The Iowa family clinic Chelsea Vargas went to recently closed, forcing her to reconsider her current form of birth control. The clinic provided her a free birth control ring. Without the clinic’s financial assistance, she won’t be able to afford her preferred contraception. (Although most plans cover the ring, she hasn’t been able to pay off her deductible to use her insurance.)
Before the clinic closed, she switched from the ring to an implant, a tiny rod inserted...
health
The Senate tax bill will kill about 15,000 people every year
Appearing on CNBC Monday, Harvard economist and former Obama and Clinton administration official Larry Summers warned that if the Senate tax bill becomes law, about 10,000 people will die every year who otherwise would have lived. If anything, his estimate isn’t pessimistic enough.
The reason why is that the bill repeals the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, an unpopular but necessary provision that stabilizes insurance markets and wards off something known as an...
Arkansas is proof that discredited sting videos have severe consequences
Arkansas once again cut off access to Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood over discredited sting videos filmed in secret by an anti-abortion group.
The state terminated Planned Parenthood’s status as a medical provider last week after an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding Arkansas’ right to do so took effect, Arkansas Department of Human Services spokesperson Amy Webb said Monday. The court ruled in August that Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s...
Trump’s pick for Health Secretary promises to implement Obamacare ‘if it remains’
President Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary is a pharmaceutical executive familiar with the department which he is nominated to lead. On Wednesday, before a Senate committee on health, Alex Azar defended his past: law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, HHS General Counsel and Deputy Secretary under President George W. Bush, and executive to drug giant Eli Lilly.
Since Trump came to office, HHS has undermined the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and hind...
How one GOP senator went from saving Obamacare to being OK with undermining it
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) casted a pivotal vote over the summer, where she — along with Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and John McCain (R-AZ) — saved the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from being repealed. She didn’t just vote against repeal once; she voted against three different G.O.P. health bills and shot down another in September.
But on Tuesday, she said she supports legislation that most health experts say will undermine the current health law. In an op-ed in the...
Murkowski ready to prioritize Arctic drilling over healthcare
In an op-ed published in a local Alaskan paper last week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced that she supports repealing the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, saying that she “always supported the freedom to choose.”
Murkowski was a key vote in stopping repeal of the Affordable Care Act earlier this year, but there’s one crucial difference this time around: repealing the individual mandate is tied to the Republican’s tax bill, which also inclu...
Obamacare’s most unpopular provision is important. Here’s why.
Jim Cooke is looking to purchase health insurance this open enrollment period on Maryland Health Connection, the state’s Obamacare exchange. He usually pays the penalty for not having insurance, due to the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But for him, this year is different.
“It’s not urgent, I’d just feel more comfortable,” Cooke told ThinkProgress. “I’m 61 now, and I think I better have this coverage.”
C...
Congress still hasn’t renewed CHIP funding, 9 million children could soon lose health coverage
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...
