Joe Biden Who Promised A Public Option Wins The Election
Bidens detailed health care plan centers on building on and improving the Affordable Care Act and creating a government-run public health insurance plan that anyone could choose.
The idea in part is that a so-called public option would allow the federal government to negotiate and pay less to medical providers the way that private insurers do for their enrollees. And while its not clear how well this would work, experts say, the public option would be significant in who it covers. Biden would automatically enroll the 4.7 million adults who are eligible for Medicaid but remain uninsured because their states havent expanded the program, and he would allow any American who has employer-based insurance to leave their plan and joina major step toward the long term progressive goal of eliminating private insurance. About 12 million of these people who currently get insurance through their job could find the public option to be cheaper, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Of course, Bidens plans hinge on what the next Congress looks like. If Republicans retain a Senate majority, hopes for sweeping new health legislation dwindle. But even if Democrats seize both houses, Biden will need to negotiate with progressive lawmakers from his own party, who have long pushed for more comprehensive universal health care, like Medicare for All.
Why Democrats Think Health Care May Finally Be A Winning Issue
In March 2010, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., appeared on NBCs Meet the Press, tasked with selling the newly passed Affordable Care Act to an audience of skeptical Americans.
I think as people learn about the bill, and now that the bill is enacted, its going to become more and more popular, Schumer said. Then he added a prediction about how lawmakers votes on the landmark health care bill would impact them at the polls in the midterms that fall: By November, Schumer said, those who voted for health care will find it an asset, those who voted against it will find it a liability.
Eight months later, Democrats lost 63 seats in the House, losing control of the chamber to the GOP, and six seats in the Senate. Republicans also gained control of 26 state legislatures and 29 governors mansions across the country.
In every election cycle from that point forward, Republican candidates promised that a vote for them meant a vote to repeal, and maybe replace, the health care law. In former President Barack Obamas last two years in office, congressional Republicans attempted to repeal the ACA nearly 50 times, though their efforts always failed.
How things have changed.
Eight years later, now-Senate Minority Leader Schumers 2010 prediction may finally come true. Democrats are running on a promise to protect Obamacare, and if they take back the House or even the Senate, though the odds there are lower the ACAs growing popularity will be a big reason why.
Former Secretary Of Health And Human Services Tom Price
Price on healthcare
- On March 10, 2017, Price released the following statement on Medicaid: Our states know best how to care for their citizens particularly their most vulnerable populations who receive healthcare coverage under Medicaid. Pursuant to the vision put forward by President Trump, the Department of Health and Human Services will be committed to doing everything within our authority to provide our nations governors and state legislatures with greater flexibility on how they utilize Medicaid resources in caring for those in need. This will include a review of existing waiver procedures to provide states the impetus and freedom to innovate and test new ideas to improve access to care and health outcomes. These efforts will complement the work Congress is already doing through the American Health Care Act and will do in subsequent legislation to deliver patient-centered healthcare reform.
- During his confirmation hearing, Price was asked about ensuring access to free contraception. He said, I think contraception is absolutely imperative for many, many women and the system that we ought to have in place is one that allows women to be able to purchase the kind of contraception they desire.
- In June 2016, at an American Enterprise Institute event, Price said, They believe the government ought to be in control of health care. We believe that patients and doctors should be in control of health care.
Price on the AHCA
Price on the ACA
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What Do Americans Think Is Broken In Health Care What Trump And Biden Would Do About It
Our broken health care system has been a campaign talking point for generations, and 2020 is no exception. But what do people think is broken? What does your average worker, parent, student, or small business owner want fixed? My organization, the Foundation for Government Accountability wanted to know the answer to these questions.
When you ask more than 10,000 Americans in focus groups and polling what they want fixed in health care, you get some interesting and unexpected answers. The answers varied, but two themes were overwhelmingly represented: Health care remains top of mind for many Americans and they want more affordable coverage options.
Short-term plan story.
FGA
President Trumps Actions On Health Care
To his credit, President Trump has focused on how to address these concerns despite the Senates failure to pass health care reform early in his term. Without legislation to make broader health care changes Americans need, the administration used several tools in its executive authority toolkit to make progress on more flexible short-term health plans and association health plans . The administration and Congress were also able to work together to remove the ObamaCare individual mandate and combat the opioid epidemic.
These changes arent just bullet points on a list of accomplishments. They have real-life implications for millions of Americans.
Short-Term Plans Can Help Americans In Transition
‘everybody Likes The Idea’
Most of Trump’s actions so far have come via executive orders, proclamations and appointments. Lacking any legislative victories, Trump’s innovation announcement might have at least bought him some goodwill among the conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus who opposed his health-care bill.
The idea of running America like a business has long been a conservative talking point.
