Rncs Third Night Goes All In On Law And Order Message As Protests Against Police Killings Continue
Two things can be true at the same time. One, this presidential election is so consequential, as Democrats and Republicans continue to remind us. And two, the actual campaigns whether its the conventions or the limited campaign activity seem so small compared with everything else.
WASHINGTON Driving President Donald Trumpâs âlaw and orderâmessage, Vice President Mike Pence praised law enforcement on the third night of the Republican convention Wednesday against the backdrop of protests sparked by a police officer shooting a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
âLaw and order are on the ballot,â Pence continued. âThe choice in this election is whether America remains America.
Is Trump Cutting Medicare Benefits
Medicare was signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. In the 54 years since, Medicare benefits and eligibility have seen many changes. Many of these changes have been to expand the program, not to cut it. You may have heard that Trumps budget for 2020 will reduce taxes to the top one percent and cut $845 billion from Medicare over ten years.
Heres more about the politics surrounding funding for Medicare benefits.
Vice President Pence Talks Law And Order On 3rd Night Of Gop Convention
Penceâs tack reflects a larger Republican strategy for the convention and the broader Trump re-election campaign that tries to focus voters on a generic fear of the unknown rather than problems at hand. It is, of course, Trump and Pence who have presided over the coronavirus crisis and its devastating impact on the economy, the civil unrest in the wake of police killings of Black men, women and children, and the emboldening of white supremacist militia groups.
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Press Releasetrump Administration Announces Historically Low Medicare Advantage Premiums And New Payment Model To Make Insulin Affordable Again For Seniors
Ahead of the annual Medicare Open Enrollment, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services , under the leadership of President Trump, announced today that average 2021 premiums for Medicare Advantage plans are expected to decline 34.2 percent from 2017 while plan choice, benefits, and enrollment continue to increase. The Medicare Advantage average monthly premium will be the lowest in 14 years for the over 26 million Medicare beneficiaries projected to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan for 2021. Additionally, for the first time, seniors who use insulin will have over 1,600 Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans to choose from that will offer insulin at no more than a $35 monthly copay beginning in January.
This news comes as the agency releases the benefit and cost-sharing information for Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans for the 2021 calendar year. Medicare Advantage plans are private health plans that cover all Medicare benefits plus provide additional benefits, while Part D plans are private health plans that provide prescription drug coverage for seniors. Specific highlights include:
View this chart on the Medicare Advantage premium change between 2017 and 2020 on a state-by-state basis at: .
Get CMS news at cms.gov/newsroom, sign up for CMS news via email and follow CMS on
Press Releasetrump Administration Announces Changes To Medicare Advantage And Part D To Provide Better Coverage And Increase Access For Medicare Beneficiaries
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today finalized requirements that will increase access to telehealth for seniors in Medicare Advantage plans, expand the types of supplemental benefits available for beneficiaries with an MA plan who have chronic diseases, provide support for more MA options for beneficiaries in rural communities, and expand access to MA for patients with End Stage Renal Disease . Together, the changes advance President Trumps Executive Orders on Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nations Seniors and Advancing American Kidney Health as well as several of the CMS strategic initiatives.
Due to the upcoming June 1, 2020, MA and Part D bid deadlines for the 2021 plan year, CMS is finalizing a subset of the proposed policies before the MA and Part D plans bids are due. CMS plans to address the remaining proposals for plans later in 2020 for the 2022 plan year. We understand that the entire healthcare sector is focused on caring for patients and providing coverage related to coronavirus disease 2019 , and we believe this approach provides plans with adequate time and information to design the best coverage for Medicare beneficiaries.
For a fact sheet on the Contract Year 2021 Medicare Advantage and Part D Final Rule , please visit:
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Trump Promises A ‘safe And Effective’ Coronavirus Vaccine ‘this Year’
The president boasts of lifesaving therapies, but critics argue there isn’t enough evidence to back up this claim. One treatment, Remdesivir, has been shown to reduce deaths in severely ill patients with COVID-19. The U.S. recently approved the use of convalescent plasma for COVID-19, but without results from randomized clinical trials the gold standard of medical research theres no clear proof the plasma treatment saved lives. Studies have shown that the treatment is safe and other research suggests it holds promise for treating patients, though.
There is also no evidence that an effective vaccine will be delivered by the end of the year. There are four vaccines currently in clinical trials in the U.S, with the one from Moderna furthest along. But its impossible to know if these vaccines will prove effective.
Vaccines dont always work, one expert told NBC News earlier this year.
Donald Trump won a round of laughs from his audience when he said Joe Biden, for nearly five decades, took the donations of blue-collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses, and told them he felt their pain and then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship their jobs to China and many other distant lands.
He took an extended pause after saying kisses, which was met with a round of laughs.
