Tag Archives: Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Medicaid Expansion, COVID death rates and John Merrill’s racist tweets SOS joins in protests with other organizations at the Alabama State Capitol

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The SaveOurselves Movement for Justice and Democracy (SOS) has been protesting at the State Capitol in Montgomery, every other week, since mid-March when the coronavirus pandemic began in Alabama.
The focus of the SOS demonstrations has been to persuade Governor Ivey and the Alabama Legislature to expand Medicaid to cover 300,000 or more people, caught in the gap between Medicaid eligibility and coverage on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. The expansion would assist people whose family income was up to 138% of the poverty level, with Federally subsidized health insurance coverage.
SOS also highlighted the issue of the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on Black and Brown communities, especially the Alabama Black Belt; high coronavirus rates in Alabama’s jails and prisons; and the overall inequities of the treatment of Black, Brown and poor people by the health care system.
During most of October and into November, SOS members suspended protests to concentrate on the General Election on November 3 in local communities. SOS is also working to help in the Georgia Senatorial races with funds, phone banking and possible trips to assist people with canvassing and poll watching.
In the last few weeks SOS has joined with other organizations in Alabama to continue protests for issues related to its general mission and objectives. On September 10, 2020, SOS sponsored a march and demonstration from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, up to the Capitol Steps in Montgomery, with six people in wheelchairs and several more on walkers from around the state.
September 22, 2020, SOS joined with the Poor Peoples Campaign of Alabama in a demonstration on the steps of the State Capitol to take a pledge to join the “National Non-violent Army for Medicaid Expansion”. The Alabama protestors joined those in Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Pennsylvania, where people are coming together in “Medicaid Marches” to demand their right to health and healthcare.
These Medicaid Marches are being led by the uninsured and underinsured, unhoused people, low-wage, essential and undocumented workers, healthcare workers, clergy, and others. The marches are the first coordinated nationwide push of the Nonviolent Medicaid Army, a vehicle to build the power of poor and dispossessed people, led by those on or excluded from Medicaid, which remains the only public healthcare option for the 140 million poor and low-income people in the country. This emerging new force is modeled after what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned as a “multi-racial, intergenerational, nonviolent army of the poor.”
In 2018, there were 87 million people who were uninsured or underinsured. This year, close to 12 million people have already lost their employer-sponsored healthcare. Millions fall into a coverage gap where private insurance is too expensive but their income is above the Medicaid cutoff.
Approximately 22,000-27,000 die every year from being uninsured. And state legislatures around the country are making it clear that they will seek to fill the budget holes created by the pandemic-triggered global economic crisis by cutting life-saving public programs like Medicaid.
In Alabama, 500 to 700 people a year are dying because Governor Ivey has been unwilling to expand Medicaid coverage under the ACA. This prompted John Zippert, SOS leader and Chair of the Greene County Health System Board to charge that “Gov. Ivey is a mass murderer for not expanding Medicaid.”
Rev. Liz Theoharis, Co-Chair of the Poor Peoples Campaign says, “Fully funding Medicaid, and expanding it to all U.S. residents, is not beyond our means. Just one military contract could cover the cost of expanding Medicaid in 14 states. Although we are constantly sold the lie of scarcity, we have the money to fully fund universal single-payer healthcare, if only our government wanted to.”
On this Monday, November 23, SOS joined with the Poor Peoples Campaign in a caravan to surround the State Capitol in Montgomery to memorialize the more than 250,000 people nationally, who have died from COVID-19. Of the dead, 3,500 are Alabamians.
On Tuesday, November 24, members of SOS joined with Project Say Something (PSS) which is committed to confronting racial injustice in Alabama, demanding accountability from the Alabama Secretary of State. In recent weeks, Mr. John Merrill has used his personal Twitter account – where he describes himself as “Representing the People of Alabama as their 53rd Secretary of State” – to retweet and promote hate speech and harsh language designed to divide and intimidate Alabamians.
As community voices and trusted leaders, PSS believes it imperative to hold elected officials accountable for their public behavior and use of racist, anti-Black rhetoric in public forums. John Merrill’s actions reflect poorly on the office he holds and disrespects the vast majority of constituents he has been entrusted to serve. SOS worked with PSS to demonstrate on the steps of the Capitol.
For more information contact SOS through its website and Facebook pages as well as contacting ANSC at 838 South Court Street in Montgomery; phone 205/262-0932.

