Depending on which news organization you look at, if the Republicans lose 22 or 23 votes, the AHCA is dead in the House. The voting is taking place today, and the bill is changing with little giftees for certain districts. Here is a wrap-up of where we are so far on the vote count, but pay close attention to the … Read More
Speed Read: The House Obamacare Replacement Bill
From Axios: The House Republican Obamacare replacement package is finally out, and the two main health care committees — Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce — are scheduled to start working on the bills on Wednesday. Here’s your speed read on what’s in them — summaries are available here and here: In: Pre-existing condition coverage Continuous coverage — 30 … Read More
Draft Republican Plan Leaked
Politico has obtained a draft bill from House Republicans for Obamacare repeal. The draft closely follows proposals put forward by House Speaker Paul Ryan and the proposal Tom Price introduced last year. He’s now popular vote loser Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. It defunds Planned Parenthood completely. For everybody. No matter what they visit PP for. But … Read More
NOW They Are Asking What Would Happen If Obamacare Is Repealed
Winning is easy; governing is hard. It is easy to get people – especially Republicans — to hate Obamacare. For one thing, it has the name of the 44th President attached to it. That alone gets many people to dislike it. On top of that, it DOES have many problems. Rates this past year jumped bigly, and many plans now … Read More
SCOTUS Strikes Down Oppressive Abortion Restrictions
This morning, the Supreme Court struck down parts of a restrictive Texas law that could have reduced the number of abortion clinics in the state to about 10 from what was once a high of roughly 40. The 5-to-3 decision was the court’s most sweeping statement on abortion rights since Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992. It applied a skeptical … Read More
Two Million Pregnant Women At Risk For Zika Virus
So far, the GOP-controlled House has offered a mere $622 million in Zika funding — far less than what will be needed to meaningfully combat the virus. It’s unclear when Congress may reach an agreement on this issue before its long summer recess. And according to an analysis by the Center For American Progress, this delay could be putting about … Read More
Disease Of The Week
It’s called dementia with Lewy’s Bodies, and Robin Williams. So says his widow, citing the cause of his suicide. It wasn’t depression that caused the suicide, so much as the dementia with Lewy’s Bodies which caused the depressions which caused the suicide. I have to be honest here: Is attribution to a physical illness merely a way to make a mental … Read More
Uninsured State By State
From tomorrow’s New York Times, this remarkable map shows the percent uninsured in each state under Obamacare. The states which elected to expand Medicare coverage are outlined in bold, and you can see the difference. Compare, say, Arkansas in 2015 to its southern neighbors which did not expand Medicare coverage.
First Human Trials On An HIV Vaccine Start Today
Researchers may be one step closer to creating an HIV vaccine. This month, the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore launched the first phase of clinical trials for a new treatment. The immunogen, known as the Full-Length Single Chain (FLSR), could potentially induce protective antibody responses to HIV-1 strains, going where previous … Read More
Tales Of The One Percenters
Honestly. What is it going to take for the people and/or the government to throw these rich bastards in jail? No, not for being rich, but for, you know, breaking laws and regulations that effect the lives of actual people…. when?!? Case Study Number One: Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned Wednesday as a growing scandal over falsified emissions tests … Read More
Planned Parenthood, the Abortion Debate, and 2016 Elections
There is very little to recommend being over the age of 50, but one of the nice things is that it gives perspective and wisdom — the kind of experience that can’t be taught, but can only come from having lived several decades. There is one thing I have learned – abortion rights are not going away. That wasn’t always … Read More
This Says It All
Obama Derangement Syndrome: Atlanta resident Ted Souris, 62, describes himself as an “arch-conservative” who initially opposed the health law. He said he had mixed feelings about the ruling. He receives what he calls “a pretty hefty subsidy” to buy insurance — he gets $460 and pays $115 a month for insurance. “I’m so against Obama, and I hate that he … Read More
Obamacare Subsidies Upheld By SCOTUS
I’m actually not that surprised at the outcome. The surprising thing was that the Supreme Court ever took this case in the first place. But the US Supreme Court upheld the challenge to Obamacare. The opinion is here. In layman’s terms, the issue surrounded some (arguably) vague language in the Affordable Care Act relating to the federal government providing financial … Read More
Will America’s Uninsured Rate Go To Single Digits?
No major survey has ever found that the uninsured rate in America has hit single digits. Ever. But a new survey from the Urban Institute’s Health Reform Monitoring Survey, a quarterly survey of non-elderly Americans, says that 10.0% of nonelderly adults were uninsured. That’s down from 17.8% in September 2013, before the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges first launched. And in fact, … Read More