Health Care Reform
News coverage, opinion and information on health care reform and health care policy including the Affordable Care Act.
House Democrats teed up a Thursday vote on their contentious drug-pricing bill by appealing to Republicans’ loyalty to President Trump, saying the effort echoes his 2016 rhetoric on government negotiation and his push to align prices with other countries’.
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Almost 10% of medical school students each year do not get a hospital residency, leaving thousands without the required training to work as physicians and contributing to a growing shortage of doctors in the U.S., medical education professionals say.
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It all started with a small cut on Rick Bright’s thumb, leaving what looked like a small white pimple on his finger.
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A federal judge Wednesday blocked the Trump administration’s rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide abortions and other procedures that violate their religious beliefs.
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Sen. Sherrod Brown on Wednesday predicted that the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee will ultimately support building on Obamacare, rather than eliminating private insurance in favor of a single-payer system.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday rolled out a plan to pay for “Medicare for All” that she says will not raise “taxes a penny on middle-class families” — pushing back against the critics who pressured her to be more upfront about the cost of her proposal, and challenging her rivals to prove they have something better to offer.
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Senate Democrats have taken three swings at undermining President Trump’s agenda this month — on climate, on tax reform, and on health care — and have missed each time.
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By Zeke Miller - Associated Press
The Trump administration has unveiled a website aimed at helping millions of Americans with substance abuse issues learn about and locate treatment options.
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President Trump’s administration is hitting back against Senate Democrats’ effort to keep Obamacare fully intact.
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Sen. Bernard Sanders said in a new interview that he plans to pay for “every nickel” of his universal “Medicare for All” health care system, but that he doesn’t think he has to provide an exact, detailed plan at the moment about how the proposal would affect individual Americans’ taxes.
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Senate Democrats said Monday they intend to force a floor vote this week to clamp down on the Trump administration’s efforts to give states an avenue to bypass certain requirements created by Obamacare.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren will have to raise taxes on middle-class families to fund her health care plans, a nonpartisan budget watchdog said Tuesday, countering her claims — but those families could still come out ahead, depending on how the system is restructured.
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By Julie Carr Smyth and Geoff Mulvihill - Associated Press
The nation’s three dominant drug distributors and a big drugmaker have reached a $260 million deal to settle a lawsuit related to the opioid crisis just as the first federal trial over the crisis was due to begin Monday.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she’ll fill in more details on how to pay for her “Medicare for All” health insurance proposal in the coming weeks, amid pressure from her 2020 Democratic presidential rivals to say whether middle-class taxes would have to go up under her plan.
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Wednesday said Sen. Elizabeth Warren needs to explicitly say how she plans to pay for her “Medicare for All” health care proposal and that Ms. Klobuchar is indeed “fighting” for her own, different ideas.
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If a President Bernard Sanders got his way, taxpayers could be on the hook for a staggering $97.5 trillion in new spending over the next decade, according to an analysis Tuesday of the White House hopeful’s plans.
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Taxpayers could have to shell out nearly $23 billion a year to provide Obamacare coverage to illegal immigrants, according to a new analysis being released Thursday that puts a high price tag on one of the Democratic presidential candidates’ top election promises.
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President Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at improving the Medicare program for seniors, hoping to redirect the 2020 campaign conversation from his failure to overhaul President Obama’s program to his step-by-step efforts to stamp out health crises and stiff-arm Democrats pushing government-run care.
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The Obama administration bungled its response to the nation’s opioid epidemic, according to a stunning inspector general’s report released Tuesday that says the Drug Enforcement Administration allowed painkiller production to soar even as deaths mounted.
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South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg starting airing a new presidential campaign ad in Iowa touting his plan to expand health care access across the country.
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Voters are more inclined to support a public health care option than trade their private insurance to “Medicare for All,” a plan touted by several Democratic presidential candidates, according to a new poll released on Monday.
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By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar - Associated Press
Putting her stamp on the health care issue that worries consumers the most, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan to lower drug prices for seniors on Medicare and younger people with private insurance.
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Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Thursday released a health care proposal he described as “Medicare for All Who Want It” that could put the country on a “glide-path” to a universal “Medicare for All” system.
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By Geoff Mulvihill - Associated Press
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and its owners expressed sympathy but not responsibility for the nation’s opioid crisis as the company filed for bankruptcy protection late Sunday night, part of a move to settle some 2,600 lawsuits — most from state and local governments.
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The long-awaited clash between former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and his far-left rivals finally occurred Thursday on the debate stage, with the two sides exchanging sharp jabs over health care.
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By Geoff Mulvihill and Dave Collins - Associated Press
Courtroom showdowns still face OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and the family that owns it, the Sacklers.
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With hundreds of thousands of Louisianians facing health insurance limbo, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards is fending off charges he created the chaos with raw political retribution.
