In the wake of a failed GOP-led effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California say the path forward toward health care reform includes "regular order."

Speaking on "Face the Nation" Sunday, Flake said issues like health care, in addition to the nation's debt crisis, can't be tackled by one party alone.

"We've just seen the limits of what one party can do," said Flake. "I'm glad to see that now we're talking about sitting down with our colleagues, going back to committee, going back to what we call regular order, and letting the committees and the experts deal with it, and bringing the public in more than we have before," he added.

Flake, who details the divide among the Republican party in his new book, "Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle," said that in the fallout over health care, the next best way to solve the issue requires "both parties sitting together and sharing the risk."

"It's hard to imagine that can happen when we're ascribing the worst motives to our opponents," he said.

Play Video

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, joins Face the Nation Moderator John Dickerson to discuss his new book, "Conscience of a Conservative" that calls on ...

Flake's comments come after Senate Republicans' attempt torepeal parts of Obamacare failedin a drama-filled, middle-of-the-night vote.

President Trump issued a series of tweetsfollowing the bill's failure, saying, "As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!"

Meanwhile, Feinstein, also appearing on "Face the Nation" Sunday, appeared to echo Flake's call for bipartisanship in the health care debate -- saying, "You can't take a bill as big as this one, write it with a select group of people in a back room, not let one of the political parties even see it until the Friday before a vote comes up, and think that this bill is going to pass."

She also called for regular order, urging Congress to now hold a series of hearings on health care in order to achieve the best outcome possible.

Play Video

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-California, discusses the North Korean missile test, the failed health care bill, and the criticism of Attorney Gener...

The bipartisan effort, embraced by both Flake and Feinstein, is also a shared feeling among Americans. A new CBS News Nation Tracker Poll found thatmore Americans prefer that Republicans now work with Democrats to improve Obamacare (47 percent), rather than try to repeal it outright (21 percent) or replace it with something exclusively of their own (19 percent).

This sentiment is particularly strong among Democrats and independents, but a quarter of Republicans want to keep Obamacare, with bipartisan improvements.

While the two senators appear to agree on positive steps forward in the health care debate, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, made it clear that his chamber is moving on to other things.

"It is time to move on," McConnell said when the Health Care Freedom Act failed early Friday morning, noting the other unrelated topics the Senate would take up in the hours ahead.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Read this article:

Flake, Feinstein call for "regular order" in path forward on health care reform - CBS News

Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersSanders: Trump should stop his tweeting amid healthcare debate Sanders: I'm 'absolutely' introducing single-payer healthcare bill Larry David actually related to Bernie Sanders MORE (I-Vt.) said on Sunday that President Trump should lay off the Twitter messages amidthe ongoing healthcare debate.

"Maybe the president should ... stop his tweeting for a while, and understand that America today is the only country, only major country on Earth not to guarantee healthcare for all people," Sanders told host Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union."

The former Democratic presidential candidate slammedTrump for attempting to "sabotage" ObamaCare after the president tweeted Friday that he would take away "bailouts for Insurance Companies and bailoutsfor Members of Congress" very soon if "a new healthcare bill is not approved quickly."

"You know, I really think it's incomprehensible that we have a president of the United States who wants to sabotage healthcare in America, make life more difficult for millions of people who are struggling now to get the health insurance they need and to pay for that health insurance," said the Vermont lawmaker, who plans to introduce a single-payer healthcare system bill.

"And the solution is not to throw tens of millions of people off of health insurance that they currently have," he added.

The Senate's effort to pass an ObamaCare "skinny" repealdeal collapsed overnight on Friday.

Trump, who has an enormous following on Twitter with almost 35 million people tracking him, has used the platform throughout the campaign and into his presidency to push his agenda, communicate to his followers, attackfoes and call out the press.

Critics have also accused the president of trying to distract from his agenda and other scandalssurrounding his administration by postingcontroversial tweets.

Go here to read the rest:

Sanders: Trump should stop his tweeting amid healthcare debate - The Hill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday to end government payments to health insurers if Congress does not pass a healthcare bill.

In a Twitter message on Saturday, Trump said "if a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!"

Trump's comment came after Senate Republicans failed to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare bill, on Friday.

The first part of Trump's tweet appeared to be referring to the approximately $8 billion in cost-sharing reduction subsidies paid by the federal government to insurers to lower the price of health coverage for low-income individuals.

The second part of the tweet appeared to be a threat to end the employer contribution for members of Congress and their staffs who were moved from the normal federal employee healthcare benefits program onto the Obamacare insurance exchanges as part of the 2010 healthcare law.

The Obama administration had ruled that these contributions could continue, flowing through the District of Columbia insurance exchange.

Many insurers have been waiting for an answer from Trump or lawmakers on whether they will continue to fund the annual government subsidies. Without assurances, many insurers plan to raise rates an additional 20 percent by an Aug. 16 deadline for premium prices.

With Republican efforts to dismantle Obamacare in disarray, hundreds of U.S. counties are at risk of losing access to private health coverage in 2018 as insurers consider pulling out of those markets.

In response, Trump on Friday again suggested that his administration would let the Obamacare program implode. He has weakened enforcement of the laws requirement for individuals to buy insurance, threatened to cut off funding and sought to change plan benefits through regulations.

Meanwhile, some congressional Republicans were still trying to find a way forward on healthcare reform.

Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement issued late on Friday that he and two other Republican senators, Dean Heller and Bill Cassidy, met with Trump after the defeat to discuss Graham's proposal to take tax money raised by Obamacare and send it back to the states in the form of healthcare block grants.

Graham said the move would end Democrats' drive for a national single-payer healthcare system by putting states in charge.

"President Trump was optimistic about the Graham-Cassidy-Heller proposal," Graham added. "I will continue to work with President Trump and his team to move the idea forward."

Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis

Continue reading here:

Trump threatens to end insurance payments if no healthcare bill - Reuters

Weary Republicans in Washington may be ready to move on from health care, but conservatives across the United States are warning the GOP-led Congress not to abandon its pledge to repeal the Obama-era health law or risk a political nightmare in next year's elections.

The Senate's failure this past week to pass repeal legislation has outraged the Republican base and triggered a new wave of fear. The stunning collapse has exposed a party so paralyzed by ideological division that it could not deliver on its top campaign pledge.

After devoting months to the debate and seven years to promising to kill the Affordable Care Act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., simply said: "It's time to move on."

But that's simply not an option for a conservative base energized by its opposition to the health law. Local party leaders, activists and political operatives are predicting payback for Republicans lawmakers if they don't revive the fight.

"This is an epic fail for Republicans," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans For Prosperity, the political arm of the conservative Koch Brothers' network. "Their failure to keep their promise will hurt them. It will."

To the American Conservative Union, the three Republican senators who blocked the stripped-down repeal bill that failed in the wee hours Friday are "sellouts." A Trump-sanctioned super political action committee did not rule out running ads against uncooperative Republicans, which it did recently against Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

There are limited options for directly punishing the renegade senators John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. None of the three is up for re-election next fall. McCain, whose dramatic "no" vote killed the bill, is serving his last term in office, has brain cancer and is hardly moved by electoral threats.

Still, broad disillusionment among conservative voters could have an impact beyond just a few senators. Primary election challenges or a low turnout could mean trouble for all Republicans. Democrats need to flip 24 seats to take control of the House of Representatives, a shift that would dramatically re-shape the last two years of Trump's first term.

