Covid-19 survivors could lose health insurance if Trump wins bid to repeal Obamacare

  • ACA prevents denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions
  • Abolition could mean Covid-19 victims could be turned down

Millions of Americans who have survived Covid-19 or face future infections could lose their insurance or be barred from getting coverage should the Trump administration successfully repeal Obamacare.

The Trump administration asked the supreme court late Thursday to overturn the Affordable Care Act – a move that, if successful, would bring a permanent end to the health insurance reform law popularly known as Obamacare.

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Trump administration asks supreme court to axe Obamacare

Democrats call legal push amid coronavirus crisis an ‘act of unfathomable cruelty’

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The Trump administration has asked the US supreme court to invalidate the Obamacare lawthat added millions to the healthcare safety net but has been at the centre of political controversy.

The government advocate, Noel Francisco, argued in a filing late on Thursday that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one of Ba...

Voting in the New York primary is by no means futile for Sanders supporters | Billy Richling and Francisco Navas

Voters need to understand that Sanders’ delegate candidates aren’t running against Biden’s delegate candidates – they’re running against each other

Although Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, voting in the New York primary on Tuesday (or during early voting) is by no means futile for progressives who were largely supporting Bernie Sanders and policies such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.

Related: 'Just ridiculous': what it’s like to wait five hours in line to vote in the US

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Coronavirus US live: death toll nears 80,000 as Trump rages over Russia

Precautions against Covid-19 infection have been stepped up at the White House but are hampered by the cramped and poorly ventilated conditions in the West Wing, Kevin Hassett, a special adviser to Donald Trump on the pandemic response, said on Sunday.

Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has been talking to Fox News Sunday about the Trump administration’s attempts to reopen and restart the stalled US economy, and whether there will be another huge stimulus bill. Democrats who control the House want one of those but the White House doesn’t – that’s the short version.

The White House is “absolutely pushing for a payroll tax cut”, Mnuchin says. Most observers think that is a non-starter, because Democrats won’t let it. Payroll taxes, meaning deductions from regular paychecks, include funds for Social Security and Medicare, vital social benefits.

Related: US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?

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Trump’s pick for federal court ‘too inexperienced’, Democrats say

Justin Walker, 37, is facing a Senate confirmation hearing as Mitch McConnell restarts push to confirm federal judges

A federal judge nominated to the nation’s second-most powerful court said on Wednesday that he was writing as an academic and commentator when he criticized as “indefensible” a supreme court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act.

Justin Walker, a 37-year-old protege of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh...

Coronavirus has destroyed the myth of the deficit | Yeva Nersisyan and L Randall Wray

No, federal government spending doesn’t have to be ‘paid for’. The crisis shows providing for our society is not a financial issue

Only a month ago, a stimulus bill of $2tn would have been unthinkable. Indignant deficit scolds would have asked how one planned to pay for it, and complained about burdening our grandchildren with debt and bankrupting our country. Bernie Sanders bent over backwards to explain how he was going to pay for a Green New Deal or Medicare for All. These program...

Coronavirus US live: Pelosi says Trump’s WHO decision is ‘dangerous, illegal and will be challenged’

  • House speaker condemns ‘senseless’ decision
  • 2 million cases of coronavirus confirmed worldwide
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5.21pm BST

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has extended the city’s stay-at-home order through at least May 15, ordering sc...

So merch for all that: how Bernie Sanders became politics’ least likely style icon

Never has one man in inexpensive rumpled suits been so loved by the style set - but Sanders’ clothes signal an authenticity other politicians can only dream of

Of all the things we’ll miss about Bernie Sanders, now that he has dropped out of the Democratic race, his style should be the least of it. Not only because his politics are so right on – this is the man who believes in free education and Medicare for all and who has had many Americans, who until recently felt disenfranchised ...

Coronavirus US live: Biden doubts Democratic convention can happen in July

Banks are warning the $350 billion small business loan program may not be ready by Friday as scheduled.

Politico reports:

The lenders complain that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin boxed them in with an unrealistic deadline and that the ground rules they’ve been given for the program, which is intended to deliver rapid aid to a huge number of ailing businesses, could delay the assistance for weeks or longer.

The banks, which will be responsible for processing loan applications and doling out money, are expecting millions of applications from businesses. Some fear a disaster that could dwarf the failed kickoff of the Obamacare enrollment web site in 2013.

Georgia’s governor said he only learned days ago that those with coronavirus who show no symptoms can still spread the virus, an astounding claim from a state leader considering health experts have been warning about asymptomatic transmissions for weeks.

A stunning admission of deadly ignorance from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who says he only just learned that asymptomatic people can transmit #Covid19. “[I]ndividuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad, but we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours.” pic.twitter.com/T7NZWk2GDR

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Coronavirus US live: stimulus bill fails in Senate as experts urge Trump not to roll back social restrictions

  • What to know about the US bailout
  • Dr Anthony Fauci counters Trump’s claims
  • Trump signals change in strategy that could clash with health experts
  • Panic-buying disrupts food distribution
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6.36pm GMT

The Washington Post reports on a growing rift in the Trump administration as the president weighs l...