Democrats winning the popular vote won’t be enough to save Americans’ health care from Republicans

The 2010 election was a historic disaster for the Democratic Party. Republican House candidates won the national popular vote by 6.8 percentage points and took a commanding majority as a result. It marked the end of President Obama’s legislative agenda and the beginning of an era when Republicans demanded massive concessions just to keep the government open.

Now imagine that 2018 is the mirror image of 2010 — that is, that Democrats win the popular vote by the exact same...

Meet the state Senate candidate who’s trying to convince Tennessee’s 1 percent to support Medicaid

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE — Kristen Grimm has just realized she forgot to clean out her minivan. She gushes her apologies as she pulls open the driver’s side door, revealing a passenger seat littered with palm cards and newspapers. Her backseat, filled with yard signs, an extra coat, and a change of shoes is also not rider-ready.

But her dismay about the messy car doesn’t — or rather, it can’t — last long before she’s on to the next thing: A phone call from a fr...

“Do you abuse more than one drug at a time?”: Wisconsin to drug screen people on Medicaid

In addition to imposing 80 hours of work per month, Wisconsin will require that Medicaid recipients complete a drug screening questionnaire to keep their health coverage.

While the Trump administration rejected Wisconsin’s bid to drug test Medicaid recipients, the Department of Health Services (DHS) told ThinkProgress on Friday that the state will ask them the same questions they already ask people on cash assistance as a condition of eligibility. The “D...

How do rape exceptions for abortion work? They don’t.

Over the past year, Dr. Shanthi Ramesh performed abortions for seven sexual assault survivors and she recalls Medicaid insurance only paying for two.

It didn’t matter that they were all technically eligible for Medicaid — meaning, they were all poor enough to receive public health insurance — or that a doctor, in her professional opinion, believed they were raped. She says four of the seven women did not report their assaults to local law enforcement and, so, insurance ...

How do rape exceptions for abortion work? They don’t.

Over the past year, Dr. Shanthi Ramesh performed abortions for seven sexual assault survivors and she recalls Medicaid insurance only paying for two.

It didn’t matter that they were all technically eligible for Medicaid — meaning, they were all poor enough to receive public health insurance — or that a doctor, in her professional opinion, believed they were raped. She says four of the seven women did not report their assaults to local law enforcement and, so, insurance ...