"If you look at competitive districts, swing districts, or districts where Republicans could face primary challenges, this is something that will be a potent electoral issue," Republican pollster Chris Wilson said of his party's health care failure. "I don't think this is something voters are going to forget."

One such challenger has emerged. Conservative activist Shak Hill, a former Air Force pilot, plans to run against second-term GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock in a competitive northern Virginia district.

Hill told The Associated Press that Comstock, who voted against a GOP House health care repeal bill in May, "has failed the moral test of her time in Congress."

The leaders of other groups, such as Women Vote Trump, have begun to court primary challengers to punish those members of Congress deemed insufficiently committed to President Donald Trump's agenda.

"I expect that we will get involved in primaries," said the group's co-founder, Amy Kremer. "You cannot continue to elect the same people over and over again and expect different results."

On Capitol Hill, some Republicans insist their health care overhaul could be saved in the short term. Yet party leaders backed by outside groups are signaling that they would probably move on to taxes. Republicans hoped the issue would bring some party unity, even as realists in Washington view the a tax overhaul something that hasn't happened in more than 30 years as one of the most complex legislative projects possible.

The Trump administration has become engulfed in internal drama over personnel and personalities. Trump on Friday ousted his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and replacing him with Home Security Secretary John Kelly. The president did not appear to share conservatives' outrage about the Senate's vote, but repeated his promises to remake the health system.

"You can't have everything," Trump said, adding: "We'll get it done. We're going to get it."

Around the country, Republican voters continue to support efforts to repeal former President Barack Obama's health law, even if there is little agreement on an alternative.

A CNN poll released last week found that 83 percent of Republicans favor some form of repeal, while only 11 percent of Republicans want the party to abandon the repeal effort. Among all adults, 52 percent of voters favor some sort of repeal, with 34 percent favored repeal only if replacement could be enacted at the same time.

"The political pressure on something like this is real," said GOP strategist Mike Shields. "I don't think this is over."

Like others Republican operatives, Shields said the party's ability to enact the rest of Trump's agenda taxes, infrastructure and the border wall could help "mitigate how upset people will be" about health care.

"If this is part of a general trend," he said of the GOP's governing struggles, "I think that can be pretty disastrous for 2018."

Republicans will be held responsible for any negative economic fallout from the current health system's failure, said Paul Shumaker, a North Carolina Republican pollster and senior adviser to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

As early as October, voters are likely to see increased costs as insurance companies notify people about their new rates. By next October, it will be too late to unlink Republicans from the problem, Shumaker said.

For now at least, many Trump supporters blame the Republican Party's problems on its leaders in Congress.

"They certainly didn't have their house in order," said Larry Wood of Waynesboro, Virginia, who voted for Trump only after supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the 2016 GOP primary. The 69-year-old retired homebuilder says the failure falls at the feet of Congress.

Trump seems content to let the current system collapse.

"As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!" he said in a tweet.

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

The rest is here:

GOP fears political fallout after health care 'epic fail' - ABC News

Now that Democrats have defeated a major plank of the Republican agenda, the question is whether that success will drive President Trump and the Republican leadership to the negotiating table and whether Mr. Schumer can keep Democrats who are up for election in red states in line and safe from defeat next year.

While Republicans have spent the last six months enmeshed in internal squabbling, Mr. Schumer has largely made sure Democrats stood on the sidelines. Mr. McConnell cut out Democrats on Day 1 of this Congress, using every method to bypass them on deregulation votes, cabinet confirmations, a tax overhaul and health care policy.

That has had a big impact, said Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. If you leave out a whole political party, she said, and then you chasten them for not helping, well, that unites that party.

Yet Democrats give Mr. Schumer song-belting, frequently badgering, endlessly frenzied credit for his tireless attention to senators from every faction, and for quiet outreach to Republicans who he thinks could be partners down the line.

He has worked carefully far more than Mr. Reid, many Democrats agreed to be almost relentlessly inclusive, talking with them at all hours of the day, over every manner of Chinese noodle, on even tiny subjects, to make them feel included in strategy. Recently, as he sat in a dentists chair waiting for a root canal, he dialed up Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut to talk about a coming judiciary hearing concerning Donald Trump Jr.

I think he makes it look easier than it is, Mr. Blumenthal said about Mr. Schumer.

Mr. Trumps election stunned him.

Mr. Schumers original plan after the election was to find a way to work with his fellow New Yorker on issues where he thought they might align, such as an infrastructure bill.

I take whats given me, Mr. Schumer, 66, said in a (shoeless) interview in his Capitol Hill office right off the Senate floor, one festooned with portraits of his idols (Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson), maps of New York and mildly goofy photos with other Democrats.

Fleeting dreams of using Mr. Trumps populism to triangulate against a Republican-controlled Congress dissolved, he said, when Mr. Trump instead decided to move right away to repealing the Affordable Care Act. So Mr. Schumer turned to an opposition agenda, doing everything within his limited powers to slow, block or obviate Mr. Trumps agenda.

Were in the minority, so were not making policy, Mr. Schumer said. We have to know when to dance and when to fight. The Trump administration has made it harder to dance.

For the fight, Mr. Schumer held together his disparate group of red state moderates, left-wing resistance fighters, hard-core policy wonks and everything in between, forming a partisan blast wall against Republican efforts to repeal the health care law, in part via maddening delays of basic Senate business.

Mr. Schumers schmoozing abilities have been important. He knows who I am, said Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, who is among the partys moderates in a state Mr. Trump won handily and who has largely opposed Mr. Trumps agenda.

I tell him when I think he is moving too far to the left, Mr. Manchin said, as when Mr. Schumer pushed to filibuster to block Mr. Trumps nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. There were no conversations with Harry.

It was not an article of faith that Mr. Schumer could do what he has done. With several Democrats up for re-election next year in states Mr. Trump won, both Republicans and Democrats assumed that those vulnerable lawmakers would be tempted to try to help unravel the health care law, vote for large tax cuts and the like.

He makes it clear to people that the opposition is about Medicaid cuts for the middle class and working class, not just the poor, Mr. Blumenthal said, explaining the rationale for fighting the health care law repeal. Its about opioid treatments, not just reproductive rights.

Mr. Schumers central weapon is procedural tricks to slow Mr. Trumps nominees, something that infuriates Mr. McConnell. I dont like it, and we are not going to do it as a practice, Mr. Schumer said, but when youre choosing a cabinet nominee, especially a controversial one, it makes sense.

All told, he said, his relationship with Mr. McConnell is an improvement over Mr. McConnells with Mr. Reid. Mr. Schumer has repeatedly told Mr. McConnell that Democrats would ease up on their obstruction once health care was behind them.

Ive known Chuck a long time, and he represents his state and his caucus well, Mr. McConnell said in an email before the health care vote. And while New York and Kentucky are very different places, we respect and work well with each other even if we are trying to achieve very different goals. The Senate as an institution functions through cooperation and constant conversations with the other side of the aisle.

Mr. Schumer committed one slight toward Mr. McConnell that baffled even his closest allies, voting against letting Mr. McConnells wife, Elaine Chao, become secretary of transportation.

She would not commit to spending money on transportation, Mr. Schumer said, even though most other Democrats gave her the nod. The move frosted Mr. McConnell, several Republicans said.

Mr. Schumer has watched Republicans struggle with moving from, in Speaker Paul Ryans words, an opposition party to a proposition party a major reason that Mr. Schumer and other Democrats recently rolled out a new economic message and policy platform for Senate and House Democrats.