Newswire: ‘Through the Roof’ prescription drug prices hit communities of color the hardest

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Pharmacist Leonard L. Edloe

By Hazel Trice Edney

TriceEdneyWire.com) – Seventy-three-year-old Leonard L. Edloe, a pharmacist of 50 years and pastor of a predominately Black church in Middlesex County, Va., knows the personal and professional sides of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes well. He also knows the astronomical costs of prescription medications and the related financial struggles.
His father—also named Leonard L. Edloe—opened the first of their four family-owned pharmacies in 1948. But he was only 65 when he came home from work one day, sat down, had a sandwich and a beer and then died of a massive heart attack. It was a major emotional blow to lose his father and mentor that way. But then Edloe’s sister died at 60 and his brother at 54 – also both of heart attacks.
“I had to get out,” he said sternly, reflecting on his now determined self-care through exercise and healthy eating. “I’m 73 now.”
For decades, Edloe has been a prominent household family name in Richmond, Va. where his father’s first pharmacy was established. Since his family was upper middle class, he acknowledged they had no problem paying for prescription medication.  But given his father’s legacy and his own community service through his profession and dedication to help people in need, he is known for being on the cutting edge of the struggle to establish health equity. That includes exploring ways to make prescription drugs more affordable and accessible to all.
“The pricing has gone through the roof,” he said in an interview. “I mean, insulin – a month’s supply for some people – is $600.” That’s $7,200 a year. “Even the generic pricing has gone up,” he points out. “That has become worse because so many of the drugs are imported. Seventy-five percent of the drugs in the United States have an ingredient that’s made in China, India or Germany.”
Edloe explained that “Because there’s no control over pricing in the United States, they can basically charge what they want to; whereas in other countries, the government decides.”
As a former long-time member of Medicaid HMO Virginia Premier Health Plan’s board – Edloe pointed out that the drug used to treat Hepatitis C costs $1,000 a pill. But in Egypt, it is $1 a pill.
Edloe has expressed these concerns vehemently over the years in various leadership roles, including as chair of the Virginia Heart Association for the Mid-Atlantic Region; president of the American Pharmacists Association Foundation, and board member of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health Systems Authority.
“My blood pressure medicine for myself has tripled in price. I was paying $15 for three months. Now it’s $45,” he said. “Fortunately, that’s with my insurance.”
For people who lack health insurance, medicine for hypertension can cost upwards of $300-$600 a year, which, can be difficult to manage financially along with paying for other medications and bills. “So, it’s real serious,” Edloe concluded.
Community health workers point to problems in poor communities
Community health workers and researchers around the country have long recognized the increasing costs of prescription drugs and the difficult choices some people must make to afford them.
An article in Harvard Medical School’s Harvard Health Publishing, titled, “Millions of Adults Skip Medications Due to Their High Costs” highlights findings from a national survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics:
• Eight percent of adult Americans don’t take their medicines as prescribed because they can not afford them.
• Among adults under 65, sixpercent who had private insurance still skipped medicines to save money.
• 10 percent of people who rely on Medicaid skipped their medicines.
• Of those who are not insured, 14 percent skipped their medications because of cost.
• Among the nation’s poorest adults— those with incomes well below the federal poverty level — nearly 14 percent “did not take medications as prescribed to save money.” 
Those statistics get even worse when exploring prescription drug affordability in the Black community. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a division of the National Institute of Health, “Elderly black Medicare beneficiaries are more than twice as likely as white beneficiaries to not have supplemental insurance and to not fill prescriptions because they cannot afford them.”
Likewise, an AARP survey of 1,218 African-American voters last year found more than three in five (62 percent) said “prices of prescription drugs are unreasonable” and nearly half (46 percent) said they did not fill a prescription provided by their doctor, mainly because of cost.
The inability to pay for prescription drugs – even for those under the age of 65 – has significantly impacted Blacks, Latinos and other people of color due to economic disparities.
“Though the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reduced the number of uninsured Americans, over 28 million remain without insurance,” says PublicHealthPost.org. “More than half (55%) of uninsured Americans under the age of 65 are people of color. For those with no insurance, paying retail prices for medications is often financially impossible.”
This is no secret to those who have been working in the trenches on critical health care issues daily for years.
Ruth Perot, executive director/CEO of the Summit Health Institute for Research and Education, Inc. (SHIRE), serves the 92 percent Black and largely low-income families of Washington, D.C.’s 6th, 7th and 8th Wards. She has been working on grassroots health equity isuses in communities of color for more than 23 years.
“I am certainly aware of the extent to which folks have to, of course make that choice between the cost of a prescription and the other commitments that they have, whether it’s rent or whether it’s food on the table or something related to the education for their children,” Perot said. “The cost of prescription drugs has always been out of control. It’s been a major profit-motive driven industry. That’s been true for some time. And so, whatever we see at the national level from a policy perspective still hasn’t addressed the fundamental issue that the drug prescriptions cost too much…I don’t think the federal government has ever used its power as the principle buyer of drugs to get those prices down. So, it’s been a persistent problem for many, many, many years if not decades.”
Edloe, having owned pharmacies in predominately Black communities, vehemently agrees. In addition to his medical career, he also interfaces with the community as pastor of the New Hope Fellowship Church in Hartfield, Va. As he personally works to avoid his family’s history with heart disease, he passes along health lessons to his congregation, and is intimately familiar with their struggles to pay for prescription drugs. Currently working with two groups involving health disparities and pharmaceuticals, he says he believes the answer to achieve equity will ultimately be “some form of universal health care.”
But, there must also be a culture change, he said. “Because a lot of health care providers still are not trained and the materials are still not designed for diverse communities. So it’s all about getting equity – not equality – but equity in health care. Because there’s a big difference. If everybody stands beside the fence and the fence is six feet and you’re 6 feet 5 inches tall, you can see over it, but other people can’t. Equity means you might have to give them a stool to see.”
This article is part of a series on the impact of high prescription drug costs on consumers made possible through the 2020 West Health and Families USA Media Fellowship.
 

