This week brought news of a vitally important medical development for millions of future parents. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that a new fetal DNA test is far more accurate and much less risky than current methods at identifying--and ruling out--serious genetic disorders including Down syndrome and Trisomy 18. […]

A funny thing happened on the way to the demise of Medicare Advantage. The program under which 16 million seniors purchase federally subsidized coverage through private health insurers, the carriers and Republicans warned, would be jeopardized by the $150 billion in cuts to providers over 10 years used to help fund the Affordable Care Act. […]

Five years ago today, CNBC regular Rick Santelli launched into the infamous rant that many credit with birthing the Tea Party movement. That the Tea Party's toxic mix of blind rage, shocking detachment from the facts and periodic descent into racist rhetoric pre-dated Santelli's frothing at the mouth performance has largely been overlooked. Nevertheless, five […]

By now, millions of Americans--most of them in red states-- are growing familiar with the "coverage gap." Thanks to their rejection of the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid in states they control, GOP leaders are leaving at least five million people in an insurance "dead zone," earning too much to qualify for Medicaid but […]

As their recent disinformation campaign over mythical Obamacare job losses shows, Republicans love the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Except when they hate the CBO, which is most of the time. After all, GOP leaders are using the fifth anniversary of the $787 billion Obama economic stimulus program to mark it is a failure despite the […]

"The doctor-patient relationship." For over 20 years, conservative propagandists and their Republican allies have used that four-word bludgeon to beat back universal 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." Kristol's […]

Word that Speaker John Boehner will bring a "clean" debt ceiling bill up for a vote in the House On Tuesday brought a sigh of relief to Washington and global financial markets. After all, a U.S. default arising from a refusal to pay the bills Uncle Sam has already incurred would have meant, as Boehner […]

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus made a startling statement. The President, Priebus charged, "stole $700 billion from Medicare to fund ObamaCare," adding, "If any person in this entire debate has blood on their hands in regard to Medicare, it's Barack Obama." That was a pretty remarkable claim for the […]

Despite their trumpeting of its latest budget report, it's no secret that Republicans hate the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In 2011, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) denounced the CBO's forecast that the Affordable Care Act will reduce--not increase--the U.S. national debt, calling its projections "budget gimmickry." That November, momentary GOP presidential frontrunner Newt […]

Days after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest projections House Republicans on Friday announced their latest ransom demand for raising the debt ceiling. John Boehner's minions will vote to avoid a U.S. default and a global economic calamity if the Medicare "doc" fix is patched for nine months and cuts to veterans' […]