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As Republicans prepare to vote on their health care bill, which does not fully repeal Obamacare, a number of Republicans say it’s a mistake to put their names to the plan: “Just let Obamacare collapse, then challenge the Democrats to come in and help us fix the mess they created,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News Friday morning, as lawmakers debated the latest iteration of the bill on the House floor. “President Trump’s going to be judged by the outcome of the legislation, and what I see in the House, I don’t think this legislation is going to move...

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Friday warned GOP opponents of the party’s healthcare plan that the measure’s failure could derail progress on other key aspects of Republicans’ policy agenda. In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Ryan said that a defeat of House Republicans’ bill repealing and replacing ObamaCare would be “momentum killing,” essentially having a domino effect on planned tax reform efforts, among other party goals. “Think of legislation as one train track with a bunch of trains on the track,” Ryan said. “If you don’t get these trains through the system, it slows everything else down."...

They screwed us and I am ANGRY!!!!! The Republicans gave us 123 pages of changes to a 12,000 page healthcare atrocity forced on us by Obama and the Democrats. Call your Representative and Senator and demand they go back and start from scratch. If they give us this, then the Republicans will own it with the Democrats. KILL OBAMACARE and start from scratch!!!!

Support for Obamacare is at an all-time high, according to two surveys released this week as Republican leaders continue to press the case for repeal amid fierce resistance at many town halls. The latest Health Tracking Poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 48% of Americans view the law favorably, compared to 42% who have an unfavorable view. This is the highest level of favorability measured in more than 60 Kaiser Health Tracking Polls conducted since 2010. The boost comes largely from independents, half of whom view Obamacare favorably compared to 39% who don’t. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats continue...

Who knew that Obamacare provides for a “Regular Corps” and a “Ready-Reserve Corps” of officers and individuals who are appointed by the president? Commissioned officers are subject to active duty at the call of the surgeon general. The new law provides $17.5 million in each of the first four years to recruit and train these reserves. During his campaign, Obama said: “We cannot continue to rely only on our military. … We’ve got to have a civilian security force just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to...

Leaders for the health insurance industry, state insurance commissioners and brokers warned Wednesday that more health plans almost certainly will defect from Affordable Care Act marketplaces unless Congress and the Trump administration provide some concrete assurances within the next two months. Unless the government promises to continue subsidies and other features of the law for at least another year, some states probably will not have any insurers selling health plans to individuals buying coverage on their own for 2018, the witnesses warned at a Senate hearing. “I think we would lose more insurance companies,” said Marilyn Tavenner, president of America’s...

The Trump administration said Thursday night it is pulling back advertising to promote HealthCare.gov as open enrollment draws to a close for this year. The Health and Human Services Department said in a statement that the government has pulled back about $5 million in ads as part of an effort to cut costs. The statement said HHS has already spent more than $60 million to promote sign-ups this year under former President Barack Obama’s health care law. Former Obama officials immediately accused the new administration of “sabotage.” …

A Republican initiative aimed at repealing the Affordable Care Act “is about denying women healthcare” and “disempowering women,” NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue said on Capitol Hill Thursday. Speaking at a press conference held by House Democratic leaders to protest GOP plans to repeal the ACA and defund Planned Parenthood, Hogue said President-elect Donald Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan and the GOP-controlled Senate have “no mandate to take away our healthcare.” “More Americans voted for Democratic leadership in the White House and the Senate than voted for the Republicans,” she said. Hogue also cited “reports” saying “that Trump voters are...

President-elect Donald Trump is reminding Republicans that Democrats “own the failed ObamaCare disaster” and should not “let the Schumer clowns out of this web.” In three tweets on Wednesday morning, Trump said: “Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases…like the 116% hike in Arizona. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don’t let the Schumer clowns out of this web…massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight...