Newswire: DNC launches diverse media advertising campaign ahead of the tenth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act

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Ads will highlight Trump’s broken health care promises to African American and Latino voters in key battleground

From The Democratic National Committee

Today, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) launched a diverse media advertising campaign in 6 key battlegrounds (AZ, MI, NC, PA, FL, WI), beginning with ads highlighting Republicans’ broken promises on the issue of health care to voters of color ahead of the tenth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The DNC is beginning this campaign with a significant initial buy and will make an overall six-figure investment in minority-focused media outlets.
“Victory in 2020 will be won in Black and Brown communities throughout the country, and we cannot afford to take a single vote for granted,” said DNC Chair Tom Perez. “President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Democrats in Congress made access to health care a reality for millions of people, especially in communities of color, and Trump’s agenda has trampled on that progress. In a time where America is facing a pandemic, it is important for voters to remember who has their back when it comes to protecting and expanding access to health care. These investments in diverse media outlets are happening much earlier in the cycle than ever before and we will continue to engage voters where they are on this critical issue, as often as possible.”
The print ads, which will be published in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were placed through the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and will commemorate the passage of the ACA and the benefits it provides, including protections for preexisting conditions.:
The radio ads will be produced by a Hispanic-owned creative agency. The ads will air on Spanish-language stations throughout Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Florida and will also focus on the ACA’s passage and Democrats’ commitment to providing access to quality, affordable health care to the Latino community.

Newswire : ‘Morally Wrong’: former UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon condemns US for not having Universal Health Care

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 By Amanda Michelle Gomez, ThinkProgress

Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

Failing to provide health care to 29.3 million people is “unethical” and “politically wrong, morally wrong,” said former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in an interview with the Guardian. The U.S. is the only wealthy country without universal coverage — and Ban faults “powerful” interest groups within the pharmaceutical, hospitals, and doctors sector. “Here, the political interest groups are so, so powerful,” Ban said. “Even president, Congress, senators and representatives of the House, they cannot do much so they are easily influenced by these special interest groups.” Ban is hardly alone in his disillusionment with the U.S. health care system and is definitely not the first foreign leader to call the United States out. When President Donald Trump attacked Britain’s health system to slam Democrats running on universal health care, U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt blasted him back on Twitter, saying no one in his country “wants to live in a system where 28m people have no coverage.” It’s a well-known fact that the U.S. is an outlier in the developed world, as we spend more on health care but have worse health outcomes than other countries. Indeed, health spending is projected to rise 5.5 percent, on average, annually from 2017 to 2026 according to the federal health department. And while health spending is expected to make up nearly 20 percent of the U.S. economy in 2026, the uninsured population is also expected to rise. “It seems with Trump just undoing Obamacare, people were not happy first of all,” said Ban about the Trump administration’s reforms that, so far, have undermined the Affordable Care Act (ACA). “Ironically, it might have motivated people to think other ways, and influence their senators, and their Congressman to think the other way.” Ban’s observations hold. A recent poll finds a majority of the public favors single-payer, meaning they’d want to replace the current private-public insurance patchwork system with a single government plan. Support for single payer or Medicare for All became especially pronounced after Republicans tried to repeal and replace the ACA, jeopardizing quality insurance particularly for those with pre-existing conditions. Since Medicare for All garnered critical support from likely 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, health care industry groups launched a lobbying group against single-payer plans. The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future is comprised of major players including America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the American Medical Association, and the Federation of American Hospitals. Ban hopes California and New York will ultimately pass single-payer bills currently stalled in each state’s legislature, sparking a national wake-up call. “It will be either California or New York who will introduce this system,” he told the Guardian. “Then I think there will be many more states who will try to follow suit. I think that’s an encouraging phenomenon we see.” Ban made his comments as a member of The Elders, a peace and human rights organization launched by Nelson Mandela to promote ideas like universal health care. His interview with the Guardian isn’t the first time he’s criticized Trump for undermining coverage and urging states like California to embrace single payer. He recently spoke at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where he also said, “the good news is that at a state level things appear to be changing for the better.”