‘that Doesn’t Look Like America In 2020’: Mary Trump Blasts The Packed Crowd At The White House
NBC News
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said during his RNC speech Thursday that Democrats want to defund the police and that they want free health care for illegal immigrants.
The first claim is misleading, and the second false. Though some progressives within the Democratic Party do support calls to “defund the police,” the official Democratic Party platform, approved last week, includes no reference to it. And, as NBC News has pointed out on the the first, second and third nights of the RNC, Joe Biden, the party’s nominee, does not support defunding the police. He has explicitly said so on multiple occasions.
NBC News has an explainer on the different and sometimes overlapping proposals from activists on how to address police violence here.
Additionally, while some on the left have called for free health care for undocumented immigrants, Biden has not. He supports allowing undocumented immigrants to purchase health care with their own money, they would not be eligible for taxpayer-funded subsidies. The official Democratic Party platform calls for extending Affordable Care Act coverage to Dreamers, and working with Congress to lift the five-year waiting period for Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program eligibility for low-income, lawfully present immigrants.
McConnell also said Democrats want to make Washington, D.C., Americas 51st state.
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Most Favored Nation Rule
This rule, if implemented, would require Medicare to tie the prices it pays for drugs to those paid by other countries. Specifically, it would only pay a price for a drug that matches the lowest price paid among foreign governments. Medicare is currently prohibited from negotiating the prices it pays to drugmakers.
The order, which has been discussed as a possibility by the administration for more than a year, could potentially slash Medicare payments by billions of dollars. However, Trump has delayed implementation of this proposed rule until late August to give drugmakers a chance to propose an alternative solution.
If it is implemented, the rule would likely face legal challenges from drugmakers. There could also be challenges in determining what price other countries pay, given that many negotiations between governments and drugmakers are kept confidential.
Reporting by Carl ODonnell Editing by Daniel Wallis
Sen Harris: Rnc Was Designed To ‘soothe Donald Trump’s Ego’
Harris spoke hours before President Trump is set to formally accept his party’s nomination for re-election at the final night of the Republican National Convention, pre-emptively criticizing the president for his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead of rising to meet the most difficult moment of his presidency, he froze. He was scared. He was petty and vindictive, Harris said.
The president of the University of Notre Dame disavowed attacks on Joe Biden made by the school’s former football coach, Lou Holtz, at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday.
“While Coach Lou Holtz is a former coach at Notre Dame, his use of the universitys name at the Republican National Convention must not be taken to imply that the university endorses his views, any candidate or any political party,” Rev. John I. Jenkins said in a statement.
“Moreover, we Catholics should remind ourselves that while we may judge the objective moral quality of anothers actions, we must never question the sincerity of anothers faith, which is due to the mysterious working of grace in that persons heart,” he continued. “In this fractious time, let us remember that our highest calling is to love.”
In his speech at the convention, Holtz praised President Trump and called Biden a “Catholic in name only.”
Asked about the remarks on Thursday in an interview with CNN, Biden asked, Whens the last time darkened the doorway of a church?”
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Restriction Of Seniors Choice Of Doctors In Medicare Advantage
During his Florida speech, Trump asked the crowd, You want to keep your doctors, right? Yet his order calls for changes that could restrict Medicare beneficiaries choice of doctors by favoring Medicare Advantage plans and by tinkering with the CMS network adequacy standards for those plans. From a beneficiary perspective, a distinguishing feature of Medicare Advantage is that plans typically have restrictive provider networks. Under the Trump proposal, the network adequacy standards would take into account state laws affecting provider competition and the availability of telehealth services. If these changes lower the bar for Medicare Advantage plans and allow plans to include even fewer doctors in a particular area, a position the Trump administration has previously supported, they could make it harder for seniors to schedule in-person visits or see the provider of their choice. They could also increase costs for beneficiaries who need to see out-of-network specialists.
Lower-cost, narrower network plans could profit by cream-skimming healthier seniors because healthy individuals benefit most from the trade-off between lower premiums and fewer providers. Enrollees in traditional Medicare, including seniors who need the broad provider access that only traditional Medicare offers, could see their premiums rise as a result of a sicker risk pool and imperfect risk adjustment.
Former Democrat Jeff Van Drew Explains Why He Switched To Gop
Meanwhile, scores of former Republican administration officials have endorsed Bidens campaign, including dozens of former George W. Bush staffers who announced their intent to back Biden this week.
Theres also a small group of former Trump administration officials who worked in the Department of Homeland Security who have chosen to back Biden.
But Van Drews speech provides Trump a lane to show the opposite effect of his presidency on some Democrats. Trump made a big show of Van Drew switching parties during the impeachment process and hosted him at the White House for a meeting.
