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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Bit by bit, Trump is taking apart the New Deal’s glorious legacy | Heather Richardson

With huge tax cuts projected to create a $1.5tn deficit, cuts to social security and Medicare will surely follow

Since January, there have been frightening signs that America is becoming an oligarchy overseen by a dictator. From the first, Donald Trump has followed an authoritarian playbook, beginning with his rejection of objective reality. Forced early on to defend the assertion that the crowd at Trump’s inauguration was the biggest ever witnessed, presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Con...

Republican moderate Susan Collins undecided on final tax cut vote

  • Maine senator who helped sink healthcare repeal voted for Senate tax bill
  • Insists ‘4% cut in Medicare that could go into effect will not go into effect’

The Republican Susan Collins, whose support was crucial in passing the Senate tax reform bill earlier this month, said on Sunday she has not yet decided if she will back the final measure negotiated by House and Senate leaders.

The Maine moderate has laid out conditions for her support of a final “conference committee” version of the tax proposal. They include assurances that Medicare payments will not be cut and that Republicans will support two healthcare bills aimed at reducing premium costs.

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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...

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...

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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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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Bannon says Trump will ‘blow up’ Obamacare as subsidies cut stokes fires

  • Moderate Collins and Democrat Murphy decry cut to low-income help
  • Trump responds to healthcare critics with claim ‘millions’ will benefit

A day after Steve Bannon seemed to confirm Donald Trump’s intent to destroy the Affordable Care Act (ACA), saying the president was “gonna blow that thing up”, a Republican senator who helped dynamite two Republican replacement bills said Trump was hurting American citizens.

Related: Steve Bannon renews call for war on Rep...

Trump responds to critics of healthcare order with claim ‘millions’ will benefit

The president tweeted Saturday that he’s ‘very proud’ of executive order, despite analysts, politicians and others saying millions of people would in fact suffer

Donald Trump on Saturday heralded his latest moves to undermine Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, tweeting that “millions of people” would benefit from his executive order on access to cheaper insurance and his scrapping of federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Related: 'He is failing': Trump strikes out solo as friends worry and enemies circle

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