Newswire : Poll: 70% of Marketplace enrollees satisfied with Obamacare

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By Freddie Allen (Editor-In-Chief, NNPA Newswire)
President Donald Trump continues to sow confusion about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, shows that, although some of his tactics are working, many consumers still plan on signing up for healthcare during the open enrollment period.
The ACA open enrollment period started on November 1 and will end December 15 in most states and despite its critics, the law has effectively reduced the uninsured rate for Blacks; healthcare advocates have said that access to preventive care provided by the ACA could also limit the effects of healthcare disparities, like infant mortality rates and deaths from breast cancer among Black women.
Even though the ACA, also known as Obamacare, provided healthcare to millions of Americans—some of them Trump supporters—the current president has worked to cripple the law in tweets and actions.
Deep cuts to funding for advertising about the ACA are having expected results.
In previous years, television ads played a key role in educating people about open enrollment and the ins and outs of the ACA. Trump cut that advertising budget to the bone.
According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll, “few of those most likely to consider marketplace coverage report hearing or seeing any ads providing information about how to get insurance under the health care law.”
Less than 20 percent of the uninsured and just 12 percent of market enrollees said that they saw ads in the past 30 days that provided information about how to get insurance.
The poll also reported that just 5 percent of the uninsured and 25 percent of the marketplace enrollees were aware of the month when open enrollment ends in their state.
Despite White House efforts to discourage Americans from signing up for healthcare and the House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) claims that people would choose not buy Obamacare, if the government didn’t force them, 90 percent of marketplace enrollees said that they would continue to buy their own insurance, even if the government stopped enforcing the individual mandate.
Most marketplace enrollees like their health insurance under the ACA.
The KFF poll revealed that 70 percent of current marketplace enrollees are satisfied with their insurance choices.
“The vast majority (85 percent) of marketplace enrollees also say they plan to sign up for health insurance during the 2018 open enrollment period, and most of them (54 percent of the total marketplace enrollees) prefer to renew their current plan if it is available next year,” according to the KFF poll.
Most enrollees will also get help paying for healthcare through the ACA.
“Insurers are still required by law to provide reduced deductibles and co-pays for low-income marketplace enrollees,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives and co-executive director of the Foundation’s Program for the Study of Health Reform and Private Insurance. “Premiums are increasing, but consumers will also get more help.”
Even though consumers will get help paying for health insurance, this isn’t President Obama’s open enrollment; many things have changed so it’s important to start reviewing plans now.
Don’t just “auto-renew” your health insurance plan. Study your options carefully.
In previous years, the healthcare marketplace auto-renewed consumers for the upcoming coverage year. According to the KFF poll, almost 25 percent of marketplace enrollees were auto-renewed for their same plan or auto-reassigned to similar plans in 2016 for the 2017 coverage year.
But experts have said that the auto-renewal feature may not identify the subsidies that you’re eligible for accurately and when it comes to prescriptions or other life-saving services that you need, you’ll want to make sure that any similar plan fits your needs.
Remember, it’s best to enroll early; don’t wait until the last minute.
During previous enrollment periods, there has been a surge of interest as the deadline nears; that increased activity slowed down the responsiveness of HealthCare.gov and created longer wait times for the marketplace call center, said Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Log-in to HealthCare.gov, update your application for financial assistance, review your plan choices and what they cost, and select a plan for 2018,” said Pollitz. “If you want the same plan, select the same plan.”
Whether you choose the same health insurance plan or a new one, don’t wait until the last minute to make your decision. This year, thanks to Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, if you have questions about plans in the final hours of the enrollment period, you might just be on your own.

Newswire : ‘Huge Victory’: Progressives Vow to Keep Fighting GOP Health Bill After Vote Delay

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By: Adam Gabbatt ,The Guardian
health care demonstration
Health care protest

Progressive activists hailed a “huge victory” and a “giant step toward single-payer healthcare” on Tuesday, after Senate Republicans were forced to postpone a vote on their proposed healthcare bill.

Many warned, however, that the battle was not over, promising continued attempts to pressure Republican senators over the Fourth of July recess and beyond.
Thousands of activists from groups including Our Revolution, Indivisible and Planned Parenthood had spent the past week mounting frantic efforts to derail the legislation, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said would leave 22 million more people without health coverage over the next 10 years.