He has recognized Democrats need a positive agenda, said Jim Manley, a former aide to Mr. Reid. And has begun putting that face before his caucus and the public.

Mr. Schumer seems to approach this with his usual blithesome manner, singing show tunes and the Shirelles as he races from phone call to meeting, sliding away from potential pests, a cellphone pressed to his face.

I love every single member of my caucus, he said. Oddly, this is likely true.

Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and in the Morning Briefing newsletter.

A version of this article appears in print on July 30, 2017, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Schumer, With Songs And Persistence, Keeps The Democrats Together.

Excerpt from:

How Schumer Held Democrats Together Through a Health Care Maelstrom - New York Times

While the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act suffered a major blow this week, supporters of the law forged ahead Saturday with rallies nationwide including one in Los Angeles protesting any further attempts to undermine the existing healthcare system.

The Our Lives on the Line day of action has been planned since June, touted as a show of force against repeal efforts. Our Lives on the Line is a coalition of progressive and healthcare organizations.

Early Friday, three Republican senators defied their party leaders in voting to defeat the so-called skinny repeal of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the skinny bill would have left 16 million more Americans uninsured, and caused insurance premiums to soar.

On Saturday, around 100 people gathered near City Hall in downtown L.A., holding signs that read, "Healthcare is a human right" and "Keep your tiny hands away! ACA is here to stay!," sometimes using the signs to shield themselves from an unforgiving sun.

Mike Stutz, who joined three others in dressing up as a zombie, held a sign that read: GOP Healthcare Horror! Their bad ideas just won't die!

"As these zombies warn us, we cannot rest," said L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin. "Like the evil, knife-wielding slasher in a horror movie, they are coming back. They are coming back for your healthcare, they are coming back for my healthcare they are coming back because they have a deadly determination to strip millions of people of what keeps them healthy and what keeps them alive."

On Saturday morning, President Trump tweeted this warning: If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!

The resounding message throughout the rally was that the battle isn't over, with speakers encouraging attendees to keep up the fight.

In the crowd was Rachel Rosen and her 7-year-old daughter Orly, dressed in a doctor's costume. Mother and daughter listened as elected officials, activists, patients and medical professionals took the stage.

"Donald Trump is playing with our healthcare," Orly said, not looking up from the toys in her hand. "We want him to stop."

"I don't think they're going to give up too easily because the Republicans have been committed for years to ending Obamacare," Rosen said.

Speakers offered praise for the three GOP senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona who voted no on repeal, as well as ordinary voters who pressured their elected officials.

No matter how much credit we give them, this victory belongs to all of you. For everyone who made calls, marched, told their stories or were just plain loud, thank you so much, said new Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles). "This defeat is a major victory for working-class families in this country.

The rally kicked off a Drive for Our Lives national bus tour, which will run through Congress August recess. The tour, will travel to more than 18 states and spread of Americans whose healthcare coverage would have been threatened under the repeal bill.

Thank you for everything you're going to continue to do tomorrow and the day after and in the weeks and months to come to make sure they do not take away our healthcare and to make sure we get universal healthcare for everyone, Bonin told attendees. Lets stay engaged, lets stay part of the fight.

brittny.mejia@latimes.com

Twitter: @Brittny_Mejia

UPDATES:

2:25 p.m.: This article was updated with details from the rally.

This article was originally published at 11:05 a.m.

Original post:

Protesters in LA and across the country rally to protect healthcare from future threats - Los Angeles Times

The chickens have come home to roost. As the White House continues its spiral into disarrayand the dust settles over the GOP's failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Republicans in the House of Representatives are desperately trying to close their grip on an increasingly slippery argument for why they should be allowed to keep their seats after 2018.

In a May press conference, Speaker Paul RyanPaul RyanDems pivot to offering ObamaCare improvements The irony Healthcare could mean Democrats take the House These 5 House Republicans are ripping their Senate colleagues over healthcare MORE predicted that House Republicans seeking reelection will be judged on one question in 2018: Did we make peoples lives better? Hes right about that.

Even before the widespread engagement that started with the Womens March in January, Democrats were already heading into the 2018 midterm elections with momentum on their side.

Our organization, EMILYs List is seeing an unprecedented surge in the number of women interested in running for office, with over 16,000 women contacting us since Election Day and signing up to run for office themselves at the federal, state and local levels many of them motivated by the healthcare debate. (To put this number in context, thats more women than we have trained in our entire 32-year history).

Across the board, women running for office in 2018 are bringing a diverse range of perspectives on key issues like healthcare and economic security and experiences that are truly representative of the people theyll serve. Rising stars like Danica Roem, who is running to be the first transgender woman ever elected to the Virginia General Assembly, and Stacey Abrams, who is running to be our countrys first African American woman governor, are driving real solutions for American families.

In previous midterm elections, parties in power have lost an average of 28 House seats.

In 2018, Democrats only need to flip 24 to take back the House and 23 of the competitive districts at play this cycle are districts Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonTimeline: How the Trump and Sessions relationship deteriorated Sunday Show Preview: Washington recovers from healthcare fallout in the Senate The irony Healthcare could mean Democrats take the House MORE won in 2016.

So when it comes to House recruitment, I am encouraged by the great strength of EMILYs List candidates like Iowa legislator Abby Finkenauer, who is poised, at 28, to become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress when she takes back Iowas 1st Congressional District. Newcomers like Chrissy Houlahan, a business leader and veteran, who is running for Pennsylvanias 6th Congressional District, and pediatrician Mai Khanh Tran who is running for Californias 39thCongressional District, are the Democrats who will hold the GOP accountable and part of the 24 seats that will decide the majority for 2019.

This is significant and the implications for our country moving toward the 2018 election cycle are profound. As decades of research on women voters and our experience recruiting, training and raising money for women to run for office have shown, when women are in office, we get better policies for women and their families. When our government looks more like the people it is working to serve, our communities, our economy and our country thrive.

And now, many polls show that healthcare is top of mind for large numbers of Americans, especially women. This is not a surprise since our economic security is directly linked to our healthcare.

Can we afford it if my mom is ill? What will we do if I am injured and cant work? Will we lose our home if someone in our family gets sick? These are real questions that women and families are asking and theyre questions Republicans in Congress have failed to answer.

All of the GOPs proposals threaten access to reproductivehealth services and would deprive millions of Americans of health insurance. The bill that passed the House allows states to deny pre-existing conditions defined as everything from pregnancy to sexual assault.

This past week, Senate Republicans attempted to pass a dangerous skinny repeal of the Affordable Care Act in the dark of night. Thankfully, three Republicansenators found the courage to join their Democratic colleaguesincluding every single EMILY's List woman to protect access to healthcare.

Women are fired up and we are making our voices heard. The majority of calls to Congress during the healthcare debate have been made by women. Women have been demanding answers from their Republican representatives about why they are voting to defund Planned Parenthood or roll back Medicaid.

As I noted, more women than ever before are standing up to put their names on the ballot. Women voters have been reminding their elected leaders of a simple truth that Republicans in Washington and in states across the country have forgotten: You work for us. More women than men are registered to vote and women are more likely than men to vote on Election Day.

Republicans in Congress should take note: Women your biggest employer are watching each vote you take that hurts women and families, each town hall meeting youre absent from and each phone call you ignore now were running against you.

