Melissa Johnson-Camacho, an oncology nurse, speaks out in favor of a single-payer health-care system for California, explaining how the experience of caring for a young woman riddled with metastasized cancer, and having few family resources, has haunted her.
Co-published by International Business Times
There’s little economic reason why California couldn’t go it alone with its own single-payer health insurance — and a host of reasons why it should.
The latest Republican assault on the Affordable Care Act came fast at health-care advocates in the past few weeks, leaving analysts flat-footed in their attempts to decipher its complex funds-allocation formula. But some predict catastrophe ahead, especially for California.
Co-published by International Business Times
Single-payer health-care advocates say a new proposal in the U.S. Senate should inject new momentum for single payer in California, with its ostensibly friendlier two-thirds Democratic majority.
This week could be decisive in determining how many of the over 20 million Americans and five million Californians who gained health insurance under the Affordable Care Act will be allowed to keep it.
In the military, McCain was a hero. But yesterday, on the Senate floor, he put loyalty to his party and to President Trump over loyalty to his country and the needs of his fellow citizens.
Three people tell Capital & Main that the Affordable Care Act repeal and proposed cuts to Medicaid will decimate their finances and their quality of life. BY LARRY BUHL
From making health care more affordable to this group, to allowing new college grads to stay on their parents’ insurance as they tinker with market-shaping innovations and ideas in their parents’ garages, the Affordable Care Act has been a game changer for entrepreneurship.
Co-published by International Business Times
The single-payer health care bill California’s Senate will vote on this week could result in significant savings for the state’s businesses and residents, according to an economic analysis commissioned by the bill’s supporters and released Wednesday.
Under the American Health Care Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week, California’s half million in-home care recipients, who include the elderly, the blind and the disabled, could be facing big cuts in services.
Whatever aspirins are prescribed by the Senate, as it prepares its version of the American Health Care Act, they may not make Americans’ health-care headaches go away.
The GOP’s new American Health Care Act looked bad enough. Then its fine print revealed an attack on the medical coverage of millions of workers that one expert said wasn’t a loophole, but “a gaping chest wound.”
Co-published by The American Prospect
The former national campaign manager of Health Care for America Now looks at the winners and losers in the Republicans’ American Health Care Act. BY BILL RADEN
Days before House Republicans presented their American Health Care Act, health-policy experts discussed the current Affordable Care Act’s dismantling during a panel that was part of the California Budget and Policy Center’s annual conference.
What exactly Trumpcare will be remains vague, but for the more than 50 percent of South L.A. that now relies on the state’s ACA Medi-Cal expansion for health coverage, the future is frighteningly uncertain.
“Uncovered California” is a three-part series of stories and videos examining how the Golden State is trying to fill holes in its health care coverage.
“Right now, I have a medicine sitting at Wal-Mart pharmacy that I can’t purchase till payday,” Jacqueline, a 55-year-old San Diegan told me during a telephone interview in mid-April. She asked that her last name not be used for this story. “I’ll go without, eight or nine days till payday. It’s for my high cholesterol.”
Five years after the Affordable Care Act became law, and more than three years after California began moving aggressively to implement its provisions, upwards of three million Californians remain without health care coverage; and millions more, like Jacqueline, have basic coverage but continue to be grievously under-insured.This is the story of how so many Californians continue to fall through the ACA’s cracks.
“Uncovered California” is a three-part series of stories and videos examining how the Golden State is trying to fill holes in its health care coverage. Sasha Abramsky’s articles look at working people who are falling through coverage cracks,
» Read more about: Uncovered California: Why Millions Have Fallen Into Health Care Gaps »
In two Thursday rulings the Supreme Court came down on the side of a functioning government that can help improve life prospects for Americans – should the people’s representatives so desire. While Californians wouldn’t have been immediately impacted had the Court undermined legislation on health care and housing discrimination, the implications could have been drastic down the road.
In upholding the Affordable Care Act, the High Court affirmed its role firstly to “say what the law is,” as Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion, citing Marbury v. Madison; and, secondly, to be guided in that endeavor by adhering to the overall plan of the legislation — rather than zeroing in on each textual clause viewed in isolation. In doing so, Roberts’ Court not only saved the landmark health care law at hand, but avoided creating the implication that major legislation could potentially be undone by a stray sentence or errant copyediting.
A recent L.A. Times story profiled a fast-food worker who, according to reporter Don Lee, would lose eligibility for Medicaid if his wages were raised to $15. His wage gains could be “wiped out” by the higher health care costs he’d end up paying. Lee’s portrayal was inaccurate and misleading.
The story centers on 53-year-old Douglas Hunter, a Chicago McDonald’s cook and a leader in the Fight for $15, a national movement of fast-food workers who are pushing for $15 in hourly wages and the right to form a union without employer retaliation.
Hunter is currently enrolled in CountyCare, a Medicaid-managed care plan that pays for his health care, including more than $700 per month in medications and supplies he needs to manage his diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure. Contrary to Lee’s assertion, Hunter would still qualify for Medicaid based on his income if his wage were raised to $15.
» Read more about: L.A. Times Calls Out Fight for $15 Guy, Gets It All Wrong »