On Tuesday, after a number of GOP senators said they would not vote for the bill, the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, told his caucus he would delay the vote on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) until after the coming July 4 recess. There were five Republican Senators – Dean Heller, Susan Collins, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul.
“It’s beyond a victory,” said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, which encouraged members to pressure Republican senators to vote against the bill. “What people are saying is, ‘We want a society, we don’t want a market to protect our health.’”
The bill would have been a victory for insurance companies, DeMoro said, and senators’ apparent distaste for the legislation was a blow for both those companies and Republicans.
“I think this is a giant step toward single-payer healthcare – the fact that they defeated the Republicans – because ultimately, embedded in that is a defeat for free-market fundamentalism.” What people are saying is, ‘We want a society, we don’t want a market to protect our health.”
Indivisible, a progressive organization established after the 2016 election to oppose Donald Trump and Republican policies, mobilized activists from more than 3,000 chapters across the country to protest the bill. “It is a huge, huge victory,” said Ezra Levin, Indivisible’s executive director. “But it’s not a final victory.”

Levin said Indivisible’s ultimate goal was to defeat the bill outright, but the short-term plan had been to delay a vote until after the Senate recess.
House Republicans who voted for the first and second iterations of their own healthcare bill, which passed in May, faced angry receptions at town hall events during the April and May recesses.
“McConnell was trying to rush it through this week because he knew Fourth of July recess was coming up,” Levin said. “He knew senators would be heading back to their states and hearing from their constituents, so he knew it was going to get harder if the vote was delayed.”
It was “not a foregone conclusion” that the bill would be defeated, Levin said. “The challenge now is going to keep the pressure up. We cannot forget what happened on the House side. This is a huge blow against Trumpcare but in order to actually defeat this, pressure will have to continue.”
Winnie Wong, co-founder of People for Bernie, an independent activist group with more than a million supporters, echoed Levin’s concern but praised collaboration between dozens of leftwing groups in the weeks leading up to the delay of the bill.
“It’s an effort that is being held up by almost all progressive groups,” she said, “whether they have anything to do with the Democratic party or not, I think there is a unification between all progressives right now around making sure Trumpcare does not go through the Senate.
“All these Republican lawmakers are really feeling the heat from their constituents. They are not stupid. And in some states you see them doing the right thing.” Our Revolution, a progressive organization founded in the wake of Bernie Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, said supporters had made “almost 8,000 calls” to the Senate to oppose the bill.
“Today’s delay is a victory for the 22 million people who are at risk of losing coverage,” said Shannon Jackson, Our Revolution’s executive director. “As senators head back home for the Fourth of July holiday we will continue to demand they vote ‘no’ on this immoral and disastrous bill.”
The Working Families Party (WFP), meanwhile, organized weekly protests outside the offices of Nevada senator Dean Heller and a sit-in in the office of Susan Collins of Maine over the past few weeks. It also held a demonstration at Reagan national airport in nearby Arlington, Virginia, on Friday which targeted senators flying home for the weekend.
“An unprecedented resistance movement has knocked Trumpcare off course,” said WFP national director Dan Cantor. “But we will not stop organizing, protesting or speaking out until this immoral proposal is crushed, discarded and buried.”
With the threat of a vote after recess week, however, Richards warned that it was “now more important than ever for people to make their voices heard”.
“Republican leadership needs to hear over and over that the people of America will not stand to see healthcare stripped from millions, and they will not stand to see Planned Parenthood’s patients lose their access to healthcare,” she said.
“Now, as senators go home for recess next week, it’s time to send the message that we need to stop this harmful bill once and for all.”

Under Trump, unemployment rate rises for Black workers

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By Freddie Allen (Managing Editor, NNPA Newswire)

