In Upcoming Memoir, Obama Retells Battle For ACA, His Plan To Fight H1N1
"Legislation of this scope was guaranteed to involve hundreds of pages of endlessly fussed-over amendments and regulations," the former president says in an excerpt released this week. The book, "A Promised Land," comes out next month.
The Guardian:
Barack Obama Recalls Epic Battle For Healthcare Law In Excerpt From Memoir
An advance chapter from Barack Obama’s first memoir of his White House years, published on Monday by the New Yorker, takes readers inside the epic political battle behind the passage of the Affordable Care Act at the end of his first year in office. ... The book, A Promised Land, is scheduled to be published next month, two weeks after election day. In the advance chapter, Obama describes how his team confronted an H1N1 flu virus outbreak in 2017, at the time seen as a pandemic threat – but now all but forgotten. “My instructions to the public-health team were simple,” he writes. “Decisions would be made based on the best available science, and we were going to explain to the public each step of our response – including detailing what we did and didn’t know.” (McCarthy, 10/26)
Vanity Fair:
Obama’s Memoir Illustrates Why Trump Failed At Destroying The ACA
It was the early days of Barack Obama’s presidency, and he was about to begin his push for healthcare reform. He knew he’d have to spend some political capital to get it through, but Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, two of his top advisers, were warning him just how much it would cost him. “We all think we should try,” Axelrod told him. “You just need to know that, if we lose, your presidency will be badly weakened.” “We better not lose, then,” Obama replied. (Lutz, 10/26)
In other news about the Affordable Care Act —
Politico:
Attacks On Obamacare Threaten Coverage Gains Among Minorities
Threats to Obamacare could deal a new blow to communities of color that have been disproportionately ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic as the nation is reckoning with generations of inequity. The Affordable Care Act’s insurance subsidies, its expansions of Medicaid eligibility and its protections for preexisting conditions have especially helped Americans of color, narrowing historic disparities in access to health insurance and affordable care. (Wanneh, Goldberg and Luthi, 10/29)
KHN and Politifact:
Sen. Graham Complains That 3 Blue States Get A Third Of ACA Funding
Sen. Lindsey Graham has never been a fan of the Affordable Care Act — even though it’s helped dramatically lower the number of uninsured people in his home state of South Carolina. The Republican, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, attacked the law at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Democrats have made the nomination a referendum on the health law, which will be the subject of a Supreme Court hearing on Nov. 10. They fear the court may overturn the entire law, which has led to huge expansions in coverage and blocked insurers from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions, among other consumer protections. (Galewitz, 10/29)
Reno Gazette Journal:
ACA: Obamacare Under Siege Again As Nevada Health Insurance Exchange Enrollment Starts
After its troubled launch in 2013, Nevada’s health insurance exchange is kicking off its latest enrollment period on Nov. 1 with some long-sought stability and none of the drama that plagued the program in previous years. Underneath its calm waters, however, are some troubling undercurrents. More than 2,000 miles away at the U.S. Supreme Court, the healthcare law that serves as the linchpin behind Nevada’s exchange — the Affordable Care Act — is facing the biggest threat to its existence since the late Sen. John McCain’s dramatic thumbs down on the U.S. Senate floor three years ago. It’s a mixed-bag situation for Nevada’s Silver State Health Insurance Exchange. After spending many of its years stuck doing damage control, the program has finally notched a solid string of wins. (Hidalgo, 10/26)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Window Shopping Opens And Competition Blooms For 2021 ACA Health Plans
The marketplace is booming for Georgians who want individual health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. It may be the most contentious time in history for the ACA marketplace exchange in Georgia, which is open for window shopping now and starts open enrollment on Sunday. Gov. Brian Kemp is prepared to block Georgians' access to the healthcare.gov website in coming years and reroute consumers to private agents, and the whole system is on the chopping block at the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 10. (Hart, 10/28)
KHN:
Hospital Bills For Uninsured COVID Patients Are Covered, But No One Tells Them
When Darius Settles died from COVID-19 on the Fourth of July, his family and the city of Nashville, Tennessee, were shocked. Even the mayor noted the passing of a 30-year-old without any underlying conditions — one of the city’s youngest fatalities at that point. Settles was also uninsured and had just been sent home from an emergency room for the second time, and he was worried about medical bills. An investigation into his death found that, like many uninsured COVID-19 patients, he had never been told that cost shouldn’t be a concern. (Farmer, 10/29)
