All posts tagged "Affordable Care Act"

A fiery back and forth erupted between Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) Wednesday during the Senate hearing for President Donald Trump's nominee for surgeon general, Casey Means.

Means, a favorite of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an entrepreneur and author, who gave up her medical license in 2018 and did not complete her residency at Stanford University, according to The Daily Beast. The "alternative medicine" blogger has been a controversial pick to lead the nation's public health agency. Her initial confirmation hearing was postponed because she went into labor and rescheduled to Wednesday after she gave birth to her son, Phoenix.

During the hearing, Sanders snapped at Mullin after the MAGA lawmaker criticized the Affordable Care Act and suggested getting rid of it altogether. ...

WASHINGTON — Republican leaders’ refusal to consider extending Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at year’s end is weird, according to at least one senior GOP senator, after the issue erupted and fueled high drama in the House this week.

“It's just strange,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), who sits on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, told congressional reporters.

“We had the vote last week, and … now the House passed [its own measure], and we're going to have a vote, and of course, that’s not going to go anywhere. ...

WASHINGTON — Thursday is the long-awaited health-care day in the U.S. Senate, but that doesn’t mean Congress has a plan to avert massive spikes in health premiums in the New Year.

To counter Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s proposal to extend COVID-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies for three years — which most Republicans say is too long — on Tuesday, Majority Leader John Thune announced the GOP would offer a new measure to replace subsidies with health savings accounts.

“We need to fix it. It's broken. It's a piece of sh––,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story of the ACA, commonly known as Obamacare....

Republicans have become increasingly worried about voter backlash as time begins to run out for the party to come together on a thorny issue: health care.

The Senate is slated to vote this week on extended healthcare subsidies for three years under a Democrat-backed plan, but Republicans have struggled to come up with an alternative proposal, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The bill isn't expected to pass in the Senate, and it's left Republicans with a "political vulnerability" and risky position ahead of the midterm elections in 2026.

“America is ready to see what Republicans are for,” said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who has a plan to introduce "The Marshall Plan Act."...

WASHINGTON — To end the longest government shutdown in American history, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators came together and agreed to kick the can.

The can seems to have hit a brick wall.

Unless Congress acts, massive spikes in health-care premiums are coming in the New Year for millions of Americans — the reason Democrats refused to fund the government this fall. ...

Health insurance premiums for tens of millions of Americans are just weeks away from significantly increasing in cost, and Republicans have yet to agree on a fix that doesn't include extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits. One longtime Republican strategist recently offered a reason why the issue continues to confound his party.

During a Tuesday segment on MS NOW, Stuart Stevens – who was a senior advisor to 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney – acknowledged that healthcare was a significant hurdle for Republicans, who have so far failed to repeal the ACA or present an alternative to make health insurance more affordable for their constituents. And he argued that this is dangerous for the GOP given that red states are disproportionately reliant on the ACA tax credits set to expire at the end of this year.

MS NOW host Katy Tur asked Stevens why healthcare is the "one stubborn issue where Republicans don't want to change," and displayed a map that showed how predominantly Republican states across the Deep South have the highest rates of residents who use the ACA exchanges to buy health insurance plans. ...