Tag: Obamacare

Perfidy Meets Putty – Congressional Democrats Betray Voters, by Ralph Nader

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)2 Comments

Dandelion Salad by Ralph Nader The Nader Page, Mar. 12, 2021 March 16, 2021

Do you remember the promises made by the Democratic Party’s presidential and Congressional candidates on universal health insurance? You can forget their pledges and somber convictions now that your votes put the Democrats in charge of the House and the Senate. The Democrats’ leaders are abandoning their promises and retreating into a cowardly corporatist future.

Perfidy Meets Putty – Congressional Democrats Betray Voters, by Ralph Nader

Koch network pushes private-sector health-care agenda to counter Biden’s public option

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Koch network pushes private-sector health-care agenda to counter Biden’s public option

Called the “personal option,” the plan is a collection of policy proposals geared toward the private sector that focuses on tax breaks, expanding health savings accounts and slashing regulations. The plan’s name and messaging are intended to contrast with Democrats’ push for a public option, which would give people a chance to buy in to a government-run health-care program that would compete with private insurers.

Xavier Becerra, Biden Nominee to Lead HHS, Said in 2017 That He ‘Absolutely’ Supports Medicare for All

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Xavier Becerra, Biden Nominee to Lead HHS, Said in 2017 That He ‘Absolutely’ Supports Medicare for All

As the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, “Although Mr. Becerra has endorsed Medicare for All… people familiar with the process said he supports Mr. Biden’s plan to expand healthcare access through a public option.”

The New York Times similarly reported that “a source familiar with the selection said Mr. Becerra would support the president-elect’s call for strengthening and preserving the ACA and would not be pushing Medicare for All while in office.”

Trump promises seniors $200 prescription drug gift certificates, but questions abound

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Trump promises seniors $200 prescription drug gift certificates, but questions abound

The administration is getting its authority to ship the coupons from a Medicare demonstration program, a White House spokesman told STAT in a statement. The nearly $7 billion required to send the coupons, he said, would come from savings from Trump’s “most favored nations” drug pricing proposal. That regulation has also not yet been implemented — meaning the Trump administration is effectively pledging to spend $6.6 billion in savings that do not currently exist. The cards, he said, would be “actual discount cards for prescription drug copays.”

Related:

Trump’s ‘most favored nation’ executive order on drug prices is a scam for seniors

Yet none of these reference pricing proposals show how they would directly reduce out-of-pocket costs for seniors at the pharmacy counter. For example, an Avalere study found that fewer than 1% of older adults in Medicare Part B would see a reduction in out-of-pocket costs as a result of the international pricing index model. In all likelihood, the prices of drugs in other countries will be more affected by the executive order than U.S. drug prices.

How Trump Is Losing His Base

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

How Trump Is Losing His Base

It is critical to listen for what they did not say: “What an ass I was to vote for that guy in the last election.” They did not regret or say they made a mistake. All working Americans have been in financial trouble since the 2008 crash, and rising health care problems and disabilities, health care costs and deductibles, and empowered insurance and pharmaceutical companies were an explosive brew. It is why many working people voted for Trump in 2016. It is why many working-class Democrats of color and millennials failed to turn out and defend Obamacare in midterm elections and in 2016. All these voters had reasons for those choices.