blackmanjobless
 Black man who has lost his job
During President Donald Trump’s first full month in office, the Black unemployment rate rose as the White unemployment rate fell, according to the latest jobs report.
Key employment indicators show that Black workers lost ground in February. The unemployment rate for Black workers increased from 7.7 percent in January to 8.1 percent in February. The labor force participation rate, which is the share of the population that is employed or looking for work, ticked down from 62.4 percent to 62.3 percent in February. The employment-population ratio, which is the share of the population that has jobs, also declined for Black workers from 57.5 percent to 57.3 percent in February.
Meanwhile, the White unemployment rate inched closer to 4 percent, decreasing from 4.3 percent in January to 4.1 percent in February. The labor force participation rate and the employment-population ratio for White workers also improved.
The jobless rate for White men 20 years-old and over dipped below 4 percent in February (3.8 percent). Even though the labor force participation rate for White men slipped from 72.1 percent to 72 percent, the employment-population ratio for White men increased from 69.2 percent in January to 69.3 percent last month.
The unemployment rate for White women 20 years-old and over decreased from 3.9 percent in January to 3.7 percent in February. The labor force participation rate and the employment-population ratio for White women also showed gains in February, which indicates that White women were able to join the labor market and find work at higher rates last month compared to January.
Black men fared worse than other adult groups in the job market last month. The unemployment rate for Black men over 20 years-old increased from 7.3 percent in January to 7.8 percent in February. The labor force participation rate slipped from 68.1 percent in January to 67.8 percent in February. The employment-population ratio also declined, falling from 63.1 percent to 62.5 percent in February, the biggest decline for any adult group that month.
Not only did the unemployment rate for both Black men and women 20 years-old and over move in the opposite direction to their White counterparts, the share of Black men and women that looked for jobs and found work decreased from January to February.
Before his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump often questioned the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, but when the latest report was released on March 10, White House officials expressed their enthusiasm about the results.
During the press briefing after February’s jobs report was released, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked if President Trump believed that February’s jobs report was accurate. Spicer answered, “[President Trump] said to quote him very clearly, ‘They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.”Laughter was heard audibly in the White House Press Briefing Room.
Even as the White House appeared to be claiming another victory on the jobs front, Ben White, the chief economic correspondent for POLITICO and a CNBC contributor noted that February’s big jobs number was very similar to 2016 and 2015. “Hard to see any Trump bump in these numbers. Nearly identical to last two Febs. Feb. 2015: 238K Feb 2016: 237K Feb. 2017: 235K,” White tweeted. Others said that February’s jobs report was just a continuation of President Obama’s policies.
In a statement about the latest jobs report, Michael Madowitz, an economist for the Center for American Progress, said that the current Labor market trends originating in the Obama years continued this month, with 235,000 jobs added and the unemployment rate decreasing slightly to 4.7 percent.
“Since the employment recovery began in February 2010, we’ve added nearly 16 million jobs, and the steady tightening of the labor market has finally started to deliver wage growth for workers, increasing 2.8 percent over the past year,” Madowitz said in the statement. “These statistics show that the economy has continued to build on the foundation and success of the past few years and tell the story of the economy far more accurately than the Trump administration’s focus on the 30 large companies in the Dow.”
Madowitz continued: “In his first 49 days in office, President Donald Trump has discussed loosening oversight in financial markets, which may force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to prevent financial bubbles. Rolling back protections, updating overtime standards, and endangering Americans’ retirement savings have delighted Trump’s Wall Street and corporate base but are cold comfort for the American worker.”
In a statement about the February’s jobs report, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said that President Trump inherited a growing economy from his predecessor. “President Trump claimed he was handed ‘a mess’ by the Obama Administration, but we know that is not accurate,” said Scott. “Under President Obama the unemployment rate was cut in half while GDP and median income rose.”
Scott quickly pivoted to the embattled Affordable Care Act (ACA), adding that the Republican bill to repeal and replace the ACA would cause millions to lose their insurance, force families to pay more for fewer protections, defund Planned Parenthood, and give huge tax cuts to people in the top 1 percent.
Scott concluded: “[The Republicans] have gambled with families’ health care as they continue to undermine the Affordable Care Act and the insurance Marketplaces. They have put forward policy ideas that would weaken consumer protections and increase costs for families under ‘Trumpcare.’ Working families deserve better. Congressional Republicans and President Trump must change their course and actually begin working on solutions to build an economy that benefits all of America’s working families.”

Obamacare repeal will increase the number of uninsured by 24 million by 2026, CBO says

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             By: Erin Kelly , USA TODAY

 

Empty Hospital Bed in a Ward

 

 

WASHINGTON — A Republican bill to replace Obamacare would lead to 14 million fewer Americans with health insurance by 2018 and 24 million fewer by 2026, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said Monday in an analysis that could make the controversial legislation even tougher for GOP leaders to push through Congress.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said the projections of uninsured were too high and called them “just not believable.”

Most of the initial increase in uninsured people in 2018 would come from consumers deciding not to buy insurance because they would no longer have to pay a penalty for failing to do so, the CBO said in an analysis done with the Joint Committee on Taxation. However, others would stop buying insurance because premiums will go up over the next two years, the report said.

The bill is expected to raise the average premiums that Americans would have to pay before 2020, and then lower them after that, the CBO projected. In 2018 and 2019, the average premiums for single policyholders who do not get insurance from their employers would be 15% to 20% higher than under Obamacare, the analysis said. Starting in 2020, those premiums would begin to go down. By 2026, average premiums would be roughly 10% lower than under the existing Affordable Care Act, the CBO projected.

However, younger Americans would benefit more than older ones. The GOP bill would allow insurers to charge five times more for older patients than younger ones — rather than three times more as allowed under Obamacare, the report said. The effect, the report said, would be “substantially reducing premiums for young adults and substantially raising premiums for older people.”

“If ever there was a war on seniors, Trumpcare — this bill — is it,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.