Between strong, energized women candidates and outraged women voters, the Democratic majority is in sight for 2018. The fallout from Republicans in the Senate trying to pass their cruel healthcare bill this past week and continued failed leadership on the part of the GOP might just be the catalyst to seal the deal.

Stephanie Schriock is president ofEMILY'sList, the nations largest resource for women in politics. The organization recruits and trains candidates and turns out women voters.EMILY'sList has helped elect 116 women to the House, 23 to the Senate, 12 governors and over 800 to state and local office.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

View post:

The irony Healthcare could mean Democrats take the House - The Hill (blog)

The biggest choice for young people is to decide whether or not it makes sense to use a high-deductible plan with a health savings account or not, said CFP Eric Roberge. HSA premiums are typically lower, but the deductibles are high, scaring many young people away.

"They simply see a huge deductible and want to avoid paying that at all costs," said Roberge, of Beyond Your Hammock.

"The truth is that many people can benefit from such a plan, as long as they actually sock away the premium savings in case of emergencies," he added. "Lower premium costs can help you save money if you don't use the insurance all that often."

For a healthy, young person who gets an annual physical and not much else, an HSA can be a fantastic opportunity, Roberge said. The trick is to put the premium savings into the HSA. You get a tax deduction for such a contribution, you may be able to invest that money inside the HSA and you can use the money for qualified medical expenses at anytime throughout your life, he explained.

HSAs are the only accounts, including retirement funds, where the money grows tax-free and can be taken out, for medical purposes, tax-free, Roberge added. What's more, the unspent funds roll over year to year.

For those considering self-employment, Life Planning Partners' McClanahan advised waiting to make that move until there's clarity around what Congress is going to do. If you already have good health-insurance coverage, don't make any changes quite yet.

Go here to read the rest:

Young adults struggle to plan amid health-care uncertainty - CNBC

WASHINGTON ( The Borowitz Report )With a fury that could spell political trouble for Republicans in the midterm elections, Trump voters across the country on Friday expressed their outrage and anger that they still have health coverage.

I went to bed Thursday night and slept like a baby, assuming that when I woke up I would have zero health insurance, Carol Foyler, a Trump voter, said. Instead, this nightmare.

Harland Dorrinson, who voted for Trump because he promised that he would take my health care away from me on Day 1, said that he was very upset that he will still receive that benefit.

I woke up this morning, and my family and I could still see a doctor, he said. This is a betrayal.

Many Trump supporters said that congressional Republicans gave up too soon in their efforts to deprive ordinary Americans like them of their health care.

They should not take August off, Calvin Denoit, a Trump supporter, said. They should stay in Washington and keep working until I totally lose my coverage.

For Trump voters like Benoit, the abject disappointment of continuing to have health care raises fears about which other campaign promises might soon be broken.

Now I dont know what to believe, he said. Are we still going to get to pay billions of dollars in taxes for that wall?

Go here to see the original:

Trump Supporters Furious That They Still Have Health Care - The New Yorker (satire)

(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

To a smattering of gasps and applause from his rapt colleagues, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cast the clinching vote to kill his partys seven-year bid to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Directly behind the spot where he cast that vote, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) had watched McCain enter the chamber. Moments earlier, she, too, had cast a no vote, but to much less fanfare.

But the senior senator from Alaska endured more intense pressure from the Trump administration in getting to that vote than McCain, who, at 80, is likely serving his last term in Congress. And Murkowski has far more to lose for her stand in her resource-rich state.

Leading up to the series of health-care votes this week, Murkowski was the target of an aggressive persuasion campaign from members of the Trump administration and the president himself.

Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning: Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad! The president had called the day before to try to persuade Murkowski to support starting debate on health care, said Murkowskis office. The senator told E & E News that it was not a very pleasant call but that she wasnt swayed.

So on Wednesday, Trump dispatched Ryan Zinke, who as secretary of the Department of the Interior runs agencies that collectively control more than 55percent of Alaskas land, to make separate phone calls to Murkowski and the states other Senate Republican, Dan Sullivan. Zinke, the Alaska Dispatch News reported, implied that the interests of their state were at risk because of Murkowskis health-care stance.

What the secretary shared with me was that the president was not pleased, Murkowski told reporters Thursday, according to The Hill. I think its very clear, based on my conversation with the secretary, that he was just sharing the concern that the president had expressed to him to pass on to me.

Despite the high-profile contacts, Murkowski not only opposed opening debate but also was one of three Republicans who voted against a bare-bones package Friday morning, dealing a final blow to the GOP health-care push.

I pledged early on that I would work with the President to help advance Alaskas interests, she said in a statement Friday. I will continue to do that.

But she seemed as if she had little patience for Trumps governing style, likening him to the kind of teacher at which her children chafed.

I tell my kids that you do not get to pick the boss of your choice, she said during stops between town halls earlier this month in Homer, Alaska. Ive got to figure out how I can work with President Trump and this new administration.

The choice of messenger relayed just as much the message itself.

For decades, the Murkowski family Frank Murkowski represented Alaska for more than two decades in the Senate before his daughter took over his seat in 2002 has sought, often unsuccessfully, to free up more federal land in Alaska for hunting and energy development.

For that, she needs the cooperation of Trumps Interior Department.

When you talk about energy dominance, Sullivan told reporters, using a Trump administration buzzword for more oil, gas and coal development, Alaska has to be a key part of that.

He continued: So from my perspective, the sooner we can get back to that kind of cooperation between the administration and the chairman of the ENR Committee, the better for Alaska and the better for the country.

But Zinke may need Murkowski more than she needs him. As chair of both the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Interior Appropriations subcommittee, Murkowski has oversight over not only the departments activities but also its budget.

On Thursday, Murkowski postponed a vote on six Trump administration nominees, including three to Interior. Murkowski spokeswoman Nicole Daigle said the meeting was delayed due to uncertainty of the Senate schedule.

So far, the Trump administration, along with GOP lawmakers, has obliged in addressing the provincial concerns of the Alaska congressional delegation.

Congress has lifted a ban on aerial shooting and other hunting practices on Alaskas wildlife refuges. Zinke signed a secretarial order beginning an oil and gas leasing plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, and an assessment of reserves under both NPR-A and part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Last week, the House sent the Senate a bill to approve construction of a 20-mile road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, which would connect the small village of King Cove to the larger town of Cold Bay. King Cove has no road out, so it relies on air and marine transport. Murkowski has introduced the Senate version.

And Murkowski and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) want to pass a comprehensive bipartisan energy bill updating a host of oil and gas leasing, electric grid and other policies.

Before the recent confrontation, Murkowski had advocated on Zinkes behalf within the White House, arguing to the president and his aides that they needed to name more political appointees to Interior. Murkowski got to know Zinke when the two traveled to Alaskas North Slope over Memorial Day.

Legal experts say an administration can choose its priorities, though House Democrats have asked Interiors Office of Inspector General to investigate Zinkes calls.

I am unable to identify any ethical rule or legal obligation requiring a cabinet member to make a senators priorities the same as the administrations priorities, said Jan W. Baran, an ethics and lobbying expert at Wiley Rein.

But David J. Hayes, a former Interior Department deputy secretary under Presidents Obama and Clinton, said Zinkes words deserve careful scrutiny even if cabinet officials have some leeway to lobby Congress.

