Conservatives see Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation as key in bringing down the Affordable Care Act. Doctors and scientists warn it will destroy a major effort to help vulnerable and poor Americans
In his State of the Union address in February 2019, Donald Trump vowed to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.
Related: 'Rick Scott had us on lockdown': how Florida said no to $70m for HIV crisis
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Society
Coronavirus is revealing ugly truths about social structure in the US
The coronavirus pandemic is affecting every possible aspect of life—and thus confronting Americans with ugly truths about the way US society functions.
Any crisis or emergency throws into sharp relief the lack of a social safety net in the US. This virus outbreak, the most widespread in decades, is exposing the country’s social vulnerabilities all at the same time. Some of them will be addressed in a comprehensive relief package that Congress and the White House agreed upon...
For rural America, Medicare for All is a matter of life or death | Barb Kalbach
Insurance firms are gobbling up airtime in Iowa to attack Medicare for All. They claim it would hurt the very same hospitals their business model has spent years bleeding dry
Rural hospitals are often the economic heart of a community. Worse, when minutes mean the difference between life and death, every hospital that closes leaves patients in danger. Since 2010, 113 rural hospitals have closed their doors, leaving more than 30 million Americans an hour or more away from critical car...
Momentum founders push benefits of NHS-style healthcare in US
Emma Rees and Adam Klug seek British volunteers to back free healthcare campaign
Two of the founders of the leftwing pressure group Momentum are to launch a campaign asking British volunteers to back a campaign for free healthcare in the US by telling Americans about the benefits of the NHS.
The idea is to sign up activists who are prepared to talk up the British healthcare system as a good example of how a campaign such as “National Medicare For All” in the US would work. It comes as part of a campaign by America’s National Nurses United union.
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Fear over healthcare locks Americans in jobs – and throttles creativity | Jonathan R Goodman
What could and should make America great is the freedom to follow one’s dreams – not stay trapped in a cubicle, paralysed by fear
Millions of Americans are stuck in what some economists call “job-lock” or the inability to leave employment because of the risk of losing health insurance. A 2001 paper from Princeton’s Center for Economic Policy Studies showed, for example, that self-employed people are 25% less likely to have health insurance than office workers.
Uncertainty surr...
Stress is bad for your health. Today’s political uncertainty makes it worse
Americans are exposed to one of the most damaging sources of stress: uncertainty. The assault on our fundamental sense of security can make us sick
- Outclassed: The Secret Life of Inequality is our new column about class. Read all articles here
David Dobbs’ 13-year-old daughter has type 1 diabetes. Since 2015, the 59-year-old freelance writer and author has relied on Obamacare, officially known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to help pay for his daughter’s insulin, blood testing supplies and other medical needs. But as the endless series of cliffhangers over the fate of the ACA continues, Dobbs says he’s starting to feel hunted.
Without insurance, diabetes treatment alone would cost his family about $20,000 to $30,000 a year, he estimates – and that’s if nothing goes wrong and prompts an astronomically expensive hospitalization.
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By the skin of his teeth: learning to walk again without health insurance
An injury left professional bull rider Joseph Dewey paralyzed – now, like countless other Americans, he’s recovering without health insurance
In the weeks after professional bull rider Joseph Dewey suffered an injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down, an outpouring of support kept him buoyed above the undertow of hopelessness and despair.
Related: ‘They’re sentencing me to death’: Medicaid recipients on the Republican healthcare plan
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Trump substantially weakens Obamacare contraception mandate
Many more employers allowed to opt out of requirement to cover birth control without copay in move that could cause thousands of women to lose coverage
The Trump administration has dramatically expanded the number of employers allowed to flout the Affordable Care Act (ACA) policy that requires company healthcare plans to cover contraception at no additional cost.
Related: White House drafts rule to roll back 'contraception mandate' for health coverage
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Republican health bill: latest draft would scrap contraception mandate
- Proposal in Senate bill puts women’s health coverage in precarious position
- Planned Parenthood: ‘Latest version of Trumpcare is even scarier for women’
The latest version of the US Senate’s bill to repeal major portions of the Affordable Care Act would eliminate the so-called birth control mandate, handing a long-sought victory to conservative activists who have spent years assailing the regulation.
The mandate is one of the most controversial benefits of the Obama administration’s enforcement of the ACA.
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