The number of uninsured Americans would rise dramatically during that same period as the Republican replacement plan phases out Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, the CBO said.

“In 2026, an estimated 52 million people would be uninsured, compared with 28 million who would lack insurance that year under current law,” the analysis said.

The Republican bill would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the 2017-2026 period, according to the CBO. The biggest savings would come from reductions in outlays for Medicaid and from the elimination of the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies for low-income Americans to buy insurance.

Administration officials said the CBO overestimated the number of people who would lose insurance and did not take into account future phases of the Republican proposal. However, unlike the current GOP bill under consideration, any subsequent legislation would have to attract support from Democratic senators, who are unlikely to provide it.

One of the subsequent steps that Republicans are pushing is for Price to use his administrative power to reduce regulations to inspire more insurance companies to participate, which Price said would give consumers more choices at competitive costs. “They’re going to be able to buy a coverage policy that they want,” Price said.

The CBO report came as Republican leaders in Congress were already scrambling to keep their fractious caucus together on the bill. Some conservatives have denounced the plan as “Obamacare lite,” arguing that it does not go far enough in scrapping the Affordable Care Act and creates new entitlements by replacing the current law’s federal subsidies for low-income people with tax credits. At the same time, some moderate Republicans in the Senate fear their low-income constituents and seniors in nursing homes will lose coverage because the legislation phases out the expansion of Medicaid that Obamacare helped fund in many states.

Democrats, who were already fiercely opposed to the legislation, said the CBO score underscores that President Trump was wrong when he promised “insurance for everybody” under the GOP plan.

“The CBO score shows just how empty the president’s promises, that everyone will be covered and costs will go down, have been,” Schumer said. “This should be a looming stop sign for the Republicans’ repeal effort.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is leading the push for the bill, saying it is the best hope that Republicans have of ending Obamacare and passing a replacement bill under a fast-track budget procedure that cannot be blocked by Senate Democrats.

“This report confirms that the American Health Care Act will lower premiums and improve access to quality, affordable care,” Ryan said. “CBO also finds that this legislation will provide massive tax relief, dramatically reduce the deficit, and make the most fundamental entitlement reform in more than a generation. These are things we are achieving in just the first of a three-pronged approach.”

 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Ryan is wrong when he says Republicans want to kill Obamacare as “an act of mercy” because it is in a death spiral of rising costs and decreasing insurance choices for consumers. She said that 24 million more uninsured Americans by 2026 is “a remarkable figure” that underscores the need for GOP leaders to scrap their bill. “It speaks remarkably to the cruelty of a bill that the Speaker calls an act of mercy,” she told reporters Monday. “In terms of insurance coverage, it’s immoral.”

The Congressional Budget Office, which was created by Congress in 1974, is a non-partisan group of economists and analysts that produces hundreds of cost estimates for Congress on proposed legislation each year. The office has a reputation for being impartial and its cost estimates — or “scores” — of bills are taken seriously by lawmakers as they decide whether to support legislation.

Republican leaders unveiled the American Health Care Act last week, and it has already been approved by the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It is scheduled to be taken up by the House Budget Committee on Wednesday, unless an expected snowstorm forces the Capitol to close. The bill will then go to the House Rules Committee, followed by a vote on the House floor as soon as next week. If the House passes the bill, it will be sent to the Senate for approval.

The GOP bill would no longer require Americans to buy health insurance. It also would replace direct federal subsidies with tax credits to help low-income people buy insurance, phase out the expansion of Medicaid, and allow insurance companies to charge older Americans more for their coverage. It increases the amount of money people can contribute to Health Savings Accounts, which are tax-exempt accounts that can be used to pay medical expenses.

Contributing: David Jackson

Rep. Sewell Statement on GOP Health Bill

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terri-sewell
Washington, D.C. – On Monday, Republicans in Congress released legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act. The GOP health bill would make large cuts to Medicaid, destabilize Medicare by reducing funding for the Medicare Trust Fund, and increase health costs for working and low-income families. Estimates suggest that 357,000 Alabamians are at risk of losing their coverage if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is repealed.
“For my constituents, access to affordable healthcare is a life or death issue,” said Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL). “After seven years of calling for the Affordable Care Act’s repeal, it is unconscionable that the best Republican leadership has to offer is a plan that cuts Medicaid, destabilizes Medicare, and takes insurance away from millions of hardworking Americans. In fact, estimates suggest that 357,000 Alabamians are at risk of losing their coverage if we repeal the ACA. Our access to care is a fundamental right, not a privilege. Protecting care for seniors, disabled Americans, and working and low-income families goes to the heart of who we are as a country. We cannot settle for a health plan that leaves millions of Americans without the coverage they need.”
Studies show that the GOP health plan would increase costs for the average enrollee by $1,542 if the bill were in effect today. At the same time, the proposed bill eliminates requirements for insurance companies to cover preventative care, and makes it possible for insurers to discriminate against seniors. By cutting Medicaid and reducing health assistance to low-income families, the health bill would reduce revenue for rural hospitals nationwide, 700 of which have been labeled as financially at risk.
Patients across Alabama’s 7th District would lose assistance under the GOP health plan. In Jefferson County, residents’ health coverage tax credits will be 33% lower than they were under the ACA.
Despite concerns raised by both Republicans and Democrats, House Republicans plan to move forward with consideration of the health bill in the Ways and Means Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday, March 8. Rep. Sewell is a member of the Ways and Means Committee and will participate in tomorrow’s markup of the GOP health bill.