It appears that Zinke was lobbying for a health-care bill, not on an Alaska-related issue within Interiors area of responsibility, Hayes said. Even more troubling he reportedly put the discharge of his statutory responsibilities in Alaska in play.

Elise Viebeck and Kyle Hopkins contributed to this report.

See the original post:

Murkowski not swayed by intense pressure from Trump administration on health care - Washington Post

Externalities abound. In most markets, the main interested parties are the buyers and sellers. But in health care markets, decisions often affect unwitting bystanders, a phenomenon that economists call an externality.

Take vaccines, for instance. If a person vaccinates herself against a disease, she is less likely to catch it, become a carrier and infect others. Because people may ignore the positive spillovers when weighing the costs and benefits, too few people will get vaccinated, unless the government somehow promotes vaccination.

Another positive spillover concerns medical research. When a physician figures out a new treatment, that information enters societys pool of medical knowledge. Without government intervention, such as research subsidies or an effective patent system, too few resources will be devoted to research.

Consumers often dont know what they need. In most markets, consumers can judge whether they are happy with the products they buy. But when people get sick, they often do not know what they need and sometimes are not in a position to make good decisions. They rely on a physicians advice, which even with hindsight is hard to evaluate.

The inability of health care consumers to monitor product quality leads to regulation, such as the licensing of physicians, dentists and nurses. For much the same reason, the Food and Drug Administration oversees the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals.

Health care spending can be unexpected and expensive. Spending on most things people buy housing, food, transportation is easy to predict and budget for. But health care expenses can come randomly and take a big toll on a persons finances.

Health insurance solves this problem by pooling risks among the population. But it also means that consumers no longer pay for most of their health care out of pocket. The large role of third-party payers reduces financial uncertainty but creates another problem.

Insured consumers tend to overconsume. When insurance is picking up the tab, people have less incentive to be cost-conscious. For example, if patients dont have to pay for each doctor visit, they may go too quickly when they experience minor symptoms. Physicians may be more likely to order tests of dubious value when an insurance company is footing the bill.

To mitigate this problem, insurers have co-pays, deductibles and rules limiting access to services. But co-pays and deductibles reduce the ability of insurance to pool risk, and access rules can create conflicts between insurers and their customers.

Insurance markets suffer from adverse selection. Another problem that arises is called adverse selection: If customers differ in relevant ways (such as when they have a chronic disease) and those differences are known to them but not to insurers, the mix of people who buy insurance may be especially expensive.

Adverse selection can lead to a phenomenon called the death spiral. Suppose that insurance companies must charge everyone the same price. It might seem to make sense to base the price of insurance on the health characteristics of the average person. But if it does so, the healthiest people may decide that insurance is not worth the cost and drop out of the insured pool. With sicker customers, the company has higher costs and must raise the price of insurance. The higher price now induces the next healthiest group of people to drop insurance, driving up the cost and price again. As this process continues, more people drop their coverage, the insured pool is less healthy and the price keeps rising. In the end, the insurance market may disappear.

The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) tried to reduce adverse selection by requiring all Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. This policy is controversial and has been a mixed success. More people now have health insurance, but about 12 percent of adults aged 18 to 64 remain uninsured. One thing, however, is certain: The existence of a federal law mandating that people buy something shows how unusual the market for health care is.

The best way to navigate the problems of the health care marketplace is hotly debated. The political left wants a stronger government role, and the political right wants regulation to be less heavy-handed. But policy wonks of all stripes can agree that health policy is, and will always be, complicated.

N. Gregory Mankiw is the Robert M. Beren professor of economics at Harvard University.

The Upshot provides news, analysis and graphics about politics, policy and everyday life. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our newsletter.

A version of this article appears in print on July 30, 2017, on Page BU3 of the New York edition with the headline: Why Health Care Policy Is So Hard.

More here:

Why Health Care Policy Is So Hard - New York Times

(L-R) Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, Harry S. Truman, and Bess Truman at signing of Medicare bill on July 30, 1965, at the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum in Independence, Missouri.Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture CollectionGetty Images

This Thursday and Friday have scored a place in the health-care history books, thanks to the U.S. Senate's middle-of-the-night vote rejecting a bill that would have repealed part of a landmark achievement of the Obama presidency, the Affordable Care Act. Had the repeal passed, even in its " skinny " form, it could have led to changes to Medicaid and Medicare.

But the dates in which the so-called "vote-a-rama" happened July 27 and July 28 are already in the history books for another reason. Those were the days in 1965 on which the House and Senate, respectively, approved an amendment to the Social Security Act that would create those two very programs.

Former Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) was one of several members of Congress who pointed out the anniversary of this milestone in the history of health care in American history.

The House and Senate approved a version of the program that had come out of a conference committee, convened when differences between bills passed by the two chambers needed to be reconciled. As the Senate Historical Office describes, the final bill "offered a 'three layer cake' of coverage: hospital insurance for the aged, physicians insurance for the elderly, and expanded federal assistance to supplement state medical payments for the poor."

And while the 2017 vote was notable for the three Republicans who voted with Democrats Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Arizona's John McCain the 1965 moment boasted more support from members on both sides of the aisle. As Politifact points out , the bill had relatively bipartisan support, passing by 307-116 in the House and 70-24 in the Senate (including 70 and 13 Republican votes in each house, respectively). The now-retired Senate historian Donald Ritchie explained to the fact-checking website that votes back then tended to have more bipartisan support in general, because at the time each of the parties had its own groups of conservative and liberal members, and "the conservatives in the two parties voted against the liberals in each party."

Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter

But the date wasn't the only link between this week's vote and that of 52 years ago.

Some of the most striking moments in the Senate's 2017 "vote-a-rama" the impassioned plea from Democrat Mazie Hirono, who has kidney cancer, and the vote cast by McCain, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer are arguably reminiscent of the actions of the Senator some call the "father of Medicare," New Mexico's Clinton P. Anderson.

The personal health circumstances of those two Senators have been impossible to ignore as they made decisions that would affect the nation's health care, and Anderson's own frequent ill health was likewise a factor in the development of Medicare. In fact, President Kennedy had asked him to take on the cause of Medicare specifically because he thought that, Perhaps a man who has spent much of his life fighting off the effects of illness acquires . . . an understanding of the importance of professional health care to all people. At one point in the mid-1960s, Anderson had even negotiated parts of a Senate bill from his hospital bed at Walter Reed, according to the Senate Historical Office .

When LBJ signed the bill in Independence, Mo., on July 30, 1965, he specifically requested the attendance of Anderson as one of the bill's principal sponsors.

See the original post here:

Senate Voted Against Health Care Repeal on Anniversary of Approving Medicare - TIME

Photo An American pediatric specialist during a radiology teaching session with pediatric residents in Kigali, Rwanda. In the past 15 years, Rwanda has worked to build a near-universal health care system. Credit Martina Bacigalupo for The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re Rwandas Lessons (Really) on Health Care, by Eduardo Porter (Economic Scene column, July 19):

My colleagues and I recently returned from Banda, a village in rural Rwanda that our organization, Kageno, has worked in for a decade. There, we witnessed firsthand the progress in health care mentioned in this article, as well as the challenges that remain.

We believe that improving the health of the villagers requires a multifaceted approach. This is why our organization supports local projects related to health care, the environment, education and sustainable commercial ventures.

We found that these types of projects contributed to the overall well-being of Banda and the surrounding area. They required perseverance, cooperation among the people and their institutions, and because lasting improvements sometimes evolve slowly, patience.

