Health Archives - The National Memo

Republicans Waging Guerrilla War On American Health Care

June 18, 2018 2:40 am

Reprinted with permission from DCReport.

While Trump preens in the afterglow of his questionable achievements at the negotiating table with North Korea, let’s take a look elsewhere—at the Trump administration decision to abandon Obamacare requirements that health insurance cover pre-existing conditions.

Late last week, the government said in filings in a federal court case that the requirement to cover those who need healthcare the most will become “unconstitutional” next year as well as protections forbidding insurers to deny coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.

Indeed, the Justice Department declined to defend the federal law in a suit brought by states against the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.…

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Doctors Demand Broad New Gun Regulation To Stem Killings

June 14, 2018 4:00 am

Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.com

Frustrated by the lack of political action to combat the “disease” of gun violence in America, the country’s largest physician organization this week endorsed broad new proposals to strengthen gun regulations.

Delegates at the American Medical Association annual meeting voted to oppose arming teachers, to support making guns illegal to purchase for anyone under the age of 21, and to push for laws that allow family members to seek court-ordered removal of guns from the homes of suicidal people or those who have threatened imminent violence, among other measures.

And even though many AMA members are gun owners and supporters, they voted overwhelmingly (446-99) to support banning “the sale and ownership to the public of all assault-type weapons, bump stocks and related devices, high-capacity magazines, and armor piercing bullets.”

“It has been frustrating that we have seen so little action from either state or federal legislators” on guns, said AMA president Dr.…

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Millionaire Paul Ryan Bombs With ‘Joke’ About Entitlements

June 11, 2018 4:00 am

Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.com

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) is well-known for his twisted vendetta against the social safety net, but may have outdone even himself with a joke that even bombed with an ultra-conservative audience.

On Saturday, Ryan delivered the keynote speech at the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce’s dinner honoring Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT), the most senior Republican in the Senate, as a “Giant in Our City.”

Ryan made a few jokes about Hatch’s advanced age, but one crack about Ryan’s own impending retirement did not go over so well.

“Truthfully though, I thought that maybe I’d just retire to get my hands on some of these entitlements,” Ryan said.…

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Trumpcare's Medicaid Cutbacks Will Bring The Real Death Panels

State officials will have to inflict illness and death on people whose only crime is having no money -- or as Sarah Palin put it, those who fail the Republican test of “their level of productivity in society.” Those politicians and their appointees who implement the new Medicaid rules will become the real death panels.

Trump's Broken Promise Will Doom Thousands Of His Voters

Back when the president’s health reform plan first passed, Republicans and their media echoes warned loudly about mythical “death panels” embedded in his legislation. Now, the voters who believed that nonsense are about to meet the real death panel -- led by Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate leader Mitch McConnell, and Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican slated to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump Administration Moves To Block Access To Health Insurance

The Trump administration is moving to make it harder for you to get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The net effect of the proposals would be significantly greater regulatory and paperwork burdens for both consumers and health insurance exchanges, the opposite of Trump’s promise during the campaign and since taking office.