Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'We Are Not Going Back': Repeal Threat Galvanizes Health Law Supporters Across Country
President-elect Donald J. Trump and congressional Republicans appear to have accomplished a feat that President Obama, with all the power at his disposal, could not in the past seven years: They have galvanized outspoken support for the Affordable Care Act. People who benefit from the law are flooding Congress with testimonials. Angry consumers are confronting Republican lawmakers. And Democrats who saw the law as a political liability in recent elections have suddenly found their voice, proudly defending the law now that it is in trouble. (Pear, 1/17)
Thousands of people showed up in freezing temperatures on Sunday in Michigan to hear Sen. Bernie Sanders denounce Republican efforts to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law, one of dozens of rallies Democrats staged across the country to highlight opposition. (Williams, 1/15)
Liberal groups are launching a two-month bus tour starting from Washington on Tuesday, an effort to muster public support for the Affordable Care Act even as Republicans begin to undo it. The 鈥淪ave My Care鈥 tour 鈥 which plans to travel to as many as 20 states, from Maine and New York to Arizona and Nevada 鈥 will be accompanied by a multistate digital and print advertising campaign in 鈥渢he high six figures,鈥 according to one of the organizers. The Alliance for Healthcare Security, a coalition of groups that include Doctors for America and the Service Employees International Union, is leading the effort. (Eilperin, 1/15)
More than 6,000 people packed into a community-college parking lot here for a rally with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) designed to help protect the Affordable Care Act against Republican assault. ... The rally, one of more than 40 taking place across the country Sunday, showcases an important pillar of Democrats鈥 strategy as they fight to stave off a repeal of President Barack Obama鈥檚 signature health-care law. They hope to pressure Republicans to scale back their plans by generating displays of public support, including from those who might lose insurance. (Hackman, 1/16)
"If you want to improve the Affordable Care Act, let's work together. But if you think you're simply going to throw millions off of health insurance, you've got another guess coming," Sanders said at the rally outside Macomb Community College. "You're going to have to worry about millions of people who are standing up, who are fighting back and who demand the day when health care will be a right of all people, not just a privilege." (Guillen, 1/15)
For context, more than 2.6 million people died in the United States in 2015, or nearly 7,200 per day. So Sanders is suggesting repeal of the law would increase the number of deaths by 1.4 percent. Sanders obtained the figure of 36,000 from a calculation by ThinkProgress, a left-leaning website, according to his aides. Essentially, ThinkProgress聽assumed that repeal will result in 29.8聽million people losing their insurance and that one person will die for every 830 people who lose their insurance. That yields a number of 35,903. (Kessler, 1/14)
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette and other Democratic state and federal lawmakers rallied Obamacare supporters Sunday, urging them to fight against repeal of the law and promising to protect it from Republicans bent on scrapping it. Repealing the law could strip health care from previously uninsured people who benefited from the 2014 launch of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, DeGette said. Republicans in Congress are聽preparing to repeal the law but so far have presented no plan to replace it. (McGhee, 1/15)
Democratic leaders on Monday urged Californians to fight GOP efforts to dismantle Obamacare, saying lives and jobs were聽at stake. 鈥淲e are not going back. Understand that,鈥 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said of Republican efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act, President Obama鈥檚 healthcare overhaul law. 鈥淭hey want to go from affordable care to chaos. They want to make America sick again. We are not going to let that happen.鈥 (Mehta, 1/16)
Hundreds of nurses, other healthcare workers and patients are expected聽to turn out at a noon rally聽to聽protest聽the national effort by Republican lawmakers to rescind the Affordable Care Act. Sen.聽Kamala Harris, a California Democrat who opposes the repeal, is scheduled to聽appear with healthcare activists聽outside Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights. Organizers of the rally, which includes Service Employees International Union and other labor groups, warn that a repeal of the law without a replacement will strip coverage from 5聽million Californians聽and throw the healthcare system into chaos. (Zahniser, 1/15)
Almost 2,000 people, including such notables as recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joan Baez, rallied Sunday afternoon in Civic Center Plaza behind the benefits of the Affordable Care Act. The demonstration was among several coordinated nationwide, from Los Angeles to Detroit, to fend off a Republican-led dismantling of the 2010 law, one of outgoing President Obama鈥檚 signature achievements. (Alexander, 1/15)
Hawkins joined Democratic officials including Sen. Tim Kaine and Gov. Terry McAuliffe to rally for what is an uphill battle to preserve the 2010 federal health law that was a signature initiative of the Obama administration. The Division of Capitol Police estimated the rally at 600 to 700 people. GOP congressional leaders and Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as president on Friday, say they will repeal and replace the law. (Wilson, 1/15)
Heavy hitters from the state鈥檚 Democratic Party gathered Sunday on the South Side to denounce Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare 鈥 adding to a rallying cry that echoed across the country on Sunday.鈥淲elcome to the resistance!鈥 Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., shouted to hundreds who had gathered at the headquarters of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, 2229 S. Halsted. Hundreds more endured frigid weather to watch the rally on a video screen set up in a nearby parking lot. (Dudek, 1/15)
Thousands of people gathered outside Faneuil Hall on Sunday in protest of an effort by the president-elect and congressional Republicans to revoke President Obama鈥檚 signature health care law...聽Warren and other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation joined Mayor Martin J. Walsh at the event, which drew a crowd estimated by city officials at more than 6,000. (Fox, 1/15)
Ahead of the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation are promising to fight both Congressional Republicans and Trump himself as they attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. On Sunday, Walsh and almost the entire Massachusetts delegation聽participated in a rally at Faneuil Hall聽in support of President Obama's signature health care law as聽similar rallies throughout the country. (Khan, 1/15)
Demanding to maintain and even expand health care for all, hundreds rallied in Westlake Park on Sunday as part of a national call to defend and improve Obamacare. The event was one of many rallies around the country Sunday for health care organized by Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters and Our First Stand. President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on repealing the Affordable Care Act, and members of Congress already have taken steps toward repeal. (Mapes, 1/16)
Democratic members of Oregon's congressional delegation, local officials, activists and thousands of residents held a rally Sunday to oppose Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley were joined for the rally at a northeast Portland gymnasium by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Kurt Schrader and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. "We're taking the gloves off," Wyden said, warning Republicans that a "titanic battle of a lifetime" would ensue over the health care law's future. Wyden criticized Republican moves to repeal the law, which he characterized as "a Trojan horse" to give a tax break to the wealthy and put health care regulations in the hands of insurance companies. (Friedman, 1/15)
Hundreds of people, some with signs that said "Obamacare Saves Lives," packed a south side banquet hall Sunday to voice聽support for聽the Affordable Care Act. The rally, one of many held nationwide, comes just days after Congress took initial steps to repeal and replace the health care program. (Stephenson, 1/15)
The distance between health-policy ideology and life-or-death health care narrowed to a few feet at a nationally televised town hall meeting this week when a small-business man from Arizona stood up and faced House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. 鈥淛ust like you, I was a Republican,鈥 Jeff Jeans began. Standing on the stage, the Wisconsin congressman聽broke into a grin as Jeans said he had volunteered in two Republican聽presidential campaigns and opposed the Affordable Care Act so much that he'd told his wife he would close their business before complying with the health-care law. But that, he said, was before he was diagnosed with a 鈥渧ery curable cancer鈥 and told that, if left untreated, he had perhaps six weeks to live.聽Only because of an early Affordable Care Act program that offered coverage to people with preexisting medical problems, Jeans said, 鈥淚 am standing here today alive.鈥 (Goldstein, 1/14)