take precedence over reauthorizing funding for the program. Things are now especially...
health care
Tax reform or health care reform? Senators to include repeal of key Obamacare mandate in tax bill
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told reporters Tuesday that Senators will try to repeal a key component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with some members looking to the tax reform bill as a vehicle. The move to repeal the individual mandate as part of the Senate legislation is projected to result in 13 million uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). It’s also a critical provision for keeping the ACA marketplace stable.
The Senate Finance Committee — which...
Activists went all out to save Obamacare. Now they’re fighting for opioid recovery funds.
It’s Phil Krauss’ first time protesting on Capitol Hill. He’s an advocate who kicked heroin three years ago when he was 32 years old.He’s new to organizing but he’s surrounded by veterans, many who were just at the Russell Senate Office Building two months ago trying to save the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
About 50 activists — affiliated with a host of grassroots organizations — met for the first time Monday in Washington, D....
Trump to nominate former pharmaceutical executive to head Health and Human Services
President Trump will nominate former pharmaceutical executive Alex Azar as his Health and Human Services secretary, the president tweeted Monday morning.
“Happy to announce, I am nominating Alex Azar to be the next HHS Secretary,” Trump tweeted. “He will be a star for better healthcare and lower drug prices!”
Happy to announce, I am nominating Alex Azar to be the next HHS Secretary. He will be a star for better healthcare and lower drug prices!
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ACA open enrollment is off to a strong start, despite Trump administration efforts to sabotage it
“ObamaCare is dead,” President Trump tweeted in May. It’s a tune the GOP has been singing for months as they have tried and failed time and time again to repeal the law. But it’s simply not true.
More than 600,000 people enrolled in Obamacare in the first four days of open enrollment, according to numbers released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services Thursday. At this rate, sign-ups are on pace to significantly exceed last year’s numbers in the first 12 days of the enro...
Virginia voters sent a loud message about health care
Voters in Virginia sent a message on election day: Access to affordable care matters.
A post-election survey of Virginia voters conducted Tuesday found that health care was a decisive issue in the closely watched gubernatorial race, with 67 percent of voters saying health care was the most important or a very important issue to them.
Those who said health care was the most or a very important issue to them voted for Democratic candidate Ralph Northam by a margin of 62 to 32. ...
The fight for Maine’s Medicaid expansion isn’t over yet
Voters in Maine elected overwhelmingly on Tuesday night to expand Medicaid coverage to nearly 70,000 uninsured citizens in a monumental referendum that would make the state the first to expand the health insurance program via the ballot box.
That is, unless Gov. Paul LePage has anything to do with it. The Maine state legislature has voted to expand Medicaid on five separate occasions, and each time, LePage has vetoed it.
Now, voters in the state have done the same, but in a s...
Election night’s silver cloud for progressives has a lead lining in Ohio
Voters rejected a proposal aimed at slashing prescription drug prices for Ohio’s 3 million Medicaid recipients on Tuesday by a 4-to-1 margin after pharmaceutical companies raised about $60 million for ads and organizing against the measure.
The measure would likely have incurred a legal battle had it passed. It mandated that Medicaid bean-counters pay the same prices that drug companies offer to Veterans Affairs beneficiaries, without specifying how exactly the low-income heal...