President Donald Trump will be visiting Puerto Rico on Tuesday to witness first-hand the damage caused by Hurricane Maria and meet with residents who still lack basic necessities. The island — home to more than 3.4 million U.S. residents — is mostly without electricity or running water since Maria made landfall as a major Category 4 hurricane on September 20.
The political and public response to the catastrophe has been muted compared to that of Hurricane Harvey and Irma...
medicaid
Republican senator calls health care, food, and shelter a ‘privilege’
When asked by a high school student in Wisconsin whether he considered health care a right or a privilege, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) compared access to health care to access to food and shelter, arguing that all three should be considered “privileges” for those who can afford them.
“I think it’s probably more of a privilege,” Johnson said in response to the question. “Do you consider food a right? Do you consider clothing a right? Do you consider...
Republican’s last-gasp effort to demolish Obamacare has likely failed
The last-gasp Republican drive to tear down President Barack Obama's health care law essentially died Monday.
Latest Obamacare Repeal Effort Is Most Far-Reaching
The Graham-Cassidy bill would turn federal funding for a law Republicans loathe into block grants to states, realizing a long-held goal of the party.
The GOP health care bill will make it harder for rural hospitals to keep their doors open
As Congress continues to debate the last-ditch Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the deadline to permanently renew funding for rural hospitals faced with high costs and limited resources may go unnoticed.
Hundreds of qualifying rural hospitals rely on payments provided by the Medicare Dependent Hospital (MDH) and the Low Volume Hospital Adjustment (LVHA) programs, both of which expire on September 30. Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) introduced the Rural Hos...
All the lies Sen. Cassidy told about his health bill after Jimmy Kimmel called him out as a liar
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has a truth-telling problem.
After late night host Jimmy Kimmel delivered an impassioned monologue Tuesday night, saying Cassidy “lied right to my face” when he told Kimmel that every American should have certain health benefits, Cassidy appeared on all three cable news networks Wednesday morning to defend himself. The senator spent those interviews unleashing a blizzard of untruths so thick with new falsehoods that it was difficult to keep track...
Republican congressman blames opioid crisis on Medicaid
Republican Congressman Jim Renacci (OH) argued this week that Medicaid expansion in Ohio and other states may have caused the current opioid crisis ravaging the country. His comments come just ahead of a highly-anticipated vote on the Graham-Cassidy heath care bill, which would end Medicaid expansion and, eventually, the entire program.
“Medicaid was, in some ways, the driver of this opioid addiction,” Renacci said, in an interview on WAKR radio. “…If [the ex...
The GOP’s on the verge of passing a bill that will phase out Medicaid in its entirety
Senate Republicans are on the cusp of passing a bill that will eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars worth of health funding, destabilize insurance markets, and eventually phase out Medicaid in its entirety. Less than two months after three Republican senators stopped an earlier effort to strip away much of America’s health care safety net, millions of Americans’ health care is now in very serious peril.
The new Trumpcare legislation — often referred to as R...
The New Health Care: Blaming Medicaid for the Opioid Crisis: How the Easy Answer Can Be Wrong
The 31 states that expanded Medicaid saw a larger increase in drug overdoses. But what does that prove?