Setting up more conflict with the Republican-led legislature, new North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday announced plans to expand Medicaid through the federal health care overhaul, even though a state law specially prevents such unilateral action. Cooper, the attorney general for the past 16 years before narrowly beating GOP Gov. Pat McCrory in November, announced at a New-Year economic forum that he plans to file paperwork with federal regulators by Friday. Cooper’s action comes in the waning days of the administration of President Barack Obama, who championed the 2010 health care law and wants to protect his legacy,...

As California lawmakers return to Sacramento on Wednesday, liberal dreams of expanding safety-net benefits and providing health coverage to immigrants are giving way to a new vision revolving around a feverish push to protect gains racked up in the past. After years of pushing forward a progressive agenda, legislative Democrats will be pushing back against conservative policies from President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Congress. Instead of expanding Medi-Cal health coverage to adult immigrants who can’t prove they’re legally in the country, Democrats are now concentrating on how to retain health coverage for those who already have it. And anti-poverty...

Eager to stop Republicans from destroying his signature health care law, President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers will meet next week to try to forge a common strategy. Obama also plans a major valedictory speech in Chicago, his hometown, shortly before his presidency ends. Obama will travel to the Capitol on Wednesday morning for the meeting with House and Senate Democrats, according to an invitation sent to lawmakers. The White House is casting it as an effort to unite Democrats behind a plan to protect the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, before Republicans have a chance to settle...

Republicans’ grip on all levers of power stands as a mandate to the GOP-led Congress, which will move swiftly to try to undo eight years of outgoing President Barack Obama’s agenda. With Republican President-elect Donald Trump weeks away from assuming office, GOP lawmakers plan to open the 115th Congress on Tuesday and immediately take steps to repeal Obama’s health care law. Beyond that, they’ll look at a tax overhaul, reversing Obama-era environmental regulations and other conservative priorities. Republicans will face some obstacles. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says Democrats “stand ready to fight vigorously” to protect health care and other...

President Barack Obama says one of his missions after leaving office will be to develop a new generation of leaders on issues such as climate change, criminal justice reform and expanding health insurance coverage. In a wide-ranging interview with NPR, Obama said he wants to ensure that young people working on those issues have “whatever resources, credibility, spotlight that I can bring to help them rise up.” Obama said in the interview airing Monday that the issues he cares most about will be well served when that new generation moves into positions of authority. …

Atherton resident Evan Collins lives in the nation’s second priciest ZIP code, where $4 million barely buys you a fixer-upper.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Wednesday that House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) proposal to cut Medicaid spending over time to help balance the federal budget would prevent seniors from seeing the doctor of their choosing. “And I might add with what they want to do to the Affordable Care Act and what they want to do in the Ryan budget to Medicaid — a trillion dollars over 10 years taken out of Medicaid,” Pelosi said. “Two thirds of that goes to long-term heath care to our seniors.” “They won’t be able to go to their own doctor...

Repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law without a replacement risks making nearly 30 million people uninsured, according to a study released Wednesday. Separately, a professional group representing benefit advisers warned congressional leaders of the risk of “significant market disruption” that could cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance. Republicans dismiss such dire scenarios, saying that they are working on replacement legislation for a President Donald Trump to sign. […] The new study from the nonpartisan Urban Institute looks at a scenario where “repeal” goes through, but “replace” stalls. It predicts heavy collateral damage for people buying individual...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Congress will act early next year to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law but delay the changes as Republicans try to come up with an alternative. […] Speaking in Louisville, McConnell cautioned that the law’s critics “can’t just snap your fingers and go from where we are today to where we’re headed.” He said a replacement to the health care law will be done in a “phased-in way.” …

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is urging the public to help save his health care law, which is in serious danger of being repealed under President-elect Donald Trump.In a Facebook Live appearance, Obama says the Affordable Care Act has improved millions of lives over the six years it's been the "law of the land." He says the country can't go "backward."

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) says removing the federal government's individual mandate to purchase health insurance is “not American.” McDermott told C-Span’s Washington Journal Tuesday, that Republican efforts to remove the government mandate to purchase health insurance from the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will not work. …