Photo by 401kcalculator.org, published under Creative Commons license
Both the House and Senate Republican Anti-Health Care proposals give big tax cuts to wealthy Americans and slash even bigger amounts of money from health care for lower and middle-income Americans. Continue reading
Filed under health care, health insurance
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Jessica Valenti had a premature baby. She says the Republican plan to let insurance companies bring back lifetime caps on coverage would be a disaster:
“In September 2010, a new provision of the Affordable Care Act banned health insurance plans from applying lifetime limits on essential care. Layla was born in August. And so it was just sheer luck that our health insurance at the time did not have a lifetime cap. If it had, Layla would have blown through that ceiling in the first weeks of her life—we would have gone bankrupt trying to save her.
“Care for a premature baby can cost literally millions of dollars, and before the ACA, it wasn’t uncommon for families with preemies to end up financially devastated. In the new bill, the text of which was just released today, that lifetime cap comes back. I’ve always wondered how it is that Republicans who call themselves pro-life could support financial ruin for parents who simply want to keep their babies alive.”
Filed under health care, health insurance
Photo by Images Money, used under Creative Commons license
So Republicans want to cut Medicaid? Who cares?
Lots of people, as it turns out. Those hurt by proposed Medicaid cuts include people with disabilities, babies, nursing home residents, women getting primary care through Planned Parenthood clinics, schools, and state governments. Continue reading
Filed under health care, health insurance
Both the Senate and House Anti-Health Care Acts allow sates to waive the essential benefits provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Vox’s Sarah Kiff explains: “This means that plans in the individual market could once again decide not to cover maternity care — like 88 percent of plans did before the Affordable Care Act passed.” Continue reading
Filed under health care, health insurance
Photo by Images Money, published under Creative Commons license.
Republicans are singing a new song since failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act in March. The flurry of verses includes ending basic benefits, charging sick people higher premiums, and destroying the current system through uncertainty. With apologies to Paul Simon, their song sounds something like this:
The problem is all inside your head, he said to me,
but there’s no coverage for your therapy.
The answer is easy if you post a GoFundMe,
There must be fifty ways to kill your health care.
Raise that deductible, Jill, and premiums, too, Lou,
No more Medicaid, babe, just listen to me.
So I repeat myself, at the risk of being cruel
There must be fifty ways to kill your healthcare.
Filed under health care, health insurance, Tracking Trump
Photo by 401Kcalculator.org, published under Creative Commons license
Maybe you thought that the defeat of the Republican health care act meant safety for a while? And that we could turn our attention to other battles? Not so fast. The Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — is still under attack, at both the federal and state level. Continue reading
Filed under health care, health insurance, Uncategorized
Photo by takao goto, published under Creative Commons license.
“It’s a good morning for Americans,” Congresswoman Betty McCollum told the Town Hall meeting on Saturday morning. She had flown back to St. Paul for the March 25 meeting after the defeat yesterday of the latest Republican attempt to kill Obamacare. And she was clear about how that happened: “The credit for the victory belongs to you — to the citizens, the millions and millions of citizens, because their engagement, their mobilization and their determination created an avalanche of opposition to President Trump’s health care bill.”
Filed under health care, health insurance, organizing
All these conditions could be excluded from health insurance coverage under Republican legislation.
Minnesota Republicans want to free health insurance companies from providing any benefits: “Notwithstanding any state or federal law to the contrary, a health plan company may offer health plans that do not include federally required health benefit mandates.” As I read it, this would allow insurance companies to refuse to pay for vaccinations or valve replacements, for contraceptives or cancer treatment. Insurance companies would be free to pick and choose what they cover and what they exclude – and who they cover, and who they exclude for pre-existing conditions or any other reason. That’s in the bill passed by the Minnesota House of Representatives on January 19. Continue reading
Filed under health care, health insurance
When Lisa and Ryan Grassley brought baby Samuel home from the hospital, they laughed at one part of the bill: $39.35 for “skin to skin after C-Sec,” the charge for the privilege of holding their baby after delivery. The charge exemplifies the convoluted system of charges and record-keeping made necessary by the insurance industry system of payment for U.S. health care. In contrast, the BBC reports, “The average cost for a normal delivery or planned Caesarean section in the NHS in England in 2016 is £1755 [$2168], rising to £2582 [$3199] if there are complications.” Both charges are far below the cost of hospital delivery in the United States. And both represent the total cost — without need for a complicated breakdown of charges for everything from aspirin to diapers to holding the baby. Continue reading
Filed under health care, health insurance
Senator John Marty has a single-payer plan for Minnesota health care. (Photo by Senate Media Services)
John Marty wants to make Minnesota a leader in real single payer health care. In a new book, Healing Health Care (free, available on-line), he outlines many of the problems with our current, insurance-controlled health care system and proposes an alternative, the Minnesota Health Plan. Continue reading
Filed under health care, health insurance
Mary Turck
News Day 