Years of progress on health insurance enrollment halted abruptly in 2017 as Trump administration officials intentionally unplugged the policy machines that pushed the uninsured rate below 10 percent over the previous half-decade.
New Census Bureau figures on poverty released Wednesday show the uninsured rate held steady at 8.8 percent last year, marking the first failure to improve enrollment levels since at least 2013. Changes to Census data collection that year make comparisons to...
ThinkProgress
Roe v. Wade is on the ballot in Rhode Island
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND — State Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell (D) on Tuesday knocked on the door of a voter with a campaign sign for her opponent Holly Taylor Coolman, an anti-choice Democrat who ended up winning the state party’s support.
A middle-aged white woman answered and Ranglin-Vassell introduced herself to her neighbor: She’s a Jamaican immigrant who’s lived in the Providence for decades; she’s a high school teacher who’s made improving pu...
Inside Kevin de León’s quest to topple Dianne Feinstein, the queen of California
CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA — Kevin de León is cool in that way your dad is cool, which is to say he’d be insanely cool for the United States Senate. This particular Sunday, he’s sporting bright white Adidas sneakers, which are somehow scuffless even after the morning’s Central American independence parade. He’s wearing jeans; he left his tie at home.
De León is running late, but the 40 or so people gathered at a Persian restaurant in Claremont, California, are unbothered. When he ...
Bernie voters look for an incumbent upset in Rhode Island with progressive candidate Matt Brown
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND — Matt Brown has never met former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (D), but the Rhode Island gubernatorial candidate has managed to win over the Vermont senator’s base.
On Monday, Sanders-turned-Brown supporters walked 12 miles from North Kingstown to beach-town Narragansett in high wind and rain (thanks to Hurricane Florence) to canvas for the progressive underdog.
One of those supporters was 71-year-old Bob Rafael. The retiree was h...
How ‘Medicare for All’ became a rallying cry in California’s most conservative districts
ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA — “We have to make America mentshlekhkeyt again,” Rabbi Arnold Rachlisl declared with a grin at Sabbath service at University Synagogue in Irvine, California.
The rabbi was clearly proud of his joke. Mentshlekhkeyt means “humanity” or “human decency” in Yiddish, he explained to the crowd gathered at the synagogue.
Many in the congregation Friday evening had not been aware that the campaign event for Katie Porter would begin with a Shabbat ser...
Rahm Emanuel quits Chicago, but can the Democratic Party quit him?
On Tuesday, incumbent Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a surprise announcement: He would not, as many expected, seek a third term as mayor of Chicago. The shock announcement prompted radically different reactions. Working-class locals largely rejoiced at the news. The local business press, on the other hand, wore their frowns so tight that they risked pulling a muscle.
But while Emanuel may be retreating from public service after almost three decades, it remains an open question as...
Over 4,500 Arkansans have lost health coverage due to Medicaid work requirements
More than 4,500 low-income Arkansans lost their health insurance over the weekend because they did not report 80 hours of work online for three consecutive months, according state data.
The three-strikes law took affect in June, making Arkansas the first state to implement Medicaid work requirements in the country. Critics warned the law wouldn’t move Medicaid recipients “out of poverty” as Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) contends, but instead would kick people off coverag...
Delaware primary offers Democratic voters two diverging green visions for the future
Democratic voters in Delaware heading to the polls on Thursday will face a choice that has become increasingly familiar this primary season: casting a vote for a long-secure incumbent, or opting for a surging challenge from the left.
On environmental issues, that decision could be especially fraught, with both of the state’s Senate candidates offering competing green visions for the future.
Sen. Tom Carper, a former governor, has held his seat since 2001 and typically s...
Wildcard judge signals he’s doubtful Obamacare is legal without individual mandate
Legal scholars, even Obamacare’s loudest critics, believe the health law can stand without the individual mandate — and yet, a Texas federal judge appears to be skeptical.
Federal Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee and wildcard who’s ruled against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the past, listened to oral arguments Wednesday in Texas v. United States, the latest attempt to eliminate the 2010 health care law. O’Connor hasn’t formal...
The Delaware Senate primary could be the biggest get for progressives this primary season
From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York to Andrew Gillum in Florida, it’s been a primary season marked by progressive upsets — and Thursday’s Senate primary in Delaware could bring one more.
The openly LGBTQ Harris, like Ocasio-Cortez and Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who took down Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA) in Massachusetts this week, is another younger woman of color aiming to topple an older white incumbent. She, too, has presented a full-throated progr...