By the time our trip ended, we were deeply moved by the strength and determination of the villagers in Banda, who constantly sought a healthier, more prosperous future for their children. Perhaps we in the United States could learn from Bandas villagers by using a little more cooperation, perseverance and patience in our own health care system.

NICK DEFABRIZIO, AUGUSTA, N.J.

The writer is on the advisory board of Kageno, which supports villages in rural Rwanda and Kenya.

Read the original:

Health Care in Rwanda - New York Times

Ledyard King and Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY Published 2:40 p.m. ET July 28, 2017 | Updated 6:15 p.m. ET July 28, 2017

Sens. Susan Collins and Bill Nelson walk through the Senate subway on Capitol Hill on July 27, 2017.(Photo: Drew Angerer, Getty Images)

WASHINGTON A chance encounter between two senators on an airplane last month in Maine may be the catalyst for a breakthrough on health care reform.

Since that Sunday afternoon meeting at the Bangor Airport, Florida Democrat Bill Nelson and Maine Republican Susan Collins have been talking to each other about ways of finding a solution on an issue that has deeply divided Congress along party lines.

There's no grand bargain in sight, but a low-key dinner the two organized for a bipartisan clutch of senators at a Washington restaurant Wednesday night suggests at least a few lawmakers are trying to find a way out of the partisan gridlock.

That effort took on added significance following the stunning defeat early Friday morning of a Republican bill to do away with some parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known asObamacare, leaving lawmakers scrambling to decide the best way to move forward on health care reform.

The deciding vote was cast by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. He had implored colleagues to reach a bipartisan solution during a stirringfloor speech he delivered Tuesday, justdays after a brain cancer diagnosis.

The following night, Nelson and Collins hosted the dinner at NoPa Kitchen, an American brasserie steps from the International Spy Museum.

The attendees included key Senate moderates such as Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Democrats Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Warner of Virginia and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Collins and Murkowski joined McCain as the only threeRepublicansto vote against the bill, which died 51-49.

"It was a good first start and everyone (at the dinner) pretty well knows that the path that we're on is not going to be the ultimate solution," Nelson said Thursday before the bill was killed.

Collins sounded a similar theme following Friday's vote.

"We need to reconsider our approach," she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account. "The ACA is flawed and in portions of the country is near collapse. Rather than engaging in partisan exercises, Republicans and Democrats should work together to address these very serious problems."

Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke with GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin on Friday about working together.

Theres a thirst to do it, Schumer said. I just hope the magic moment of John McCain last night has lasting effect and makes us work together in a better way and both sides are to blame for the past.

Read more:

Senate Republicans failed to pass Obamacare repeal. Now what?

Senate narrowly defeats 'skinny repeal' of Obamacare, as McCain votes 'no'

Takeaways on the Senate Obamacare repeal collapse: Dysfunction makes lousy legislation but great TV

Obamacare repeal is dead for now. What could that mean for you?

Collins and Nelson, both former insurance commissioners in their states, traded some ideas on the plane ride to Washington during that June flight. Notably, Nelson said, they liked the idea of creating afederalreinsurance fund that would protect the health insurance companies against catastrophe.

Nelson has already introduced a bill to that effect after a Congressional Budget Office analysis concluded it would lower health care premiums 13% in Florida alone.

The more they talked, the more they realized they could work on other aspects of health care reform given the political stalemate between party leaders.

"We said let's do this together," Nelson said. "That led to Susan taking the initiative and inviting everybody that was there to get their ideas."

A reinsurance fund was one ideas that was discussed over dinner, he said. So were ways to address cost-sharingreductions that go to help low-income Americans on the individual health care market pay for coverage. The goal was finding ways to stabilize the health insurance markets, he said.

Manchintouted the reinsurance proposal on the Senate floor Thursday. AndMcCaskill said lawmakers need to act now to ensure people have someplace they can buy insurance next year.

"We are trying to get the ball moving in a bipartisan way," she said. "So were trying to start with a bipartisan group and see if we cant come up with some ways to stabilize the markets."

TheMissouri Democrat said she's hoping to team up with Republicans and"startsmall and then see if we can grow our number."

When they left the dinner, there was no commitment to meet again as aformal working group. But Nelson said he expects the senatorswill keep talking.

In his closing comments, Nelson told the group that their roles as moderates who can lead a bipartisan effort wouldgrowifthe repeal bill failed,

"There's going to be a vacuum created in which we ought to offer some of these ideas," he said.

USA TODAY reporter Nicole Gaudiano of USA TODAY contributed to this story

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2w72st3

See the article here:

With Obamacare repeal dead, bipartisan group of senators seek path on health care reform - USA TODAY

Health care in 17 syllables. Created and designed by CactuSoup and Getty Images.

Its not easy to channel the concerns of millions of Americans in 17 syllables. Still, we received an outpouring of poetic expression in response to our callout for health care haiku. Choosing a single winner was too difficult. Thus we are proud to congratulate our two winners: Ronnie Dugger and Dorothy Workman!

Here are the winning haiku. They won for their combination of cleverness, poignancy and expression of the general disquiet which we saw in nearly all entries:

Cant pay the M.D., no money for surgery, but I can die free! Ronnie Dugger

The Health Care Debate A final insanity Which no one can win. Dorothy Workman

THANK YOU to everyone who responded. As we have said before, we have the most talented readers and viewers in the business.

See original here:

The winners of our health care haiku contest are - PBS NewsHour

CNN

President Trump and health care: Live updates CNN HEALTH CARE: Senators are still debating possible plans to repeal and replace Obamacare. Once debate time is up, the vote-a-rama starts. LEAKS: Last night, Trump's new communications director tweeted -- and then deleted -- about leaks, tagging chief of ... and more »

Read the rest here:

President Trump and health care: Live updates - CNN

The health fair reminded me of scenes Ive witnessed in refugee camps in South Sudan. But here in America?

The sight is a wrenching reminder of how many Americans slip through the cracks. No other advanced country permits this level of suffering and if the G.O.P. health care plan goes through, millions more will lose their health coverage.

Walking around, listening to people, it breaks your heart, said Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, whom I encountered on the fairground. We need a healthy work force, and this is a disgrace.

Shame on us as a nation, McAuliffe added. This is an embarrassment to our country.

Thats what I feel, too: humiliation that Americans need to be rescued by a group originally intended to help people in the worlds poorest countries (mixed with pride at the altruistic spirit that attracted so many volunteers, paying their own expenses to come here). To me, the fundamental lesson is that even under Obamacare, too many people dont have coverage, and we urgently need a single-payer universal health care system along the lines of Medicare for all.

Remote Area Medical is the brainchild of Stan Brock, 81, a onetime British cowboy who in the 1950s managed one of the worlds biggest ranches, overseeing 50,000 cattle in Guyana in South America.

When he was badly injured by a wild horse, Brock was told it would be a 26-day hike to the nearest doctor. So he recovered on his own but began to think about supplying health care to deprived areas.

Brock ended up founding Remote Area Medical to work in places like the Amazon, Haiti and Uganda. But then one day he had a call from Sneedville, Tenn., where the hospital had just closed and the dentist moved out. Can you come here? the caller asked.

Brock loaded a dental chair on the back of a pickup truck and brought in a dentist as well and 150 people lined up, desperate for oral care. The result is that while it continues some international work, Remote Area Medical also treats people in the worlds superpower.