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Sen. Bernard Sanders said Democratic presidential rival Sen. Kamala D. Harris has changed her views on health care, while arguing that a new proposal of his own amounts to a “clarification” in his “Medicare for All” vision.
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By Andrew Welsh-Huggins - Associated Press
State attorneys general and lawyers representing local governments said Tuesday they are in active settlement talks with Purdue Pharma, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin that is facing billions of dollars in potential liability for its role in the nation’s opioid crisis.
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Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden says in a new TV ad that Obamacare is “personal” to him, recounting his family history as he made the case for defending the law from people who want to “replace it and start over.”
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Former Sen. Harry Reid says Democratic presidential candidates’ focus on a “Medicare for All” health policy is a loser for the 2020 election — and so is the push to cancel criminal penalties for illegal immigrants who jump the border.
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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Tuesday released a plan intended to boost mental health care services in the U.S., as the subject gets renewed attention in the wake of the recent shootings in Texas and Ohio.
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When Sen. Bernard Sanders reintroduced his “Medicare for All” bill in the Senate in April, four of his fellow Democratic presidential hopefuls signed on with him, thrilling liberal activists who believed the universal health care proposal was becoming unstoppable.
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Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was told to “leave our health care system alone” by a 92-year-old woman during a campaign stop in Iowa on Monday.
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Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Friday unveiled a set of policies intended to boost health care access in rural communities, including new visa rules for immigrant doctors and expanded teleheath investments.
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Democratic presidential hopeful Tim Ryan on Tuesday said President Trump’s call for fixes to mental health laws after the weekend shootings in Texas and Ohio fly in the face of the Trump administration’s own position on Obamacare.
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Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday said he didn’t understand why some of the 2020 Democratic contenders are failing to defend Obamacare, notably its protections for people with pre-existing conditions, amid calls to move to a more far-reaching “Medicare for All” single-payer system.
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Author Marianne Williamson said after Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate that her position on “Medicare for All” is still evolving and that she questioned herself when she realized she had been putting herself on the same side of the issue as former Maryland Rep. John Delaney.
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Sen. Bernard Sanders on Monday said the new health care plan Sen. Kamala D. Harris offered is not “Medicare for All.”
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a coalition of Republican-run states last year in filing a lawsuit arguing that without the “individual mandate” penalty, which Congress stripped a year earlier, the rest of the Affordable Care Act couldn’t survive constitutional muster.
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The Trump administration announced new plans Monday to limit federal employees’ access to opioids, looking to lead by example in combating the painkiller epidemic.
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Sen. Kamala D. Harris introduced her own “Medicare for All” health proposal Monday, promising a kinder and gentler version of fellow 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernard Sanders’ health market takeover.
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The Senate Finance Committee advanced bipartisan legislation Thursday that would force drug makers to reimburse the Medicare prescription-drug program when they raise prices faster than the rate of inflation and would cap seniors’ out-of-pocket costs.
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In a new interview, Sen. Michael Bennet warned against getting dragged over a “cliff” by 2020 Democratic presidential rival Sen. Bernard Sanders and Mr. Sanders’ calls for a universal “Medicare for All” health care plan.
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By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar - Associated Press
Two senior senators — a Republican and a Democrat — unveiled compromise legislation Tuesday to reduce prescription drug costs for millions of Medicare recipients, while saving money for federal and state health care programs that serve seniors and low-income people.
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By Matthew Perrone - Associated Press
Dr. Raeford Brown was uniquely positioned to help the U.S. government answer a critical question: Is a new version of the painkiller OxyContin helping fight the national opioid epidemic?
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Sen. Kamala D. Harris said her “goal” is to enact a “Medicare for All” overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
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President Trump’s push to expand the use of “short-term” health plans that don’t have to comply with Obamacare’s coverage requirements has survived a major legal hurdle.
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A number of Democrats running in competitive congressional races recognize the Medicare for All plan that has electrified liberal activists could end up hurting them if their party’s presidential nominee is gung-ho about a single-payer health care plan.
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U.S. drug overdose deaths appear to have decreased for the first time in nearly three decades, according to preliminary data Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a first sign that the devastating opioid abuse crisis may be cresting.
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The House voted Wednesday to repeal Obamacare’s “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health insurance plans, doling out a win to labor unions and some employers while threatening to balloon deficits and remove a tool that economists favor as a way to control health spending.
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Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont says odds are that middle-class individuals and families will pay more in taxes to help fund his “Medicare for All” proposal, but the additional levy would be more than offset by the overall savings those same people would receive from doing away with annual health care premiums.
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By Mike Stobbe - Associated Press
U.S. overdose deaths last year likely fell for the first time in nearly three decades, preliminary statistics suggest.
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Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana said Wednesday he doesn’t support giving illegal immigrants health care, but said he would hope to address that issue as part of an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system.
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