This week, the New England Journal of Medicine published a major study of Medicaid in Oregon which has rapidly emerged of a Rorschach test of sorts. That is, partisans on either side of the political divide tend to see what they want to see in its results. While conservatives claim Medicaid expansion has been debunked […]

On Monday, Texas Republican Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn joined Governor Ricky Perry to present a united front against the expansion of Medicaid in the Lone Star State. While Perry called Medicaid a "broken system," Cruz warned accepting Obamacare's massive federal assistance "will worsen health care options for the most vulnerable among us in […]

The White House marked the third anniversary of the Affordable Care Act with numbers highlighting its early impact. Over six million seniors have saved $6.1 billion on prescription drugs, while 3.1 million young Americans under age 26 have gained health insurance on their parents' policies. All told, 71 million people have received free preventive services […]

Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann marked the third anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act by urging her colleagues to repeal Obamacare "before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens." Of course, as the likes of Rep. Virginia Foxx (who similarly declared the ACA would "put seniors in a position of being […]

On Sunday, GOP House Speaker John Boehner and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan agreed with President Obama "we do not an immediate debt crisis." But, as both sides similarly acknowledge, the longer term is a different story. In future decades, it is health care spending in general and Medicare in particular that is at the […]

When Congressman Paul Ryan first rolled out his plan three years ago to replace Medicare with a voucher system, he acknowledged the inescapable conclusion that his massive cost-shifting to seniors constituted rationing. "Rationing happens today!" Ryan protested, "The question is who will do it? The government? Or you, your doctor and your family?" But then […]

"The doctor-patient relationship." For two decades, Republicans have wielded that four-word talking point as a cudgel to bludgeon health care reform. In 1994, GOP strategist Bill Kristol warned that "the Clinton Plan is damaging to the quality of American medicine and to the relationship between the patient and the doctor." (Future "death panels" fabulist Betsy […]

This week, Mississippi Republican Governor Phil Bryant had great news for the residents of the Magnolia State. Whether you have insurance or not, cancer or cardiac disease, diabetes or dialysis, Bryant declared, "There is no one who doesn't have health care in America." Rejecting the Affordable Care Act 's expansion of Medicaid which would enable […]

As President Obama and Congressional leaders negotiate in Washington, the American people need to keep a couple of things in mind about the looming "fiscal cliff." For starters, the issue is not that the national debt will go up (which roughly half of those in one poll believe to be the case), but that it […]

When a federal judge ruled in August that Texas can withhold millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics, Governor Rick Perry proclaimed it a "win for Texas women." As it turns out, Perry's crusade against Planned Parenthood isn't a win for either the women of Texas or the budget of the […]