New York recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will continue to be eligible for state-funded Medicaid — regardless if DACA is terminated.
“Information you give us will not be shared,” according to the website of the state’s health insurance marketplace NY State of Health. A common fear among undocumented immigrants is that their information could be shared with the Trump administration if they seek health insurance.
La...
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Oregon voters to decide whether to tax insurers and hospitals to keep low-income people covered
There’s never been a ballot measure asking voters to weigh funding for the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion until Oregon’s. On Tuesday, voters statewide will decide whether to keep taxing insurance companies and hospitals to pay for health insurance or tell the state legislature to return to the drawing board and think of something else.
Expanding Medicaid coverage to all people living in poverty has been a decades-long priority for Oregon. But coveri...
This is what happens when you trust Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell managed to convince Senate Democrats to vote to fund the government on Monday on the strength of his word. Based on even his recent track record, that word is worth very little.
McConnell said Monday, before a vote to fund the government through February 8, that he would take up legislation to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Donald Trump rescinded last year. McConnell promised to do so if there w...
42 people now own the same amount of wealth as the bottom 3.7 billion people in the world
Last year saw the biggest increase in the number of billionaires in history — a new one every two days — bringing the number of global billionaires to 2,043. Nine out of 10 of them are men, according to new report from Oxfam released Monday, which details the ways global inequality thrived in 2017.
Last year, the wealth of that elite group increased by $762 billion, enough to end global poverty seven times over, and between 2006 and 2015, according to Oxfam, ordinary wor...
Call for pitches: Economic Policy
ThinkProgress is looking for freelance pitches on the real world impacts of economic policy on the everyday lives of Americans.
The decisions made by lawmakers on issues like tax credits, the minimum wage, health care mandates, or paid leave can mean a life of wealth and dignity for some and one of deprivation and hardship for others.
We want stories about the human side of these issues. Tell us about the importance of social safety net programs — like welfare, Medicai...
The government just shut down. Here’s how it happened.
Many federal government agencies and services officially shut down midnight Saturday, after the Senate rejected a short-term spending bill that would have funded the government through Feb. 16.
The first government shutdown since 2013 came after months of confusing and contradictory statements by President Donald Trump, often on Twitter, and an unwillingness by Republicans to include legislation to protect “DREAMers.” Roughly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U....
Trump’s beliefs about diet and exercise could make Americans sick
On Wednesday, White House physician Ronny L. Jackson revealed the results of President Donald Trump’s physical exam. His very high LDL cholesterol level, despite a prescription for a cholesterol-lowering drug, and a reported weight that put him one pound shy of being obese for his height, caused outside experts to show concern for the president’s health.
Jackson instead lauded Trump’s eyesight, cognitive abilities, and heart function, praising Trump’s genes.<...
CHIP isn’t the only health program Congress has failed to fund
It’s been 110 days since Congress failed to refinance the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that insures nine million kids nationwide. And the same is true for community health centers, which provide health care services to 27 million patients nationwide.
As members of Congress continue to wrangle over legislative details ahead of the potential government shutdown, federally-qualified health clinics, CHIP kids, and Dreamers are all caught in the middle; although...
Trump health care nominee reportedly padded his resume then blamed it on a tornado
Robert Weaver, the Trump administration’s nominee to head the Indian Health Service, may have misrepresented his employment at a Missouri hospital, according to a report Friday in The Wall Street Journal.
Weaver, 39, is a member of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma. The White House announced his nomination last October, saying he would bring “nearly two decades of experience in hospital, mental health administration, and entrepreneurship” to IHS.
Weaver reportedl...
Dear American right-wing media, ‘socialism’ isn’t to blame for the NHS crisis. Austerity is.
Britain’s National Health Service is in crisis.
The publicly-funded healthcare system, which has been part-and-parcel of British life since its foundation in 1948, has faced its worst winter crisis in more than 30 years. A combination of a severe flu outbreak, cold weather, an aging population, and high levels of respiratory disease has left the system near breaking point.
Patients have spoken of 12-hour waits at emergency rooms, ambulances have been left queuing outsid...