Congressional Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration explain how it will improve Obamacare’s insurance exchanges, after a federal watchdog found current efforts lacking, buttressing their case that the administration is sabotaging the health law.
“The nation’s health department, which has the self-identified objective of ‘improving Americans’ access to health care,’ should not be working against the interests of patients and families and their goals of obtaining quality, affordable health insurance,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter Monday to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma.
The letter was signed by Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and by Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J… Read More at the Washington Examiner
A number of Democratic gubernatorial and senatorial candidates from across the country have been stumping for single-payer healthcare as part of their 2018 midterm election platforms. Voters are now closely divided on whether the federal government should provide healthcare for everyone even though most believe their personal taxes will increase as a result.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 43% of Likely U.S. Voters now favor a single-payer healthcare system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone, but just as many (43%) oppose it. Support for single-payer is down from a high of 48% in September, while opposition is up from an all-time low of 36% in the same survey… Read More at Rasmussen Reports
The ObamaCare premium wars are back.
The cost of health insurance plans on the ObamaCare exchanges could jump in the coming weeks, some by double digits, inflaming the issue ahead of the midterm elections.
Democrats argue the price increases are the result of what they refer to as “Republican sabotage.” They contend that, since the GOP controls Congress and the White House, the price hikes are their responsibility — and that’s the message they plan to take into the fall campaign.
Read More at The Hill
America has a health-insurance problem because politicians would rather lie about it than solve it.
ObamaCare regulations caused premiums for people buying their own insurance to more than double between 2013 and 2017, then soar even higher in 2018. With huge hikes predicted again in 2019, ObamaCare will have caused premiums to triple in six years. Ouch. But instead of telling the truth about why this is happening, politicians are dishing out lies.
Read More at New York Post
Just when Americans thought the Obamacare repeal effort was dead and buried, President Donald Trump has exhumed it. The president says he wants a deal on health care before moving on to tax reform and other priorities. The White House is pushing for another vote on a new bill in the coming days.
The trouble is, Trump hasn’t publicly demonstrated an ability to add or subtract provisions, or assemble a bipartisan coalition, to make a good deal happen.
Seven vulnerable Republican lawmakers are being targeted with $1 million in television spots by a liberal group backed by labor and progressive interests. The ads generally focus on the lawmakers’ apparent support for the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the failed House bill that was designed to replace the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. The ad tries to capitalize on the interesting shift in public sentiment about Obamacare, suddenly more popular as it has come under legislative assault by the Trump administration.
Reminder: Republicans are struggling to mend a system that’s badly broken.
Hillary Clinton was conspicuously quiet about Obamacare in the final weeks of the election, and for good reason. One week before Election Day, the law’s fourth open-enrollment period began, accompanied by a wave of policy cancellations and rate hikes. After analyzing published prices from every state, the New York Times’ Upshot blog confirmed on November 4: “Average Obamacare insurance rates really are going up by 22 percent.”
“You bet I voted for that bill. I’m proud I did it!” yelled Russ Feingold at a Wisconsin campaign stop in 2010. That pride—in ObamaCare—lost the three-term Democratic senator his job. Now his party’s ownership of the health-care law may once again decide the Senate.
ObamaCare is roaring back as a political liability to Democrats in a way not seen since that 2010 wave election. Right in time for this fall’s presidential contest, insurers are bailing out of the government system, leaving millions of voters with dwindling options and skyrocketing premiums. ObamaCare was always destined to crack up, but there is something notable that it comes precisely as so much control of Washington is up for grabs.
Endangered Democrats in the midterm elections continue to distance themselves from Obamacare while President Barack Obama celebrates hitting the 7 million sign-up mark by the March deadline.
