For rural America, Medicare for All is a matter of life or death | Barb Kalbach

Insurance firms are gobbling up airtime in Iowa to attack Medicare for All. They claim it would hurt the very same hospitals their business model has spent years bleeding dry

Rural hospitals are often the economic heart of a community. Worse, when minutes mean the difference between life and death, every hospital that closes leaves patients in danger. Since 2010, 113 rural hospitals have closed their doors, leaving more than 30 million Americans an hour or more away from critical car...

Why Planned Parenthood was right to refuse federal funding | Moira Donegan

The Trump administration put Planned Parenthood in an untenable position – and the organization made the moral choice to walk away

The Trump administration expanded its assault on women’s rights this week, engineering the loss of birth control and other reproductive healthcare coverage for millions of low income women.

On Monday, the administration’s Title X gag rule went into effect, barring any provider who performs abortions or even provides referrals for them from receiving...

Trump officials to deny green cards to those who use Medicaid or food stamps

  • Rules detail broad range of programs to disqualify applicants
  • Officials say they only want migrants who are ‘self-sufficient’

The Trump administration is moving forward with one of its most aggressive steps yet to restrict legal immigration, denying green cards to many migrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance, officials said announced Monday.

Related: Trump officials weaken protections for animals near ext...

Jeffrey Epstein: officials await more information before releasing cause of death – live

  • Multimillionaire financier was facing sex trafficking charges
  • Donald Trump on vacation with no public events scheduled
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2.42pm BST

According to the Urban Institute, 1 in 7 adults in immigrant families are eschewing public benefits out of fear that it could affect their chances of getting a green card.

Respondents of the organization’s survey reported choosin...

Democratic debates: Sanders and Warren clash with moderates over healthcare – live

Sanders tells John Delaney ‘you’re wrong’ about Medicare for all while Warren describes a man with ALS struggling to pay his medical bills

1.37am BST

Jake Tapper has so far been vigilant about keeping candidates to the time limits that CNN is trying to enforce.

That technique may help each candidate receive a more proportionate time of camera attention, but it has also made for a choppy debate with candidates repeatedly...

Bernie Sanders’ ideas are shaping the 2020 debate – but is he still a force?

The diverse Democratic field is a contrast from 2016 but the leftwing firebrand believes Medicare for All can dent his rivals’ hopes

Gruff, iconoclastic and relentlessly on-message, Bernie Sanders thrilled the progressive left when he ran for president in 2016 and came within striking distance of capturing the Democratic nomination.

Related: Al Franken: senators say they regret calling for his resignation

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Trump’s real 2020 weakness: healthcare | Lloyd Green

The Affordable Care Act – AKA Obamacare – is more popular than Trump and the Republican party realize. They’ve opened themselves to an ambush

Unemployment and inflation are low. America growls, but its sword is sheathed. Donald Trump should be preaching peace and prosperity. Instead, the president appears determined to make his re-election bid about healthcare and relitigate the 2018 midterms. If past is prelude, that tale doesn’t come with a happy ending for Trump or his party.

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Democratic debates: Sanders, Biden and Harris among candidates set to clash – live

The second debate of the 2020 primary season features big hitters and up-and-comers such as Pete Buttigieg

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11.39pm BST

“For all the unprecedented scale and diversity of the massive number of candidates vying for presidential nomination of the Democratic party, they can be sheeplike in their herd behavior,” write my colleagues Ed Pilkington and Lauren Gambi...

Democratic debates: 2020 candidates go head to head in first test of primaries – live

Ten Democrats will debate each other tonight – will they attack the party’s frontrunner, Joe Biden, or sell their own vision for the future?

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11.45pm BST

In terms of what we can expect our diez Democrats to discuss tonight, the DNC has promised questions about the climate crisis, which were conspicuously absent from the presidential debates in 2016.

...

Watch Elizabeth Warren blast Biden for his stance on abortion funding

‘We do not pass laws that take away freedom from women who are most vulnerable’ Warren said, in speech against Hyde amendment

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren delivered a scorching criticism of her fellow candidate in the 2020 election and former vice-president, Joe Biden, and his continued support for the Hyde amendment, a provision of federal law that restricts abortion access for poor and disabled women on public health insurance.

The Hyde amendment bars th...