Trump attacks McCain and other Republicans over healthcare failure

  • President says veteran Republican senator has ‘let Arizona down’
  • McCain seemed to have dashed GOP hopes of repealing Obamacare

Donald Trump went on the attack on Twitter on Saturday morning over the latest failure of the Republican-controlled Senate to pass healthcare reform.

Related: 'All hands on deck': protesters to target healthcare bill at rallies across US

Continue reading...

McCain says no on healthcare | The minute

  • Arizona senator says he can’t vote for Republican plan to replace Obamacare… DeVos scraps Obama rules on investigating campus assault… and more
  • Get the day’s politics news in 60 seconds every weekday. By Tom McCarthy

Senator John McCain said the latest Republican plan to dismantle Barack Obama’s healthcare law did not pass his test for “regular order” and he would be voting no, likely ruining the bill’s chances for passing.

McCain’s chance to do the right thing

I take no pleasure in announcing my opposition. Far from it. The bill’s authors are my dear friends and I think the world of them.

– Senator John McCain

Continue reading...

Jimmy Kimmel: TV host emerges as unlikely leader in fight to save Obamacare

Republicans are pushing again to tear up Obama’s health plan – but the man once regarded as a lightweight on late-night is fast becoming a powerful GOP foe

For a second night in a row, the late-night talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel dedicated his opening monologue to excoriating a US senator who represents one half of a renewed push to tear up the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Related: Late-night TV: 'Republicans have 10 days to overhaul healthcare – or everybody lives!'

Continue reading...

Lindsey Graham: ‘I’ve never felt better’ about chances of Obamacare repeal

  • Sponsor of last-gasp legislation bullish about Republican healthcare bill
  • Republicans racing to secure 50 votes before 30 September deadline

The Republican sponsor of a last-gasp effort to tear down the Affordable Care Act said on Tuesday that he has “never felt better” about the chances of repealing the 2010 law.

The new bill, authored by senators Lindsey Graham – who expressed his optimism – and Bill Cassidy, comes as the White House and GOP leaders push for a showdown vote on the repeal package by the end of the month.

Continue reading...

Last-gasp Republican effort to repeal Obamacare gains momentum

  • Chuck Schumer issues ‘red alert’ ahead of 30 September deadline
  • Senate plan would divert Medicaid funding and tax credits to states

A handful of Republican senators are attempting to revive the healthcare repeal effort that appeared all but dead and buried when Congress left Washington for the summer.

The last-gasp effort is gaining momentum on Capitol Hill as Republicans confront a narrowing window in which to dismantle Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) on a party-line vote.

Continue reading...

Medicare details sold on darknet not obtained by hacking but from ‘legitimate channel’

Details from Medicare offered on auction site came from a ‘bad person doing a bad thing’, Senate inquiry hears

Medicare details sold on the darknet were not obtained through hacking but by a “bad person doing a bad thing from a legitimate channel,” a Senate inquiry has heard.

Guardian Australia revealed in July that Medicare card details were offered for sale on a darknet auction site and that the vendor, provided with a journalist’s name and date of birth, was able to produce the requested Medicare number for a fee of 0.0089 bitcoin, or US$22.

Continue reading...

Trump: Bernie Sanders’ universal healthcare plan a ‘curse’ on Americans

President says he would veto senator’s Medicare for All single-payer plan, prompting quick rebuke from Sanders

Donald Trump on Thursday called Bernie Sanders’ universal healthcare plan a “curse on the US & its people” and promised to veto it if it ever landed on his desk.

Related: Bernie Sanders unveils universal healthcare bill: 'We will win this struggle'

Continue reading...

Sanders: Republican party has ‘no credibility’ on healthcare – video

Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders slammed Republicans on Wednesday as he unveiled legislation that would expand the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly to all Americans. ‘To my Republican colleagues, please don’t lecture us on healthcare,’ Sanders said at an event on Capitol Hill. ‘You, the Republican Party, have no credibility on the issue of healthcare’

Continue reading...

My Health patient data will be safe despite Medicare breach, GPs say

RACGP has told a Senate inquiry layers of security will help prevent breaches such as the theft of Medicare numbers that were sold on the darknet

The breach of Medicare data that resulted in patient card numbers being sold on the darknet should not have any significant implications for the government rollout of My Health Record, says the peak body for general practitioners

My Health Record will involve patient’s health information being uploaded to an online database.

Continue reading...

Medicare data breach: government response ‘contemptible’, says former AFP officer

Nigel Phair says response to patient information being sold on dark web means fewer people ‘will trust government with their health details’

The federal government’s response to a Medicare data breach that led to patient details being sold on the dark web was “disappointing, confusing and often contemptible,” according to a former detective who headed the Australian federal police’s investigations into high-tech crime.

Nigel Phair, now an adjunct professor at the University of Canberra’s Centre for Internet Safety, told a Senate inquiry the government’s response to data breach concerns meant “less and less people will trust the government with their health details”.

Continue reading...