NBC News is reporting that Trump’s bodyguard basically “raided” his personal doctor’s office and stole all Trump’s medical records. In February 2017, a top White House aide who was Trump’s longtime personal bodyguard, along with the top lawyer at the Trump Organization and a third man, showed up at the office of Trump’s New York doctor without notice and took … Read More
Van Slams Into Toronto Pedestrians; Possible Terrorist Attack
Police have arrested a suspect after a white van mounted the curb and struck numerous pedestrians in Toronto. The incident happened on Yonge Street south of Finch Avenue around 1:30 p.m. today. A suspect was arrested beside the van on Poyntz Avenue off of Yonge, just south of Sheppard Avenue West. The van is marked as belonging to the rental … Read More
The Wishful Thinking Solution To The Opioid Crisis
Call it Just-Say-No 2.00. Trump declared a war on the opioid crisis: President Trump on Thursday directed the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency, taking long-anticipated action to address a rapidly escalating epidemic of drug use. He didn’t fulfill his campaign promise of making it a “national emergency” because that would have real-world … Read More
Trump Gets The Healthcare Bill He’s Been Clamoring For, But Now He Doesn’t Want It
Truth is, Trump never wanted to fix Obamacare. He said it was dead, and now he’s going to kill it. But the bill in question is a modest one. The compromise offered by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) yesterday gives a bit to both sides but does not fundamentally alter the Affordable Care Act. For Democrats, the … Read More
Trump Sabotage Of Obamacare In Full Swing
Remember the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it. The gutting of Obamacare continues, and it’s serious: President Donald Trump plans to cut off subsidy payments to insurers selling Obamacare coverage in his most aggressive move yet to undermine his predecessor’s health care law. The subsidies, which are worth an estimated $7 billion this year and are paid … Read More
BREAKING: Graham-Cassidy Looks Dead
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) just announced that he will vote against the latest GOP effort to repeal ObamaCare, potentially dooming the legislation. He joints Rand Paul (R-Ky) in being against the bill. BREAKING: McCain says in statement, “I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal.” — Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) September 22, 2017 If both stick to their word, then the bill … Read More
Quick Thought About Graham-Cassidy
Literally nobody in the health insurance industry likes this bill. Literally nobody in the health care industry likes this bill. The chaos and misery it would unleash are practically undebatable. So why are they doing this? Two reasons, I think. (1) Sanders and others have been talking about, and getting endorsements for, “Medicare For All” (i.e. universal health). For Graham and others, this screams … Read More
Graham-Cassidy May Be The Worst ACA Repeal-and-Replace Bill Of Them All
There is no ambiguity about the terms of the Graham-Cassidy bill. It would roll back the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid, which has enabled about fourteen million Americans to obtain health-care coverage. Then it would subject the rest of Medicaid to substantial cuts by converting it to a block-grant program. By targeting the low-paid, the sick, and the infirm, … Read More
It Happened Last Night
It was dramatic. Even for 1 a.m. But…. …it appears that any chance of repealing (and replacing?) the Affordable Care Act died last night as Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins were joined by John McCain in opposing the Senate’s “skinny repeal” bill. Here’s how it went down. Yesterday afternoon, the Senate voted against a straight repeal of the Affordable Care … Read More
BIG Vote Today On Something That Nobody Knows What It Is
In a few hours, Senate Republicans will vote whether to start debate on a plan to overhaul American health care, without knowing exactly what is in that plan or, by extension, how it will change the lives of millions of Americans. There are few, if any, comparable examples of a bill with such wide-reaching consequences, being voted on so abruptly, with so … Read More
Trumpcare Declared Dead But GOP Not Finished Screwing America
So this happened: My colleague @JerryMoran and I will not support the MTP to this version of BCRA #HealthcareBill — Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) July 18, 2017 Republican senator from Kansas and his Republican colleague from Utah said “no” to the GOP plan to replace Obamacare. This comes even before the CBO had scored it, but it would have resulted in … Read More
Healthcare Update
Yesterday was a strange news day and not just because of the Trump’s tweets about Morning Joe. I want to cover much of it, and it is going to take a couple of posts. First, healthcare. The Senate Health Care bill looks dead. McConnell wanted to get the Senate bill, BCRA, passed before the July 4 extended break. He wanted … Read More
How’s “Energy Week” Going?
The White House said this was “Energy Week”, but it just seems to be more bad-news-on-healthcare week. The Ashford Zone’s correspondent*, Amy Da Luz is in Raleigh outside Senator Burr’s office at an anti-BCRA rally. It is a pretty decent turnout. * She doesn’t know she’s our correspondent. By the way, I wrote something large on Facebook which I will … Read More
Senate Health Care Bill Off Fast Track
It looks like BHCA (the Better Health Care Act, which isn’t) is not going to be voted on before the July 4 break, as Senator McConnell had hoped. I don’t see how he thought he could put such a terrible bill through committee, without hearings, without almost no debate, without amendments, and get a vote passed. The horrible CBO score … Read More
Breaking: The Senate Health Care Bill Gets Scored
The House Bill said 23 million would lose insurance under the House GOP plan to replace Obamacare. Now the Senate version has been scored and it is…. just as bad. The Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of people without health insurance by 22 million by 2026, a figure that is only slightly lower than the 23 … Read More