Tag: Health Insurance

Wisconsin Congressman reveals what the government shutdown is actually about

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Wisconsin Congressman reveals what the government shutdown is actually about

Oct 15, 2025: “Complete baloney.” US Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) wants Wisconsinites to know that the recurring Republican claim that Democrats are holding out on the federal budget because they want undocumented immigrants to receive health benefits is “manure.” What Democrats really want? Tax credits that provide subsidies for most people who buy health insurance on the federal marketplace—making health insurance more affordable. Pocan says people in Wisconsin and all over the country will find out in the next couple of weeks what insurance premium hikes will look like as they buy their health insurance through the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Pocan says with premiums going up and losing subsidies, “a couple, 60 years old, making $85,000 in my district could see somewhere between a $16,000 and $17,000 increase next year in their premiums.” Pocan hosted town halls throughout Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District this week—that’s not his own district—since Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien), who represents the 3rd, hasn’t been doing them. Pocan says he wants to give people a voice, let them know what’s happening, and answer questions. ✏️ 🎥 Salina Heller

7 Medicare Policies That Are Quietly Being Rewritten Without Public Input

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Medicare may seem like a stable program, but behind the scenes, critical policies are being tweaked — and not always with public notice. These changes can affect your benefits, cost-sharing, and care options long before you hear about them. Transparency is fading fast, making it harder for beneficiaries to weigh in or prepare. Knowing what’s changing helps you stay informed, even if the announcements don’t show up in your mailbox. Here are seven current shifts in Medicare that are unfolding quietly — and why you should care about each.

7 Medicare Policies That Are Quietly Being Rewritten Without Public Input

Abundance or scarcity?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Abundance is a new book that has been attracting attention and debate among mainstream economists and politicians.  It aims to explain to Democrat members in the US why their party lost the election to Trump (narrow as that result was).  The authors, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, writers at very liberal mainstream The New York Times and The Atlantic, respectively, argue that it was because the Democrats and supporters of ‘liberal democracy’ have lost their ability in government to carry out great projects that could deliver the things and services that working people (called the ‘middle class’ in America) need.

Abundance or scarcity?

Trump’s Medicaid reversal should worry Social Security recipients.

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Trump’s Medicaid flip-flop should worry any American on Social Security

House narrowly passes budget resolution containing $100B for defense

The House budget resolution would add about $3 trillion to the deficit in a decade while mandating deep cuts that threaten to significantly shrink Medicaid and food programs for low-income people. It also calls for the debt limit to be raised by $4 trillion.

Democrats decried the blueprint as a “betrayal of the middle class.”

Rep. Mark Takano of California, the top Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said the plan would harm 9 million veterans that rely on Medicaid for health insurance coverage and more than 1 million veterans who use the SNAP food assistance program, formerly known as food stamps.

He said the Republican budget blueprint would also “take a chainsaw” to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The resolution does not specify exact cuts, but it mandates committees find $2 trillion in total spending reductions to finance tax cuts or reduce the amount of the tax cuts.

Previously:

Speak Up Before VA Health Care Is Gutted #Project2025

Donald Trump’s Next Diversity Target: People With Disabilities

DOGE Sets Its Sights on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid

Listening to Soldiers Of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Opening quote.

Soldiers Of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire

Related:

The Rand Corporation: The Think Tank That Controls America (archived)

By the 1960s, America’s rivals were paying attention. The Soviet newspaper Pravda nicknamed RAND “the academy of science and death and destruction.” American outfits preferred to call them the “wizards of Armageddon.”

How can people support Luigi Mangione but vote in droves to deny health care to others?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

How can people support Luigi Mangione but vote in droves to deny health care to others?

Last week was a bizarre time to be queer on social media: Many cishet people voiced enthusiastic support for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, arguing that the health insurer’s denial of claims led to so many deaths that the murder was justified as retaliation. Meanwhile, Congress was passing a bill that would require an insurer (Tricare) to deny claims, and it was hard to get anyone to even pay attention to that.

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