On Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) shared a touching campaign video detailing how his daughter Annika’s leukemia diagnosis made the need to protect people with pre-existing conditions personal for him.
“Politicians argue a lot about health care, but for me, it’s personal,” Rohrabacher says, while standing next to his daughter. “When my daughter Annika was 8 years old, she was afflicted with leukemia. It was devastating to my family, bu...
health
GOP Iowa congressman’s ad pretends he ‘stood up’ to his own party on preexisting conditions
Rep. David Young (R-IA) has voted with Donald Trump about than 99 percent of the time, including backing the Obamacare repeal legislation known as Trumpcare. That legislation would have destroyed insurance protections for the more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing medical conditions. That vote was hugely unpopular.
Facing a very tough re-election in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, Young launched a new ad this week simply lying to the voters — a tactic sever...
Melania Trump is taking ‘Be Best’ to Africa, because of course she is
First Lady Melania Trump is officially taking her “Be Best” campaign to Africa, because of course she is.
Melania will be heading for her first major solo international trip on Monday. Over the next week, she will travel to Ghana, Malawai, Kenya, and Egypt to discuss the campaign, which she says has many concepts that can be applied globally.
Melania first introduced her “Be Best” campaign in May. At the time, she said it would be focused on addressing...
Former UN chief Ban Ki-moon: US health care system is ‘politically wrong, morally wrong’
Failing to provide health care to 29.3 million people is “unethical” and “politically wrong, morally wrong,” said former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in an interview with the Guardian.
The U.S. is the only wealthy country without universal coverage — and Ban faults “powerful” interest groups within the pharmaceutical, hospitals, and doctors sector.
“Here, the political interest groups are so, so powerful,” Ban said. “Even president, Congress,...
Trump’s dramatic new plan to label immigrants a ‘public charge,’ explained
Immigrants who utilize virtually all public benefits risk jeopardizing their ability to stay in the country under new rules announced by the Trump administration.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will require immigration caseworkers to take into account a number of additional factors in considering applications for immigration visas (like work visas or family-based visas) or green cards (permanent residency).
Immigrants who opt to use such benefits — even for U...
Dementia rates are set to double by 2060, and minorities will get hit hardest
This week, researchers from the US Centers of Disease Control (CDC) published a paper looking at predicted dementia rates across the country. Currently 1.6% of the population, or about 5 million people, have Alzheime...
Republicans who voted to repeal pre-existing conditions protections run ads pretending they didn’t
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 banned the long-standing practice of health insurers discriminating against customers on the basis of their pre-existing conditions. The Trumpcare legislation that narrowly passed the House of Representatives last May would have repealed these protections and replaced them with a system in which insurers could charge much higher premiums to those patients. Now, vulnerable House Republicans who voted for the wildly unpopular bill have to defend their votes th...
Absurd GOP attack ads claim candidates who back Medicare for All want to take away your health care
Faced with tough November races, several Republicans who supported GOP-led proposals to roll back Americans’ health coverage are now attacking their Democratic opponents for supposedly threatening Americans’ health care access by supporting a “Medicare for all” system — which would extend the existing Medicare program’s protections to cover everyone.
Republican Reps. Andy Barr (KY-6), Dave Brat (VA-7), and Kevin Yoder (KS-3) all voted for the Trum...
Republicans in swing districts are scared to tell voters the truth about Planned Parenthood
Since anti-abortion advocates released a series of selectively edited and highly misleading videos in 2015 intended to give the false impression that Planned Parenthood clinics inappropriately profit from the sale of aborted fetuses, Republicans in Congress have repeatedly tried to cut off all federal funding that goes to the health non-profit. But as the 2018 midterms draw near, few Republican House candidates in swing districts are talking about it at all — even those who are runni...
Patient advocate groups sue Trump administration over skimpy health plans
Seven patient advocate and health care groups are suing the Trump administration for expanding short-term limited duration plans, cheap health insurance with a history of discrimination.
These groups — representing patients, providers, and insurers — accuse the Trump administration of jeopardizing health care for the most vulnerable, as these short-term plans can skirt consumer protections outlined in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and deny people with pre-existing condit...