obamacare

Why turning public health care into ‘block grants’ can’t work

Affordable Care Act, health, Health Care Reform, News, obamacare

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) released their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Wednesday — the last GOP plan left standing.

The chances for the bill to pass are slim to none. It needs to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office and cleared by the Senate parliamentarian — the designated health care referee — to see if it adheres to budget rules. Additionally, many critical lawmakers have said that the Senate needs ...

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This is how Bernie Sanders wants to implement single-payer

health care, Health Care Reform, News, obamacare

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) Medicare for All bill would eliminate out-of-pocket costs and deductibles for any resident of the United States, as well as build on the health care services covered by the Affordable Care Act, according to an executive summary and outline of the bill provided to ThinkProgress.

Sanders, a longtime single-payer advocate, will hold a press conference on Wednesday afternoon to detail his policy ideas for transforming the current health care landscape.<...

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The Senate is rehashing an old GOP idea during the Affordable Care Act stabilization talks

Affordable Care Act, health care, News, obamacare

While some Democrats pivot to single payer legislation this week, the immediate health policy agenda item is shoring up the 2018 Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual marketplace in time for September 27, the final deadline for insurers to decide if they’ll participate or not. The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee is resuming hearings Tuesday on how best to stabilize the marketplace this week, and one theme continues to dominate bipartisan negotiations: s...

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How governors want to fix the finicky Obamacare marketplace

health care, News, obamacare, Senate

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace is less competitive than the drafters intended it to be. President Barack Obama once said the marketplace — where people can shop online for health insurance and compare plans — would be like an “Expedia for health care.” But if Expedia were anything like the ACA, people in some states would log on and see just one airline listed. In Virginia, they’d log on and see no listings at all.

To date, 1,476 counties are...

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3 things we learned from the Senate’s first Obamacare hearing since the GOP health bill failed

health care, News, obamacare

Early in the summer, hearings on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) seemed unlikely to ever happen. But with fall swiftly approaching, the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has decided it will hold four, the first of which took place on Wednesday.

During this week’s hearing, senators were joined by state insurance commissioners. Wonk-ish health experts guided senators on how best to strengthen the law’s marketplace. Commissioners from blue and red state...

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Here’s the long list of legislative items Congress needs to get to in addition to DACA

congress, News, obamacare

The White House will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program with a six-month delay for Congress to act. The Trump administration is phasing out DACA — an Obama-era initiative that conferred deportation protection and work permits for nearly 800,000 young unauthorized immigrants — unless Congress passes a bill by March to protect recipients, often referred to as DREAMers.

President Donald Trump is punting responsibility to Congress. In a statement, ...

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It’s official: Every Obamacare marketplace in the country has at least one insurer

health, health care, News, obamacare

The Ohio Department of Insurance announced Thursday that CareSource will sell Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans in Paulding County, officially marking the end of the health law’s empty counties problem. Every person looking to buy coverage on the ACA marketplace in Ohio and nationwide will have at least one health insurance option.

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) has been tracking the state of counties that were at risk of having no insurer in 2018 at some point since Februar...

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