In November, Nebraska residents will get to decide whether or not more people should qualify for public health insurance. Should voters decide to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), roughly 90,000 low-income residents will gain health coverage.
The months-long grassroots campaign to get Medicaid expansion on the November ballot succeeded after activists and volunteers with the Insure the Good Life coalition collected more than 133,000 signatures from the state’...
health
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 ...
Rand Paul proposes Planned Parenthood ‘poison pill’ to Senate funding bill
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is continuing his years-long crusade against Planned Parenthood, filing an amendment to a massive Senate appropriations bill last week that would cut federal funding from the organization, as well as others that perform abortion procedures.
In a statement released Friday, Paul said his amendment to the Senate appropriations package for Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education is “our chance to turn our words into action, stand up for the sancti...
Conor Lamb never mentions Trump. It’s working in his favor.
ROSS TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA — “Lamb the Sham” is President Donald Trump’s go-to insult to wield against freshman Democrat Rep. Conor Lamb. But if the president hopes it will trigger an angry response from the candidate, he’s wrong.
Lamb, who will face off against Rep. Keith Rothfus (R) in Pennsylvania’s newly redrawn 17th district, rarely mentions Trump by name on the campaign trail, preferring instead to keep his attention focused on local issues and, more broadly, on Americ...
Rep. Keith Rothfus’ constituents are fed up with his health care agenda
ROSS TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA — It’s usually pretty quiet outside Rep. Keith Rothfus’ (R) Ross Township office.
But that changes every Wednesday, when dozens of the congressman’s constituents gather outside his nondescript doors to demand that he hold a town hall meeting. Each week, since February 2017, organizers have rallied about a different topic important to the people of the 17th district, which is made up mostly of the suburbs surrounding Pittsburgh. This week their focu...
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...
Republican congressman launches extremely dishonest attack on Medicare-for-All
Jared Golden, a Democratic member of the Maine House of Representatives who is running for Congress, supports Medicare-for-All. As made obvious by the very phrase “Medicare-for-All,” Golden wants to extend Medicare-style health coverage to every American. If you currently have Medicare, Golden thinks you should keep Medicare. If you don’t currently have Medicare, Golden thinks you should be able to have Medicare.
Nonetheless, a new ad by Golden’s opponent, Re...
Cities sue Trump for sabotaging Obamacare
Four cities filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Thursday accusing the president and his cabinet of “waging a relentless campaign to sabotage and, ultimately, to nullify” the Affordable Care Act.
The suit — filed in a Maryland federal court by Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Baltimore — comes on the heels of the Department of Health and Human Services’ finalization Wednesday of regulations allowing people to keep short-term health insurance plans for up to...
When is tech in the health sector extremely dangerous? Too many times.
The pharmaceutical industry has recently come under intense scrutiny for driving the opioid epidemic, insurance companies and hospitals are faulted for rising health care costs, and even the insurance “middlemen” (pharmacy benefit managers) recently got called out by President Donald Trump for their role in high drug prices. But a new documentary premiering Friday on Netflix asks audiences to pay attention to a health sector they otherwise wouldn’t: the medical device industry.
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Trump’s poor grasp of health care policy was on full display in Iowa
During a roundtable event on workforce development in Iowa on Thursday, President Trump touted association health care plans.
“[Secretary of Labor] Alex Acosta has come up with incredible health care plans through the Department of Labor, association plans, where you associate, where you have groups, and you go out and get tremendous health care at a very small cost,” Trump said. “It is across state lines. You can compete all over the country, they compete, they wa...