Rudy Giuliani, who has served as Donald Trumps lawyer and a top confidant, in his speech Thursday night will attack Joe Biden over violence in U.S. cities over the summer.
Giulianis speech will fall in line with what has been the main theme of Trumps convention hammering Biden over protests against police brutality, some of which have led to violence or vandalism. Just this week, a pro-police sympathizer allegedly shot and killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin after a Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot seven times by police.
Their silence was so deafening that it reveals an acceptance of this violence because they will accept anything they hope will defeat President Donald Trump, he added.
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Changes Fall Far Short
Jayapal on Thursday said the Biden administration didnt go far enough in revamping the model.
While Im glad to see the administration taking steps to redesign this flawed programI am disappointed that these changes will not be enacted for 10 months and that there are no limits on how many seniors are funneled into this experimental model, Jayapal said in the statement from Physicians for a National Health Program. More needs to be done, and I will continue to fight tooth and nail against any and all efforts to privatize Medicare.
Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, which has lobbied to end these arrangements, also said the administrations changes to the model were insufficient.
Changing the name doesnt change the fact that the direct contracting program is backdoor privatization of Medicare. This dangerous experiment must be stopped before it further harms the health of vulnerable seniors, eats into the Medicare Trust Fund, and destroys traditional Medicare, Lawson said The tweaks that CMMI announced today fall far short of that goal.
DCEs and their investorswhich include private equity firmsare focused on generating profits. They are incentivized to deny and delay care as much as possible. There are no changes that can address that fundamental flaw at the heart of the program, he said.
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Us Faces A Child Care Emergency Biden Says In Unveiling $775 Billion Plan
On abortion access, Biden is in favor of restoring funding for Planned Parenthood. He does not support the so-called gag rule or the Hyde Amendment, which bans most federal funding for abortions. Biden backed the Hyde Amendment for a significant portion of his career and only came out against the legislation in July 2019, saying he could âno longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someoneâs ZIP code.â
Biden also wants to allocate $775 billion toward a plan for child and elder care. A lot of the funding would go toward cutting Medicaid waitlists for people needing home and community care, and to provide tax breaks to people who care for older family members.
Biden also pledges to invest in further health care employment, training 35,000 workers on how to aid Americans suffering from opioid addictions and adding âtens of thousandsâ of new jobs caring for veterans.
Biden also calls for the creation of a public health jobs corps, which would employ more than 100,000 Americans as health care workers in medically underserved communities to work in disease prevention.
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Trump Backs Off Medicare Drug Price Negotiations Plan
After campaigning on a promise to negotiate drug prices for Medicare with pharmaceutical companies, President Donald Trump has backed off the idea, publicly criticizing the bill introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that would allow the federal government to negotiate the prices of 250 drugs.
President Trump had previously broken from Republican ideology by showing support for negotiating drug prices. Republican officials, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , had dismissed Speaker Pelosi’s bill as “socialist.” The president supports a more moderate bill from Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Wyden , which does not include negotiations, but would cap seniors’ out-of-pocket drug costs and limit drug price increases to the rate of inflation for Medicare beneficiaries.
While White House officials say the president is still committed to his goal of lowering drug prices for consumers, he has not proposed an alternative plan. They added that he would prefer to focus on a bill with a better chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate.
A Trump Executive Order Ended Subsidies For Obamacare Tax Credits
Trump signed an executive order in October 2017, eliminating subsidies provided to help people pay for their health insurance.
Under Obamacare, tax credits were available to people who earn up to 250% of the federal poverty level . These tax-credit subsidies help cover the cost of annual deductibles in Obamacare marketplace plans.
The executive order signed by Trump did away with those subsidies.
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Ja’ron Smith One Of The Top Black Officials In The White House Touts Trump’s Empathy
Dartunorro Clark
JaRon Smith, an assistant to the president and one of the top senior officials in the administration who is Black, gave a speech touting Trumps empathy on the final night of the RNC.
In the wake of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and LeGend Taliferro, a moment of national racial consciousness. I have seen his true conscience. I just wish everyone could see the deep empathy he shows to families whose loved ones were killed in senseless violence, he said.
However, during the week of the RNC, the racial unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin prompted by the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, has barely been mentioned. Also, no mention of the continued unrest prompted by the killing of two people allegedly by a 17-year-old white Trump supporter.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows also said Thursday no one from the White House has spoken to Blakes family, but Meadows reached out to the familys pastor and conveyed the message of the presidents sympathies.
Jeff Van Drew, the New Jersey Republican who changed his party affiliation after voting against Donald Trumps impeachment, will speak at the Republican convention on Thursday.
Van Drew joins a limited number of Democrats or former Democrats who spoke on Trumps behalf at his re-nominating convention. It provides a contrast with Biden, who featured higher-profile Republicans speaking at his event.
