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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The Guardian view on elections in the US: cause for (cautious) celebration | Editorial

Sizable victories for the Democrats in a series of races offer cheer after a year of Donald Trump. But the party should not feel too reassured

It was the boost they needed. The jubilation of Democrats as they celebrated the results of Tuesday’s elections owed much to the despair of one year before, when they learned that Donald Trump was on his way to the White House, as well as to the extraordinary events since, which have amplified his unfitness for the presidency and the extent of Russia...

The Resistance Now: health bill gains traction and handmaids protest Pence

Eighteen Senate Democrats have pledged support for ‘public’ healthcare option, while the vice-president takes heat from Margaret Atwood fans

As Trump tries to destroy the Affordable Care Act from the right of the political spectrum, those on the progressive side continue to push health reform legislation of their own - undaunted, or even in defiance, of the president.

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Tracking Trump: president gives himself top marks for military bereavement calls

President claimed he ‘called every family of someone who’s died’ as tensions flared with sergeant’s relatives and later gave himself 10/10 on Puerto Rico

It was unclear exactly what Donald Trump hoped to achieve when he decided to cut a key element of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – subsidies to insurance companies to help them cover those on low incomes – except perhaps a sense of pure destructive joy in damaging something his predecessor built that Republicans in Congress seemed unable to dismantle. On Saturday, he, crowed that he had ended a “Dems windfall” for insurance companies.

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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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‘He keeps zigging and zagging’: the perils of doing a healthcare deal with Trump

This week, senators moved to salvage the Obamacare subsidies Trump cut – but Washington remains confused over which way the president is swinging

Chuck Schumer was at the gym when his phone rang, just over a week after the latest version of the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act foundered. It was Donald Trump calling the most senior Democrat in the Senate with an idea.

Related: Senators reach bipartisan deal to salvage Obamacare subsidies Trump eliminated

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Senators reach bipartisan deal to salvage Obamacare subsidies Trump eliminated

Republican Lamar Alexander and Democrat Patty Murray reach deal to help insurance companies cover medical needs of low-income Americans

Senators have moved to salvage Obamacare following Donald Trump’s decision last week to scrap critical subsidies that underpin the health law.

Republican senator Lamar Alexander announced on Tuesday that he had reached a deal with Democrat Patty Murray to fund the federal payments – intended to help insurance companies cover the medical needs of low-income Americans – in exchange for allowing states more regulatory flexibility under the Affordable Care Act.

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McConnell and Trump put on show of unity as Bannon urges Republican ‘war’

Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell appeared side-by-side in the Rose Garden after lunch at the White House on Monday in a show of solidarity after the president’s former chief strategist called for the metaphorical assassination of the Senate majority leader.

Trump insisted he and McConnell are “closer than ever before”, despite publicly criticizing the Republican leader for the Senate’s failure to enact the president’s legislative agenda, including Republicans’ failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which Trump called a “disgrace”.

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