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After years of political battles and weeks of procedural delays, the Virginia State Senate voted 23 to 17 Wednesday afternoon to expand Medicaid to cover between 300,000 and 400,000 more low-income residents. Four Republicans joined every Senate Democrat in voting for the expansion. When the bill is signed into law, as expected later this week, Virginia will join 33 states and the District of Columbia in expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act — though Maine is currently fighting the expansion’s implementation. Virginia State Sen. Emmett Hanger Jr. (R), the sponsor of the Medicaid expansion amendment whose support got the...

Back in December and January, Democrats and their fellow-travelers in the media were ebullient over the idea of running against the “tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent” tax reform package Congress had passed on a straight party-line vote, and President Trump subsequently signed into law. It’s worth a quick and entertaining look back at the now commonplace hysterical response from the American Left (Democrat/Media/Culture/Education establishment), this time at basic tax cuts. House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, a constant well-spring of poppycock, called the legislation “the end of the world” and “the worst bill in the history of the United...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — President Donald Trump slammed frequent foe Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is battling brain cancer, for having voted against one of the measures that would have repealed Obamacare last year. Speaking at a rally here, and referring to McCain without using his name, Trump said his efforts to scrap President Obama's signature health care law were frustrated by the Arizona senator's decision to give a thumbs-down to the bill on the Senate floor in July. "We had it done folks, it was done, and then early in the morning somebody turned their hand in the wrong direction,"...

Alex Azar will soon make his most consequential decision as health and human services secretary. President Trump has asked HHS to expand health-insurance protections in a way that could make coverage more affordable and improve the outlook for Obama Care’s risk pools. Whether Mr. Azar will oblige is uncertain. Some officials don’t understand that Mr. Trump’s request would expand consumer protections, or mistakenly believe HHS lacks the authority to grant it. The need for action is clear, as ObamaCare premiums keep skyrocketing. Rate hikes as high as 91% will hit many consumers just before Election Day. Maryland insurance commissioner Al...

Just days after John McCain underwent surgery last July to remove a blood clot from behind his eye and was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, the senator decided to fly from Arizona back to Washington, D.C., to vote on the Republicans’ attempt to repeal Obamacare. But worried daughter Meghan wasn’t having it. “He said, ‘I have to get back for the healthcare bill’ and I said, ‘What could possibly happen if he gets on a plane?’ and the doctor said he would like hemorrhage and it can be dangerous if he still has air in his brain,...

The House sent “right to try” legislation on experimental drugs to President Trump’s desk Tuesday — a measure Trump, Vice President Pence and groups backed by mega-donors Charles and David Koch have repeatedly urged Congress to pass. The House passed the bill largely along party lines by a 250-169 [actually 267-149] vote.

A total of 29.3 million Americans (9.1%) were uninsured in 2017 -- not a big change from 2016, but down by 19.3 million from 2010, the year the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law, a government survey found. Among ethnic groups, Hispanic adults made up the large percentage of the uninsured, at 27.2%, followed by black at 14.1%, non-Hispanic whites at 8.5%, and Asians at 7.6%. All four of these groups had significant drops in their uninsured populations from 2013 through 2017, the survey found. Of those adults under age 65 with private health insurance, 3.7% were covered by plans...

An Atlanta plastic surgeon is facing a slew of lawsuits after it was revealed she had filmed herself singing and dancing over her exposed patients during surgeries. Dozens of videos have been found that show Dr Windell Boutte cavorting in the operating room, even while making incisions on her patients. In one video Boutte sings the to the rap lyric 'I'm 'bout to cut it', from an OT Genasis rap song, before slicing into one of her patients.

With her wedding just two months away, Icilma Cornelius arrived at the Lilburn office of Dr. Windell Boutte to prepare for her special day. The 54-year-old bride-to-be came to the doctor’s full-service medical spa and cosmetic surgery center for Botox and another anti-wrinkle treatment. While there, the staff recommended cosmetic surgery that could give her a flat stomach before she married. Cornelius agreed to the surgical makeover by Boutte, whose website promotes the doctor as “nationally and internationally known” and a “doctor to the stars!”

The only basis for the mandate’s constitutionality, according to Roberts, is that it’s a tax — not a fine, penalty, or anything else... This is a vital point, because when Republicans passed their tax reform legislation in December 2017, they included a provision in the law that lowers the individual mandate penalty to $0 beginning in January 2019, effectively eliminating any hope the individual mandate could still be considered a “tax.” .....even if the remaining provisions can operate as Congress designed them to operate, the Court must determine if Congress would have enacted them standing alone and without the unconstitutional...