Brock is a character: He discovered a species of bat that is named for him, and today he has no home but unrolls a pad each evening and sleeps on the floor of Remote Area Medicals permanent offices in Tennessee. At 5 a.m. on the first day here, Brock opened the gate and began admitting people eager for care.

As they surged past, many stopped to thank him; one man had tears in his eyes as he did so.

I wish Mr. Trump would come, Brock told me. The health of these people is appalling.

Obamacare and the expansion of Medicaid have helped, but this health fair underscores glaring gaps in American coverage, especially for dental and vision care, in ways that affect us all.

In the vision tent, a patient couldnt see even the biggest letter at the top of the eye chart. As he waited for glasses, a volunteer asked, And how did you get here?

Oh, I drove.

Jennifer Jolliffee, a volunteer, told of a 6-year-old boy who had behavioral problems, couldnt read and struggled at school. Then he had his first vision screening, and his parents learned that he could barely see. Soon he was looking around in wonderment through glasses.

In another area of the fairground, doctors saw patients in private rooms created by sheets dangled from strings with clothespins. In one such room, Dr. Ross Isaacs saw William Powers, a former bulldozer operator with severe kidney problems, and outlined how Powers could maximize his chances of a kidney transplant. Ive got hope again, Powers told me as he left.

As for Dr. Isaacs, he put it this way: The success of this event is an indictment of our health care system.

I invite you to sign up for my free, twice-weekly email newsletter. Please also join me on Facebook and Google+, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter (@NickKristof).

A version of this op-ed appears in print on July 27, 2017, on Page A26 of the New York edition with the headline: No Insurance, but for 3 Days, Health Care Is Within Reach.

Originally posted here:

No Insurance, but for 3 Days, Health Care Is Within Reach - New York Times

Murkowski was responding to a reporter's question on Capitol Hill regarding a story in the Alaska Dispatch News that said Zinke called both her and the state's other Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, to warn them that Alaska's standing with the administration was at risk due to Murkowski's dissent.

The conversation with Zinke was about more than just health care and included a discussion about energy, Murkowski said in comments aired live by MSNBC.

But it's notable that Zinke, whose department has no direct role in efforts to reform health care, would bring up the issue with a sitting senator.

Murkowski said that during the call, ZInke told her, "the President is really disappointed in what he perceives to be as your lack of support for health care reform."

But Murkowski said she responded with a promise to "accomplish good things" for her state and the US.

"This is what we're going to do together," she said, according to E&E. "And right now, the President expressed his disappointment, and what I'm going to do is continue working in good faith with everybody on everything."

In a statement to CNN, Murkowski said that although she has "disagreed with the Senate process so far, the President and I agree that the status quo with health care in our country is not acceptable and that reforms must be made. I continue working to find the best path for what I believe will achieve that -- a committee process where we can work issues in the open and ensure Alaskans have the health care choices they want, the affordability they need, and the quality of care they deserve."

Murkowski chairs the Senate energy and natural resources committee and frequently references Alaska priorities in her position. She also oversees the confirmation process for the Interior Department.

Murkowski told CNN Thursday that the nominations vote was delayed just to work out a "little bump."

"We want to get it worked out before we take it up. We just postponed it so we can take it up," she said.

Murkowski responded no when asked if delay was part of a bigger motive to use leverage against the Trump administration.

"These are important people that need to get through," she said.

Nicole Daigle, communications director for Murkowski's energy committee staff, told CNN that the business meeting was "postponed due to uncertainty of the Senate schedule."

Messages left with Zinke and Sullivan's office were not returned Thursday.

Sullivan told the ADN that the call he received from Zinke wrought a "troubling message."

"I'm not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop," Sullivan said.

"I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. ... We're facing some difficult times and there's a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the President have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear," Sullivan said.

Sullivan categorized the conversation he had with Zinke as "clear" and said it was in direct response to the vote Murkowski cast Tuesday against the motion to proceed with debate on the House-passed health care legislation. Sullivan has supported this week's votes on health care.

President Donald Trump slammed Murkowski over her votes Wednesday morning, tweeting, "Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad."

Murkowski responded to Trump Wednesday afternoon.

"My vote yesterday was from my heart for the people that I represent," Murkowski told CNN. "I'm going to continue working hard for Alaskans and focus on that."

The President has regularly rebuked GOP members of Congress in public for opposing the party in its efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, going to far as to subtly warn Republicans that their political futures could be in jeopardy if they don't support his efforts.

"Any senator who votes against repeal and replace is telling America that they are fine with the Obamacare nightmare, and I predict they'll have a lot of problems," he said at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Tuesday night.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who was the only other Republican senator aside from Murkowski to oppose Tuesday's motion to proceed vote, told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday she had not received any threats from the White House.

CNN's Dan Merica, MJ Lee and Rene Marsh contributed to this report.

Follow this link:

Murkowski says Zinke contacted her in wake of health care votes - CNN

Charles Kolb, Opinion contributor Published 5:00 a.m. ET July 27, 2017 | Updated 2:39 p.m. ET July 27, 2017

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Republicans.(Photo: Michael Reynolds, epa)

Washington is abuzz with the collapse of yet another Republican-led effort to repeal and replacethe Affordable Care Act. Plenty of bipartisan blame abounds, and it is likely that future reform efforts regardless of who controls Congress will also be doomed.

The reason is straightforward: Rather than enact serious structural reforms that reward value over volume, bend the health care cost curve down, improve patient preventive and routine care, address chronic illnesses, and fund vital research, members of Congress take the easy way out. As with fiscal and budgetary issues, Congress keeps kicking the can down the road. Trite, perhaps, but true.

With apologies to spy novelist John Le Carr, rather than solve real problems, our elected officials prefer to tinker, tailor, panderand lie.

GOP health bill pits freedom of choice against freedom from fear

Former GOP senator: Resist the bullying. Don't vote for a mystery health care bill.

They tinker around the edges of health care. Economists across the ideological spectrum understand that serious structural reform requires repealing the favorable tax treatment of employer-sponsored insurancethat arose in World War II as a means for employers to end-run wage controls.

They tailor elaborate, complex rules that are difficult to understand, enforceand audit. These complexities virtually invite fraud, wasteand abuse into the system.

They pander to interest groups and lobbyists at every level. Reform bills now seem more like appropriations or tax bills in whichevery favored interest gets a goody that, once delivered, is difficult to repeal.

They lie. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Premiums will go down. No one told Americans that lower premiums if they in fact materialized might be accompanied by higher deductibles and co-payments. Today, we have people with insurance who cant afford to use it because of high upfront, out-of-pocket costs.

This is no way to address serious public policy issues that affect a sixth of the U.S. economy and touch the lives of tens of millions of Americans. We can do better. The fact that we arent is a bipartisan embarrassment.

For more than30 years, Ive been involved in health policy issues. In the early 1980s, at the Office of Management and Budget, I worked on Medicares service payment systems known as DRGs diagnosis-related groups.The idea was simple: Medicare reimburses a hospital in a given region of the country a fixed amount, lets say $900 for an appendectomy. If the hospital performed the procedure for $800, it could keep the extra $100. However, if the procedure cost $1,100, the hospital absorbed the $200 differential.

One senior OMB official told me, Weve finally done it. Weve finally achieved cost containment in Medicare. I was skeptical and said so. Within 18 months, clever lawyers and others had figured out how to gamethe system by shifting more procedures to outpatient practices that werent subject to the DRG limits, practicing DRG creep by coding a practice to receive a higher reimbursementor, in some instances, through committing outright fraud.