How a repeal of the Affordable Care Act will affect Blacks

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By Glenn Ellis, Health columnist

acasigning President Barack Obama, Vice President Biden, members of Congress and guests before the signing of the ACA on March 23, 2010. PHOTO: The White House

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Racism has historically had a significant, negative impact on the health care of Blacks and other people of color in the United States. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is truly the first time that African-Americans have, collectively, had significant access to health care. It is noteworthy that America’s first African-American president is chiefly responsible for this access.

Improved access to care; Medicaid expansion; prevention medicine; and lifting of barriers for pre-existing conditions, are all aspects of the ACA that have been of great benefit to Blacks. But there is a thick air of uncertainty on the horizon.

In a few weeks, Donald John Trump will become the 45th president of the United States. It is unclear how quickly, or when, Trump’s vow to repeal and replace Obamacare will play out. But make no mistake, just like the adage, “when white folks catch a cold, black folks get pneumonia!”, a repeal of the ACA would disproportionately hurt blacks.

Republicans in Congress have put out their plans: to repeal most of the ACA without replacing it; doubling the number of uninsured people – from roughly 29 million to 59 million – and leave the nation with an even higher uninsured rate than before the ACA.

Let me point out a few ways that Blacks have, specifically, benefitted from the ACA, what many now call “Obamacare”. Given the low incomes of uninsured Blacks, nearly all (94 percent) are in the income range to qualify for the Medicaid expansion or premium tax credits. Nearly two thirds (62 percent) of uninsured Blacks have incomes at or below the Medicaid expansion limit, while an additional 31 percent are income-eligible for tax subsidies to help cover the cost of buying health insurance through the exchange marketplaces. Under the new law, insurance companies are banned from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition, such as cancer and having been pregnant.

Importantly, for people living with HIV there also new protections in the law that make access to health coverage more equitable including the expansion of Medicaid and in the private market, prohibition on rate setting tied to health status, elimination of preexisting condition exclusions, and an end to lifetime and annual caps. The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March 2010 provided new opportunities for expanding health care access, prevention, and treatment services for millions of people in the U.S., including many people with, or at risk for, HIV.

Safety net hospitals play a critical role in the nation’s health care system by serving low-income, uninsured and medically and socially vulnerable patients regardless of their ability to pay. Also, in agreeing to lower payments, hospitals in the 31 states that expanded Medicaid under the law, have made up that revenue in part through the Medicaid expansion.

These places are critical to the health of Black communities, and in the poorest neighborhoods. They have been among the loudest voices against repeal of the health law, as they could lose billions if the 20 million people lose the insurance they gained under the law. This could bring about widespread layoffs, cuts in outpatient care and services for the mentally ill, and even hospital closings.

Under the ACA, these hospitals have received subsidies (or credits) to provide care based on a patients’ income levels. Should this change, community hospitals may have more difficulty weathering the storm of an increase in the number of uninsured.

Admittedly, there are some real problems with the ACA as we have come to know it; not the least being steady increases in premiums (midrange plans increased 22 percent nationally in 2016, with the average premium set to rise 25 percent in 2017); nearly 70 percent of all ACA plan provider networks are narrower than promised; and the high-deductibles and co-pays. Perhaps the most universal complaint is the “individual mandate”, that requires everyone in the United States to have insurance, or face a financial penalty.

Republicans are dead set on repealing the Affordable Care Act. Congress will likely pass significant modifications to the Affordable Care Act this month, which will be signed by incoming President Trump. The plans they have proposed so far would leave millions of people without insurance and make it harder for sicker, older Americans to access coverage. No version of a Republican plan would keep the Medicaid expansion as Obamacare envisions it.

Donald Trump’s presidency absolutely puts the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in jeopardy. A full repeal is unlikely, but major changes through the budget reconciliation process (which cannot be filibustered) are nearly certain.

But let me be clear; changes are needed in the ACA, but the idea of dismantling it remains a troubling prospect for Blacks.