“There’s a reason this keeps coming up: It’s a very winning political argument. Everybody likes the idea, it sounds alluring to talk about reinventing the government,” said Margaret O’Mara, author of Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century.
O’Mara believes it’s naive to adopt the language and metrics of the boardroom to try to improve how government operates. Still, she says, the formation of the innovation office is on message with Trump’s campaign promise to reform government.
“Clearly, the rollout of this announcement is not happening the way the White House would have liked.”
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Increase Funding For Community Health Programs
We are at an important time in our country when racial injustice is threaded into all issues: criminal justice, economics, healthcare, Taylor said.
She added that racial justice is not a priority for the current administration. Whereas, with the Biden campaign, racial justice is built into their platform on all threads.
Day believes the Biden-Harris ticket will address this issue in practical terms.
I dont think this duo is going to defund the police, she said, but I do think they are going to look at reallocating funding toward other things that activists find important. Its radical incrementalism.
Six Ways Trump Has Sabotaged The Affordable Care Act
Donald Trumps first term represents an extraordinary development in what political scientists have called the administrative or unilateral presidency: how presidents seek to transform domestic policy through executive initiatives without congressional approval. Aggressive, partisan, multifaceted administrative presidencies have been especially evident since Reagan with presidents of both parties participating. Trump has in multiple ways taken this trend to new levels as his efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act vividly illustrate.
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Getting Away With Murder On The Campaign Trail Big Pharma Takes A Beating
But millions of people are still flocking to enroll in insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. New data released this week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that 12.7 million Americans signed up on government exchanges in 2015.
And a report issued last year by Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said tax credits should help alleviate the costs. In the 38 states offering insurance plans through the federal exchange, Burwell said 80 percent of returning customers should be able to buy a plan with premiums under $100 a month after tax credits.
Another Obamacare component both Trump and Cruz love to hate? High deductibles.
How about your deductibles? You have to be dead before you can use them, Trump said at his Thursday night rally. A New York Times review of insurance plans offered through Healthcare.gov last year found that in many states, more than half the plans have a deductible that runs $3,000 or more.
Even without hearing specifics of Trumps health care plan, some voters said theyre satisfied he would improve matters.
As Robin Lopilato of Kittery, Maine, put it: Anything is going to be better than Obamacare.
The Vaccines Do Work: Trump Says Hes Proud Of The Coronavirus Vaccines But Rejects Any Mandates
Former president Donald Trump said Wednesday that coronavirus vaccines are effective and that more Americans should get the shot, but that mandates are unnecessary because this thing is eventually going to go away.
The vaccines do work, he said on the John Fredericks Show, a conservative talk radio program. And they are effective. So heres my thing: I think I saved millions and millions of lives around the world. We would have had another Spanish flu.
And now countries are using our vaccines, and its tremendous, Trump added. Its tremendously successful.
Trump said he knows many people personally who have died of the coronavirus and praised his administration for the role he says it played in making vaccines available earlier than expected.
Im very proud of it. I saved millions of lives but people have to have their freedoms, he said.
On Trumps last full day in office, the number of Americans who had died of the coronavirus totaled just over 400,000. He was widely criticized for playing down the seriousness of the pandemic, suggesting early on that it would just disappear. He also promoted drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, a medicine for malaria, as a coronavirus treatment and repeatedly refused to follow health guidelines such as wearing a mask.
Trump has said he intentionally played down the deadly nature of the rapidly spreading virus to avoid a frenzy.
Im a conservative person, he said. And you have to maintain your freedoms.
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Health Insurance Coverage And Costs
The Affordable Care Act set new standards for virtually all private health plans, including a prohibition on pre-existing condition exclusions and a requirement for private plans to extend dependent coverage to the age of 26. The law also established new marketplaces for the sale of nongroup insurance to all individuals except undocumented immigrants, and created new subsidies for nongroup coverage. New fees, taxes, and offsetting budget savings were adopted to finance ACA subsidies and reduce the deficit, including a so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost employer-sponsored plans. The Congressional Budget Office estimated repeal of the ACA would increase the federal deficit by $137 $353 billion over 10 years . Since enactment, the uninsured rate has fallen to 8.6% and an estimated 20 million Americans have gained coverage, while 27 million remain uninsured. Public opinion about the ACA remains divided, largely on partisan lines. Several issues have emerged in the 2016 campaign.
What Does The Republican Party Think About Health Care
Because for all their talk of fiscal responsibility and for all their talk of fixing our health care system what this current iteration of the Republican party actually cares most about is. But Republicans in Congress were not done with their health care sabotage.
Why The Gop Is So Hell Bent On Passing An Unpopular Health Care Bill Fivethirtyeight
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