There was no cost containment.

At the Committee for Economic Development, I was part of the Better Health Care Together Coalition in the early 2000s and had the privilege of working with Sens. Ron Wyden,D-Ore.,and Robert Bennett, R-Utah,on their reform bill, The Healthy Americans Act. The bipartisan Wyden-Bennett proposal offered serious structural reforms. The Obama administration never took it seriously.

A few weeks after BarackObama took office, I was in the White Houses East Room when the new president announced to a few hundred health policy experts that the first thing we needed to do was get insurancecosts under control and then expand access. Obama had the priorities right. Unfortunately, he outsourced the legislation to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and ended up signing legislation that did the precise opposite.

Veterans Affairs secretary: VA health care will not be privatized on our watch

POLICING THE USA: A look atrace, justice, media

Obamacare passed with all of its flaws without a single Republican vote. Republican efforts in 2017 proceeded without Democrats at the table and without public hearings. Whether there will be a truly bipartisan effort to fix Obamacare remains to be seen. Its unlikely.

When Sen.John McCain in his presidential campaign proposed eliminating the favorable tax treatment for employer-sponsored insurance, some Democrats accused him of supporting a tax increase. Thoughtful Democrats knew that these charges were disingenuous.

Likewise, some Republicans pilloried Democrats who raised questions about deciding what procedures and pharmaceuticals would be covered. These Democrats were accused of favoring death panels. Thoughtful Republicans knew that these charges were disingenuous.

This dynamic has to change. Sound public policy cannot be conducted in a vacuum, in the dark, or without bipartisan collaboration.

Its time for our country to attend to these pre-existing conditions(so to speak) and return to the drawing board. Whatever approach one pursues must be done in the context of a $20 trillion national debt and looming trillion dollar annual budget deficits. We cannot afford an open-ended health care entitlement. Whether you favor market forces or single-payer approaches, the country must decide in the very near future what health care procedures will be covered and who pays for them.

Members of Congress need to lead the nation in a very public discussion about the future of our health care system. Its time for our leaders to stop gaming the American public.

Charles Kolb served as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy from 199092 in the George H. W. Bush White House. From 19972012, he was president of the Committee for Economic Development. He now serves as president & CEO of DisruptDC, a non-partisan business coalition devoted to structural governmental reform.

You can read diverse opinions from ourBoard of Contributorsand other writers on theOpinion front page, on Twitter@USATOpinionand in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2w2qfuj

See the article here:

On health care the bipartisan DC approach is 'tinker, tailor, pander and lie' - USA TODAY

Andrew M. Slavitt, the former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has been trolling Republicans over health care on Twitter, posting hundreds of tweets each week that attack their proposals as meanspirited and wrong.

Kathleen Sebelius, Mr. Obamas first secretary of health and human services, will soon embark on a monthlong bus tour designed to pressure members of Congress to oppose the health care laws repeal.

And a few blocks from the Capitol, a political war room run by Leslie Dach, one of Mr. Obamas top health care officials, is coordinating a nationwide anti-repeal campaign by liberal think tanks, local resistance groups, sympathetic governors, medical and insurance lobbyists, Democratic activists, polling experts and academics.

Conceived in the hours after Mr. Trump was elected in November, the group, called Protect Our Care, is at the heart of the effort to oppose a repeal. It hosts strategy calls at 8:30 and 9:45 every morning to develop talking points, plan TV ads and discuss the latest vote counts from the House and Senate.

The most important thing is that people understand what repeal means for them, Mr. Dach said. And what repeal means is millions losing their insurance, costs going up, not down, and anxiety coming back in their lives.

The Obama aides have helped direct about $6 million toward television ads by Save My Care, a separate group in Washington.

The aides insist they are just one part of a broader liberal network that has been organically animated by anger about the Republican efforts to repeal the health care law. But they bring years of experience to the political fight, and their efforts have not gone unnoticed.

In late February, Mr. Trump accused his predecessor of being the hidden hand behind town hall meetings where angry citizens accused lawmakers of trying to take away their health care. I think that President Obama is probably behind it, because his people are certainly behind it, Mr. Trump told Fox News at the time.

In fact, the former president has made only a few public comments on the repeal effort, once using Facebook to denounce the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation. His current advisers say Mr. Obama has had little direct involvement in managing the day-to-day campaign, though he is regularly briefed on the subject.

His former aides have taken a more active role.

Anita Dunn, Mr. Obamas onetime communications director, is helping to spread the anti-repeal message, placing opinion articles in newspapers and distributing letters, including one from a group representing 7,000 Catholic nuns who oppose repealing the health law.

Meaghan R. Smith, who served as the communications director at the Department of Health and Human Services under Mr. Obama, and Lori Lodes, who was the spokeswoman at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, have become the de facto press secretaries for the effort, working to influence stories written by political and health care reporters.

And Kristie Canegallo, who was Mr. Obamas deputy chief of staff for policy implementation, is directing frequent strategy sessions with the opposition leadership. She has essentially reprised her White House role as the logistics person responsible for ensuring that a sprawling bureaucracy stayed on task as the health care law went into effect.

Ms. Canegallos conference calls have continued almost nonstop, even while she was on vacation in Australia, according to one participant.

Weve had a simple goal from the beginning, which is to stop the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, to protect Medicaid, Mr. Dach said in an interview this week.

Part of that strategy involved a public effort to broadly portray the Republican repeal effort as a threat to peoples existing health care choices.

Mr. Slavitts tweets are revered among Obama alumni for their sharp edges. Last week, when the Congressional Budget Office released its latest estimate of the effects of the Republican bill, Mr. Slavitt did not mince words.

A state-by-state look at who could lose insurance under the proposed Republican health care plans.

NEW CBO is out & a disaster, he tweeted. 22 million people lose coverage & insurance markets die.

Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama; Tommy Vietor, one of his national security spokesmen; and Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett, his speechwriters; have used their popular podcast, Pod Save America, to regularly rail against the Republican repeal effort.

Among the episode titles: Kill Bill Vol. 2.

But the campaign against repeal is also more targeted, aimed directly at a handful of Republican senators who have expressed concern about the effects that scrapping the Affordable Care Act could have on their poorest constituents.

In an opinion article about the Republican repeal effort, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. warned that it would lead to a massive cut in Medicaid and have a dramatic impact on budgets. Aimed at Senator Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican, the article appeared in The Reno Gazette-Journal.

After Mr. Heller and Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, voted on Tuesday to open debate on repealing the health law, Save My Care released television ads on Wednesday chiding both of them.

Senator Capito just broke her promise by casting the deciding vote to repeal our health care, the narrator says. Because of Capito, over 100,000 West Virginians could lose their insurance.

That vote marked a setback in the battle to save Mr. Obamas legacy. But in the hours since, the opposition campaign has celebrated a bit. Votes on several variations of repeal legislation failed to pass the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Still, the former aides to Mr. Obama said they did not intend to drop their guard. When a repeal bill failed to pass in the House in March, they relaxed their efforts, only to see the legislation roar back to life a few weeks later.

The lesson here is eternal vigilance, Ms. Dunn said. We all prematurely celebrated after the first House vote. Until we can control one body, we cant afford to walk away.

See the original post here:

Former Obama Aides Lead Opposition to Health Care Repeal - New York Times