My mom is 97 years old and has severe dementia. She has been in a memory care unit for three years. My mom loved reading, loved book, but now can’t recognize even one written word. She can’t hold a conversation or count past one.
And mom has outlived her live savings.
The skilled nursing care she is receiving is being paid for by Medicaid. So if the present GOP health care bill becomes law, Medicaid will be cut. Continue reading “What will happen to my mom?”
The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website July 5, 2017:
As the Senate gears up to vote on the GOP bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, the White House is publishing statistics to criticize the current health law. The White House published a “Repeal and Replace Obamacare” website, rife with numbers and graphics, and is posting various statistics through its Twitter account.
We always say numbers are like catnip for fact-checking — and it’s especially so when it comes to health care, a regular topic of interest at Fact Checker. So we looked into the recent spin on health-care figures from the White House. As readers will see, in most instances, the White House used accurate figures but characterized them in misleading ways or out of context. Continue reading “Decoding the White House spin on Obamacare ‘failures’”
The following article by Lisa Mascaro was posted on the Los Angeles Times website June 30, 2017:
President Trump’s surprise suggestion Friday that deadlocked Senate Republicans shift their focus to simply repealing Obamacare — and worry about replacing it later — has its roots in a Koch network proposal that has been shopped around Congress for months.
The influential Koch network, backed by the billionaire industrialists, floated the idea most recently at a retreat last weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo., where key conservative lawmakers heard an earful from frustrated GOP donors about the party’s failure to deliver on their signature campaign promise.
Among those attending the gathering at the luxurious Broadmoor Hotel was Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has been working with the White House behind the scenes on the idea. Continue reading “GOP’s Plan B for Obamacare — repeal first, replace later — began with quiet push from Koch network”
The following article by Rockford Lhotka was posted on the Medium.com website June 26, 2017:
This is an open letter to all compassionate conservatives. Republicans who care about their families, their communities, their states, and their country. But in particular, conservatives who care about other people.
Do you get your health insurance through your employer? Do you think this makes you immune to the ACHA, because “it only affects the poor and unemployed”?
You are wrong. It affects EVERYONE who might get sick or get old.
If you and your loved ones will never get sick or old, then you can stop reading now.
Continue reading “Open letter to all compassionate conservatives on the ACHA”
Kim Soffen with the Washington Post has written an article with the above title posted on the Washington Post website June 24, 2017. It has great charts showing the Senate GOP’s healthcare bill’s impact on people across the country. With all the charts, it’s difficult to reproduce here. So, we’re providing a link to their post.
The following article by Margot Sanger-Katz was posted on the New York Times website June 22, 2017:
The Affordable Care Act gave health insurance to millions of Americans by shifting resources from the wealthy to the poor and by moving oversight from states to the federal government. The Senate bill introduced Thursday pushes back forcefully on both dimensions.
The bill is aligned with long-held Republican values, advancing states’ rights and paring back growing entitlement programs, while freeing individuals from requirements that they have insurance and emphasizing personal responsibility. Obamacare raised taxes on high earners and the health care industry, and essentially redistributed that income — in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies — to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades. Continue reading “Shifting Dollars From Poor to Rich Is a Key Part of the Senate Health Bill”
The following article by Meghan Davy Sandvold was posted on the Eden Prairie News website June 22, 2017:
EDEN PRAIRIE — Faith leaders and constituents of District 3 recently gathered outside U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen’s Eden Prairie office. They said they were mourning the potential deaths of those who may not be alive for long if significant changes are made to their health care plans.
Clergy and faith leaders from Congressional District 3 gathered outside of Paulsen’s oce at 250 Prairie Center Drive in Eden Prairie, on Wednesday, June 21, to raise awareness of the impact the proposed American Health Care Act could have on thousands of Minnesotans. Continue reading “Paulsen constituents concerned over healthcare future”
The following fact check article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website June 19, 2017:
While Obamacare was under consideration, McConnell had strong words for the Democratic majority’s tactics, criticizing them for going ‘the partisan route.’ Now, he seems to be using them. (Video: Meg Kelly/Photo: Oliver Contreras for The Washington Post/The Washington Post)
“Unfortunately, it will have to be a Republicans-only exercise. But we’re working hard to get there.”
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in remarks to reporters June 13
It has become a regular feature of the U.S. political system that the politicians in the minority accuse the politicians in power of cutting deals behind closed doors to advance controversial legislation — only to engage in similar tactics once they regain power. Continue reading “Mitch McConnell on the health-care legislative process, 2010 vs. 2017”
The following article by Alex Rowell and Ryan Erickson was posted on the Center for American Progress website June 16, 2017:
Republican health care plans, including the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA), would repeal taxes on the wealthy, including the Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT)—a tax on combined capital gain, dividend, and interest income applicable to individuals making more than $200,000 or couples filing jointly making more than $250,000 in adjusted gross income. This tax cut is paid for by eliminating health insurance coverage for millions of low- and moderate-income Americans. Approximately 90 percent of the benefit of repealing this tax goes to the top 1 percent of households.
Below is a table that shows estimates of the average tax cut for households earning more than $1,000,000 in annual adjusted gross income by state if proposals to eliminate the NIIT succeed. Continue reading “Cutting Insurance from Working Families to Give Tax Cuts to Millionaires”
The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website June 15, 2017:
“Americans were told that premiums would go down by $2,500 per year. And instead, their premiums went up to levels that nobody thought even possible.”
“It was just announced yesterday that 2 million people have dropped out of Obamacare — 2 million additional. They are leaving fast.”
“Insurers are fleeing the market. Last week it was announced that one of the largest insurers is pulling out of Ohio — the great state of Ohio.”
–President Trump, remarks to Republican senators, June 13, 2017
Not a day goes by without President Trump bashing the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, as he tries to urge the Senate to pass its own version of a repeal-and-replace bill. He’s become a torrent of statistics as he has tried to make the case that the law is “dead,” as he puts it. Continue reading “President Trump’s mangled ‘facts’ about Obamacare”
