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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health
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...
These Democratic candidates for governor could make single-payer health care a reality
Medicare for All is a caucus in Congress, a mantra among 2020 presidential candidates, and a platform in a lot of gubernatorial races.
New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon is the latest Democrat to fully endorse Medicare for All — meaning, she’s interested in turning today’s insurance patchwork into a single government-run health care system, or a single-payer system. Gubernatorial candidates from a dozen states are running on the policy, contrasting cong...
This California district has been red for over 20 years. Katie Hill could change that.
SANTA CLARITA, CALIFORNIA — On a blisteringly hot Saturday morning in June, 10 days after 30-year-old Katie Hill emerged as the Democratic party’s candidate to unseat Republican Steve Knight for California’s 25th Congressional district, dozens of her supporters gathered at the campaign’s cramped headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita to prepare for a massive voter registration drive. This last remaining GOP bastion in Los Angeles County (the district also includes pa...
Health and Human Services Department removes website’s language on sex discrimination
The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services changed or removed information on its website about sex discrimination, according to a new report from the Sunlight Foundation.
The Office for Civil Rights altered this information on several webpages on Section 1557, part of the Affordable Care Act that relates to sex discrimination, between March and August 2017, according to the nonprofit focused on government transparency. Now, mentions of sex discriminat...
Medicare for All caucus launches with 66 members
House Democrats formally announced the formation of the Medicare for All caucus on Thursday, and were joined by representatives from various progressive groups — like National Nurses United, Social Security Works, and Center for Popular Democracy — who helped save Obamacare last summer and now demand more than the status quo. So far 66 members, or one-third of House Democrats, have joined the caucus led by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (WA), Debbie Dingell (MI), and Keith Ellison (MN)....
Protests against Pittsburgh hospital expansion highlight city’s growing racial health disparities
More than 100 activists and employees took turns speaking at a packed Pittsburgh City Council hearing Tuesday on the proposed $2 billion expansion of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in the city’s Uptown neighborhood. They were there to demand that the health care giant agree to higher wages and unionization for workers before it moves forward with expansion.
Prior to the hearing, opponents of the plan marched to the city council building and held a rally, asking f...
Legal groups intervene in Republican’s lawsuit over counting undocumented in census
A coalition led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Democracy Forward filed a motion on Tuesday to intervene in a lawsuit brought by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who decided to sue the U.S. Bureau of the Census for counting undocumented immigrants in the decennial census.
The legal groups decided to get involved because they didn’t trust the Department of Justice (DOJ) — led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, known for his hardline immigration policies ...
University of Michigan nurses hold rally to fight for patients’ equal access to health care
University of Michigan nurses have been negotiating a contract for 90 days, and their employer has not moved on several issues they care about. On Saturday, they plan to hold an informational picket in the hope that it moves their employer at the negotiating table.
The contract with the University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council (UMPNC) would cover about 6,000 nurses. The nurses’ last collective bargaining agreement expired on June 30, and now, they are looking for a ne...
Nebraska lawmakers are suing to block voters’ chance to give more people health care by ballot
In November, Nebraska voters will get the opportunity to vote on whether or not the government should provide more low-income residents health insurance. But a new lawsuit from Republican lawmakers is trying to deny voters their say.
Should Nebraska residents vote to expand Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of poverty level, an estimated 90,000 people statewide will gain health care.
Nebraska is one of four states aiming to expand Medicaid insurance this fall. The others ar...