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20180511/NEWS/180519968 https://www.statnews.com/2018/05/11/trump-drug-pricing-speech/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-denounces-middlemen-and-largely-spares-pharma-in-drug-pricing-speech/ http://www.bipc.com/trump-condemns-middlemen-in-drug-pricing-speech-modern-healthcare https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-health-202/2018/05/14/the-health-202-health-industry-appears-unfazed-by-trump-s-drug-pricing-speech/5af4ac5530fb042588799464/ http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/health-plans/eliminating-middlemen-trump-takes-aim-pbms-drug-pricing-speech http://www.bipc.com/trump-condemns-middlemen-in-drug-pricing-speech-modern-healthcare

In one of its most controversial decisions, the Supreme Court in 2012 upheld the constitutionality of a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandating individuals purchase qualifying health insurance or else pay a fine, with Chief Justice John Roberts casting the deciding vote in favor of the law. However, nearly six years later, a provision included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed mostly along party lines in December 2017, may soon force Roberts to reevaluate his decision, potentially ending the health care law without a single vote being cast in Congress.In Roberts’ majority opinion, which saved the...

Most physicians don't think it's their responsibility to address patients' social determinants of health, according to a new survey from Leavitt Partners. Nearly half of doctors reported that their patients would benefit from food assistance, affordable housing and transportation to appointments. Yet well over 50% of doctors didn't think they or insurers have a role in providing that help. Physicians' resistance to address social determinants comes as providers are increasingly responsible for patients' well-being with the transition to value-based payment models. Research indicates an individual's health status is tied to their social environment, so providers are currently rethinking—and debating—the services...

Beware: Many breast- and prostate-cancer patients are getting diagnosed late in the game because of ObamaCare’s skimpy cancer-screening regulations. Remember when President Barack Obama repeatedly told Americans that greedy doctors were over-testing and over-treating them, and federal rules were needed to stop it? Now the evidence is in: Some of those rules are killing us. Inadequate cancer screening is forcing women to undergo mastectomies and men to endure aggressive treatments with side effects. Many could have avoided these outcomes, as well as an increased risk of death, if they’d been diagnosed earlier. Last Friday, Dr. Elisa Port, chief of breast...

Millions of Americans could soon enjoy lower health insurance premiums, thanks to a new Trump administration rule. The rule, which was proposed in January and will likely be finalized by early summer, would make it easier for self-employed individuals and small businesses to band together and purchase coverage through association health plans. AHPs offer small businesses and sole proprietors an alternative to overpriced plans sold through the Obamacare exchanges. In 2018, average individual premiums on the healthcare.gov exchanges were nearly twice as high ($444 per month) as average individual-market premiums in 2013, the year before most of Obamacare took effect....

Republican Sen. John McCain says former President Obama called to thank him after his dramatic vote against his party’s Obamacare repeal bill last year. In a copy of his forthcoming book, “The Restless Wave,” obtained by the Daily Beast, McCain said he appreciated the call from Obama. The two ran against each other in the 2008 presidential election. “Among the people who called to thank me was President Obama,” McCain writes. “I appreciated the call, but, as I said, my purpose hadn’t been to preserve his signature accomplishment but to insist on a better alternative, and to give the Senate...

A new venture capital firm co-led by former CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt will seek to invest in healthcare technology and service companies that deliver innovative care to low-income, high-needs populations. Town Hall Ventures will focus on building companies that provide higher-quality and lower-cost care for poor, underserved communities, particularly involving Medicare, Medicaid, risk-based care, complex care and the social determinants of health. Its leaders see a big opportunity to improve care for the 120 million people in Medicare and Medicaid through innovations such as better models for delivering care at home or in other comfortable and low-cost settings. "We are...

Maryland’s Obamacare insurers are asking for a 30 percent average rate increase for 2019, with some plans seeking hikes as high as 91 percent. The proposals Monday come a few days after Virginia insurers also called for double-digit rate increases. Democrats have pounced on the rate hikes to say they are examples of how President Trump’s health policies are leading to high premiums. Maryland Obamacare insurers CareFirst, BlueCross, and BlueShield plan to raise rates for an HMO plan on the law’s exchanges by 18 percent, and 91 percent for an extended network, or PPO, plan. Kaiser Permanente, the state’s other...

Sadly it’s becoming clear that Democrats believe their own ridiculous lies. While Speaking to the Teamsters Union Local 630 in Los Angeles this weekend, Maxine Waters had another public meltdown as she laughably claimed that “It has not been Republicans, it is always Democrats. We’ve been there for you. We’re gonna stay there for you. And damn this president!” Waters went on rambling tirade as she tried to convince the group that the Democrat Party is on the side of working class Americans, as she simultaneously admitted many middle-class Americans have felt abandoned by their representatives in D.C. “We’re in...

President Barack Obama called Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) last year to thank him for casting the decisive vote against legislation that would have effectively repealed Obamacare, according to an excerpt of McCain’s forthcoming memoir obtained by NBC. In McCain’s memoir, The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations, which he coauthored with longtime aide Mark Salter, he describes receiving a call from Obama in July after crushing Republican hopes of dismantling the former president’s signature domestic achievement. Obama called to say thank you and added that he was “counting on me to be an outspoken...