The Maine House sustained Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a funding bill for Medicaid expansion Monday, handing the Republican another victory in his long campaign to stifle expansion of the program to another 70,000 Mainers.
The health care debates that occurred in Washington over the past year were largely irrelevant to what’s happening in the health care marketplace. Republicans couldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act but they made some changes that weakened it. Those changes will increase insurance premiums in the individual market but they do nothing to address the most significant trends that are evolving across the system.
Mississippi is still seeking federal permission to set a work requirement for able-bodied people covered by Medicaid. The state is revising its proposal, the Clarion Ledger reported. Medicaid is a government health insurance program for the needy and disabled, paid by state and federal dollars.
Last month, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an outspoken socialist, beat 10-term Congressman Joe Crowley, the fourth-highest-ranking House Democrat, in the primary election for New York's 14th congressional district. Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a former organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign.
The agreement is tentative and subject to a vote of the union’s membership on Thursday. Local 5098 of the UNAP represents more than 2,400 nurses, therapists, technologists and other professionals at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
The Trump administration on Saturday halted billions of dollars in payments to health insurers under the Obamacare healthcare law, saying that a recent federal court ruling prevents the money from being disbursed.