WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate debate over health care has made it painfully clear: behind their self-confident “repeal and replace” slogan, Republicans were never united around an alternative to “Obamacare.” Rolling back a government program that’s benefiting millions of people is hard enough — maybe next to impossible — but Republicans compounded their own difficulties […]
health care
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Senate opens Obamacare debate at last, but outcome in doubt
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prodded by President Donald Trump, a bitterly divided Senate voted, at last, Tuesday to move forward with the Republicans’ long-promised legislation to repeal and replace “Obamacare.” There was high drama as Sen. John McCain returned to the Capitol for the first time after being diagnosed with brain cancer to cast a decisive […]
advertisement
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Health care spending is out of control
WASHINGTON — If we learned anything from the bitter debate over the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) — which seems doubtful — it is that we cannot discuss health care in a way that is at once compassionate and rational. This is a significant failure, because providing and financing health care has become, over the past […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
John McCain making dramatic Senate return for crucial health vote
WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain will make a dramatic return to the Senate for a make-or-break vote on Republican health care legislation Tuesday just days after getting diagnosed with brain cancer, giving an emotional and arithmetical boost to his party’s reeling effort to repeal Obamacare. The decision by the 80-year-old senator to travel to Washington […]
Posted inLetters, sj-web
Need universal health care
I have a friend who is 63 years old. She and her husband both lost Medicaid. Her husband works but cannot afford Obamacare because it cost them $600 a month and that is too much for their income. Her husband has a surgery scheduled that will cost them around $40,000. My friend is also disabled […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Republican leaders plan to vote Tuesday on health care bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders pushed toward a Senate vote next Tuesday on resurrecting their nearly flat-lined health care bill. Their uphill drive was further complicated by the ailing GOP Sen. John McCain’s potential absence and a dreary report envisioning that the number of uninsured Americans would soar. The White House and GOP leaders fished […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Congress achieves bipartisan failure on Obamacare
By Megan McArdle Bloomberg View For months, I’ve been watching in a sort of wonder as Republicans crafted the most unpopular major bill in living memory. Could they really mean to make a suicide charge at this –not some longstanding Republican goal, like dismantling the welfare state or slashing through the regulatory thicket, but pushing […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
McConnell prods senators on health care bill amid dim odds
WASHINGTON (AP) — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spurred Republican senators Thursday to resolve internal disputes that have pushed their marquee health care bill to the brink of oblivion. Yet the GOP’s reeling effort to dismantle much of President Barack Obama’s health care law may face even longer odds because of Sen. John McCain’s jarring diagnosis […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Donald Trump pushes GOP senators to restart Obamacare repeal-and-replace effort
WASHINGTON — Hoping to avoid a humiliating political defeat, President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded that Republican senators resume their efforts to approve a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, insisting that lawmakers are “very close.” A day after the GOP strategy to rollback the ACA appeared dead, Trump invited Republican senators […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Donald Trump making last-ditch effort after health bill collapse
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says it’s probably time to “just let Obamacare fail” after the latest humiliating heath bill collapse in the Senate. Still, he’s making a last-ditch effort to find some way to revive his party’s seemingly failed efforts on the bill. Trump stayed largely on the sidelines as Majority Leader Mitch […]