The lobbying group that led the assault on Obamacare has targeted movements across the US to ensure workers can get needed time off
This week marks 25 years since Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, which gives US workers the right to unpaid time off to care for themselves and close family members.
It took another decade for some to win paid sick leave, when San Franciscans approved a ballot initiative in 2006 for private employees to earn an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Similar measures now benefit 14 million workers in 32 municipalities and nine states.
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US healthcare
Doctors say new Medicaid rules ‘like asking people to work with an anchor on their back’
Administration’s policy allows states to impose work requirements for people on Medicaid, meaning sick or injured Americans ‘have to go to work, no matter what’
Dr Gary Leroy’s patients are “salt of the earth”: inner-city people working in Dayton, Ohio as dishwashers, car mechanics and patient care assistants.
Related: Medicaid: Trump opens door for states to take away coverage from out-of-work Americans
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Medicaid: Trump opens door for states to take away coverage from out-of-work Americans
Administration unveils major policy shift that could mean millions of Americans could be legally required to hold a job to be on Medicaid
Millions who rely on Medicaid, America’s biggest public health insurance program, could be required to have a job if they want to hold on to their coverage in the future.
The Trump administration has unveiled a major policy shift that offers a path for states seeking to tie Medicaid eligibility to work requirements.
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White House would ditch attack on Obamacare in order to pass tax bill
Budget director says ‘we’re OK’ with dropping provision of Republican tax reform that would also repeal healthcare mandate, if it becomes roadblock
The White House is willing to sacrifice Republicans’ latest attempt to dismantle Obama’s Affordable Care Act if that’s necessary to pass a series of sweeping tax cuts, Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday.
Republicans’ current tax reform legislation would slash corporate tax rates and benefit wealthy Americans. Last week, after the president tweeted that he wanted legislation to include a repeal of a key healthcare mandate, Senate Republicans announced they would include the healthcare measure in their tax bill.
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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...
Americans show support for Obamacare despite Trump’s repeal attempts
- Increase in healthcare signups on first day of annual enrollment
- Maine votes to expand federal Medicaid scheme for low-income Americans
Millions of Americans remain committed to Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare legislation despite the Trump administration’s attempts to overturn it.
Related: Health experts say Trump's opioid response relies on magical thinking
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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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White House can continue withholding health subsidies, judge rules
States had called for federal government to continue making payments as broader case over subsidies makes its way through courts
A US judge has ruled that the government does not have to immediately resume paying Affordable Care Act healthcare subsidies that Donald Trump cut off.
Eighteen state attorneys general, led by the California Democrat Xavier Becerra, argued the monthly payments were required under Barack Obama’s healthcare law and cutting them off would harm consumers.
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Number of US adults without health insurance up 3.5m this year, study finds
Rising premiums and political turmoil over Obamacare undermine the gains that drove the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low
The number of US adults without health insurance is up nearly 3.5 million this year, as rising premiums and political turmoil over Obamacare undermine coverage gains that drove the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low.
Related: 'He keeps zigging and zagging': the perils of doing a healthcare deal with Trump
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