Labor abandons Kyoto credits and highlights vehicle emissions in climate policy, as budget and election loom. All the day’s events, live
The Parliamentary Budget Office has released a report on the cost of Australia’s aging population.
It makes for dire reading. Part of the overview is below, but in short
In real dollar terms, this equates to an annual cost to the budget of around $36 billion by 2028–29. This is larger than the projected cost of Medicare in that same year.”
And it ends.
Main takeaways?
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Guardian World News
From victory to vengeance: Trump scents blood in 2020 fight
The president celebrated the Mueller report – but then his latest effort to invalidate Obamacare left some feeling he ‘stepped all over that message’
It felt like a victory lap. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday night, surrounded by a sea of red Make America Great Again hats, a defiant Donald Trump held the podium before a raucous crowd.
Related: Trump Fed pick was held in contempt for failing to pay ex-wife over $300,000
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Trump’s push to repeal Obamacare prompts Republican turmoil – live
- Key Republicans believe Trump’s plans make no sense
- President says FBI and DoJ to review Jussie Smollett case
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“I’ll take the usual please, Donald”:
The Fake News Media is going Crazy! They are suffering a major “breakdown,” have ZERO credibility or respect, & must be thinking about going legit. I have learned to live with Fake News, which has never been more corrupt than it is right now. Someday, I will tell you the secret!
Mexico is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country. They are all talk and no action. Likewise, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken our money for years, and do Nothing. The Dems don’t care, such BAD laws. May close the Southern Border!
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the day’s political news.
•Republicans are said to be in turmoil over the Donald Trump’s push for Obamacare to be dismantled in the courts. Vice-president Mike Pence and new attorney general Bill Barr are among the skeptics, according to the New York Times, with concerns that scrapping the Affordable Care Act could be a boon for Democrats in 2020. On Wednesday House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly told his colleagues that Trump’s push made no sense. McCarthy is holding his weekly press conference at 11.30am, and may elaborate.
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Judge blocks work requirements for Medicaid in Arkansas and Kentucky
Judge strikes blow to Trump administration, citing unresolved obstacles to getting healthcare in the states
A federal judge has ruled that Medicaid work requirements undermine the program’s mission of providing healthcare for the needy, dealing a blow to the Trump administration.
The US district judge James E Boasberg in Washington DC blocked work requirements for low-income people in two states, Arkansas and Kentucky, on Wednesday. He found that the states’ requirements pose numerous obstacles to getting healthcare that have gone unresolved by federal and state officials.
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Cost of x-rays and ultrasounds to drop under Coalition pledge to increase Medicare rebates
All ultrasound and diagnostic radiology services to be cheaper under plan
Patients who need x-rays and ultrasounds will end up paying less under a new Morrison government pledge to reduce out-of-pocket expenses for the services.
The health minister, Greg Hunt, announced on Sunday the government would expand indexation of Medicare payments to all ultrasound and diagnostic radiology services over three years from 1 July 2020 – for the first time in 20 years.
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Fox News condemns host Jeanine Pirro’s attack on Ilhan Omar – live
- Fox News host went after Omar for wearing hijab
- Network: ‘We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments’
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s advisers are skeptical to say the least about his potential presidential bid.
De Blasio, who traveled to South Carolina this weekend, has said he won’t rule out jumping into the already crowded 2020 Democratic primary field.
Donald Trump will be unveiling his proposal for the federal budget today.
The president’s budget doesn’t carry the weight that it once did, Reuters reports. Congress is expected to largely ignore it. The proposed budget for 2020 comes a month after its deadline, which the White House has blamed on the government shutdown.
Trump’s plan for the 2020 budget year will propose cuts to many domestic programs favored by lawmakers in both parties but leave alone politically popular retirement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
Washington probably will devote months to wrestling over erasing the last remnants of a failed 2011 budget deal that would otherwise cut core Pentagon operations by $71 billion and domestic agencies and foreign aid by $55 billion. Top lawmakers are pushing for a reprise of three prior deals to use spending cuts or new revenues and prop up additional spending rather than defray deficits that are again approaching $1 trillion.
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More than 2.5 million people have opted out of My Health Record
New figures show that during the three-month extension about 1.4 million people opted out
More than 2.5 million Australians have opted out of the My Health Record system, new figures show.
The figures, revealed in Senate estimates on Wednesday, show almost one in 10 Australians eligible for Medicare have opted out of the controversial system.
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Trump ‘unhappy’ with new shutdown deal – live updates
- Tentative deal includes $1.375bn for border security
- Schumer: ‘I urge President Trump to sign this agreement’
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A House vote on the border security deal to avoid another government shutdown could come as early as tomorrow according to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
Hoyer says Hse could vote on border security pkg "maybe as early as tomorrow"
A number of Democrats will unveil legislation on Wednesday that will allow people between the ages of 50-64 to buy into Medicare. The idea of expanding Medicare has long been popular among Democrats. There were past proposals to allow people over 55 to buy in and, on the left, Medicare for All has become a rallying cry.
A new name to add to your Democratic health proposal lexicon: “Medicare at 50.” pic.twitter.com/50kdCCp4MQ
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Trump gets ready for State of the Union address – live news
- Trump to give speech to hostile audience in House
- President aims for reboot and calls for American unity
Donald Trump is expected to pick Treasury Department official David Malpass to head the World Bank, Politico reports.
The choice is a clear sign the Trump administration is looking to rein in international financial institutions, according to Politico. Malpass has been critical of the World Bank, global organizations like it “have grown larger and more intrusive” and “the challenge of refocusing them has become urgent and more difficult.”
A top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told health insurance executives that Democratic leadership has deep reservations about single payer healthcare, the Intercept reports.
Wendell Primus, Pelosi’s top healthcare adviser, met with Blue Cross Blue Shield executives in December and told them Democrats were more focused on lowering prescription drug prices, rather than pushing for “Medicare for All” as some progressives would prefer.
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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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