There Are Two Kinds Of Politicians In America-- Those Who Insist On Including Health Care As A Human Right And Those Who Insist It Isn't

I start writing my posts by 5 AM and I keep doing it, on and off, 'til around 5PM, just in time for Chris Hayes' show. But by 9 every morning, the candidate calls start coming in. They can take a big chunk out of my day, especially from new candidates I don't know. But I've come up with a way to cut them short:

"If you're elected and the Democrats maintain a majority in the House, as looks likely, H.R. 1384, Pramila Jayapal's Medicare-For-All act will come up for a vote. You'll have to either vote for it, vote against it or abstain. Do you support Medicare-for-All. If they say "no" the interview is basically over. I don't hang up but I do start cutting it short and moving towards saying good-bye and good luck. If they say "yes, but...." it's also a signal that this could be over quickly.

Yesterday, CNN reported that there are 400,000 more children uninsured since Trump took office. Keep these two words in the back of your mind: "Republican enablers." Yesterday, Tami Luhby reported that "The number of uninsured children ballooned by more than 400,000 between 2016 and 2018, an unprecedented decline in health coverage for the youngest Americans... Roughly 4.1 million children were uninsured in 2018, up from a low of 3.6 million in 2016, according to the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, citing US Census Bureau data. Their uninsured rate jumped to 5.2% last year, up from 4.7% in 2016.

The trend is particularly troubling because it comes during a period of economic growth when more Americans are gaining employment, said Joan Alker, the center's executive director. She fears even more children will lose coverage if the economy falters.

"Much of the gains in children's coverage that came about as a result of the Affordable Care Act have now been reversed," Alker said.

The national uninsured rate for all Americans also rose last year for the first time in nearly a decade, according to the Census Bureau. It increased to 8.5% in 2018, up half a percentage point a year earlier. Some 27.5 million people were uninsured last year, a jump of 1.9 million.

Several factors have contributed to the bump in uninsured rates for children, the center says. They include: efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut Medicaid, delays in funding the Children's Health Insurance Plan, the effective elimination of the individual mandate penalty, cuts to Affordable Care Act enrollment outreach and advertising and an increase in state-based eligibility checks for Medicaid.

Also, the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration has discouraged parents from enrolling eligible children in public programs, leading to a rise in uninsured Latino children in particular.

The Affordable Care Act helped improve children's coverage rates by increasing the likelihood that children would be enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP when their parents obtained insurance, simplifying enrollment, funding outreach efforts and establishing the individual mandate, which required most Americans to be insured or pay a penalty. Congress set the penalty to $0 starting this year.

...Fifteen states, led by Tennessee, Georgia and Texas, saw the number and/or rate of uninsured children increase.

Yesterday, Senate Democrats forced a vote on repealing an anti-healthcare rule implemented by the Trump Regime. With Medicare open enrollment starting tomorrow, the Senate voted to allow inadequate junk plans to be sold instead of actual health insurance. Vox reported that under Trump’s rule, "states could request a 1332 waiver, which would enable them to buy and offer plans that Democrats see as low-quality options, including plans that could discriminate against patients with preexisting conditions-- rolling back one of the key accomplishments of the ACA. To undo the rule, Democrats forced a vote on a resolution of disapproval, a measure that can be used to overturn administration regulations with a simple majority in the House and Senate. Trump, however, has the ability to veto this measure. The resolution wound up falling short of the votes it needed, with a vote of 43-52, a sign that not enough Republican lawmakers were willing to break with their party on this front."

All of the Democrats present-- even the reactionaries like Sinema and Manchin-- voted for the resolution but they were joined by just one Republican-- Susan Collins of Maine. All of the other Republicans voted no, including the 2020 electorally vulnerable incumbents-- Thom Tillis (R-NC), Cory Gardner (R-CO), David Perdue (GA), Dan Sullivan (AK), Joni Ernst (IA), Martha McSally (AZ) and Steve Daines (MT).