WASHINGTON: The Senate's surprise vote was only the latest narrow escape for "Obamacare," the social program with nine lives that has survived dozens of congressional attempts to kill it, and two Supreme Court challenges.
Not to mention the massive computer crash when HealthCare.gov was launched.
The saga of the Affordable Care Act illustrates how difficult it is to do away with a government program once millions are benefiting. In the latest episode, three Republican lawmakers broke with their president and leadership to join Democrats and deliver a dramatic defeat to repeal efforts.
Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were backed by GOP governors worried about constituents losing coverage, hospitals that didn't want to go back to being stuck with bills for the uninsured, doctors trying to keep patients healthier, and people with pre-existing conditions fearful they might be exposed to coverage denials because they let their policy lapse for a few months.
"It came down to people who didn't like 'Obamacare' realizing this was going to take away their chances for coverage," said former Rep. Henry Waxman, a Los Angeles Democrat who helped write much of the 2010 overhaul under former President Barack Obama.
Despite its problems — rising premiums, shaky insurance markets — the ACA extended coverage to about 20 million people, reducing the nation's uninsured rate to a historic low near 9 percent. It delivered by combining two approaches: subsidized private insurance, and a Medicaid expansion for low-income people that 31 states have accepted. The GOP bills would have dramatically reduced spending on both, leaving anywhere from 16 million to more than 30 million uninsured. The legislation also threatened to undermine protections for people with medical problems.
Never hugely popular, "Obamacare" actually saw an increase in support as the "repeal and replace" debate intensified.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll picked up what could potentially be a bigger shift in public attitudes. The July poll showed that 62 percent of Americans think it's a federal government responsibility to make sure all Americans have health insurance, a 10 point increase from 52 percent who said that in March. Among independents, there was a 13-point increase.
H.W. Brands, a professor of U.S. history at the University of Texas at Austin, said people have little investment in a program's success before they experience its benefits.
"Whichever fan of the welfare state first applied the term 'entitlements' to these benefits was brilliant," said Brands. "People come to think they are entitled to them, and heaven help the politician who tries to take them away."
Said Robert Blendon of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: "Getting rid of the law became getting rid of coverage for 30 million people. When faced with taking insurance cards away from 20 million to 30 million people, dislike of the law in no way justified taking those cards away."
Obama's office issued a statement Friday calling attention to the broader benefits of the ACA, including free preventive care and a greater focus on improving the quality of hospitals.
Those get less notice than the coverage expansion, but affect more people. For example, contraceptives are now provided free of charge to most women, a policy the Trump administration is seeking to narrow. And when people with employer coverage get routine colonoscopies, they no longer face a copayment for the test.
"It's about the dreams protected, and the untold misery and ruin prevented," said the statement from Obama's office.
President Donald Trump, however, does not seem ready to acknowledge anything good in his predecessor's signature domestic program.
Trump talks about "Obamacare" as if it's on the verge of collapse, which does not reflect reality everywhere. The Medicaid expansion, which has added about 11 million to the insurance rolls, operates more or less on automatic pilot even if costs are a concern. Private insurance markets are in trouble in some states, but not in others. People eligible for ACA subsidies are shielded from premium increases, but not those who buy coverage outside the health law's markets, many of whom face another year of double-digit premium hikes.
Trump tweeted what appeared to be a veiled threat after the Senate vote: "Let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!"
Andy Slavitt, a tech-savvy executive who helped revamp HealthCare.gov for Obama, said both political parties should essentially enter into peace negotiations in the seven-year health care wars.
"It is time for it to stop being Obamacare or Trumpcare," said Slavitt. "We need to make it something that everybody owns."
Much of the public and the private sector already seem headed in that direction, said Slavitt. The question is whether the politicians will join them. Democrats shouldn't be crowing, he said.
"Republicans are the majority party," said Slavitt. "Unless (Democrats) take in ideas from the Republican party and are open to them, we are not going to get to a bipartisan agreement."
Only a cat seems to have more lives than ‘Obamacare’
Only a cat seems to have more lives than ‘Obamacare’
Trump blames Zelensky for ‘millions’ of deaths in Russian invasion
- Donald Trump: ‘Let’s say Putin number one, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky’
- Trump: ‘You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size, and then hope that people give you some missiles’
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump resumed his attempts Monday to blame Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths.
Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelensky six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden.
The Republican told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.”
“Let’s say Putin number one, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky,” Trump said during a meeting with the visiting president of El Salvador.
Trump then doubled down on his attack on Zelensky.
“He’s always looking to purchase missiles,” he said dismissively of the Ukrainian leader’s attempts to maintain his country’s defense against the Russian invasion.
“When you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war,” Trump said. “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size, and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
Relations between Trump and Zelensky have been tense ever since the US president stunned the world by opening talks with Russia in February.
In the run-up to their televised row on February 28 Trump repeatedly echoed Moscow’s talking points — blaming Ukraine for the war and calling Zelensky a “dictator without elections.”
Zelensky has since tried to patch things up, including sending a delegation to Washington last week to discuss a mineral deal Trump has called for, that would give the US preferential access to Ukrainian natural resources.
But the US leader has stepped up his rhetoric in the last few days.
Trump however insisted a deal to end the Ukraine war was possible, despite Ukrainian accusations that Moscow is stalling.
“I want to stop the killing, and I think we’re doing well in that regard. I think you’ll have some very good proposals very soon,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments came despite a deadly Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday that killed at least 35 people, one of the deadliest attacks of the war.
The US president said on Sunday that the attack was a “mistake” but did not elaborate. Russia insisted Monday that its missiles hit a meeting of Ukrainian army commanders.
Zelensky urged US counterpart Donald Trump in a CBS interview broadcast Sunday to visit his country to better understand the devastation wrought by Russia’s invasion.
French hospital staff, relatives sue ministers over work-related suicides
- France’s public hospitals have been forced to drastically slash spending in recent decades, and doctors and nurses have long complained of insufficient staffing and low pay
PARIS: French healthcare workers and relatives of colleagues who killed themselves have filed a legal complaint against two ministers over “deadly working conditions” in public hospitals they say are causing suicides, their lawyer said Monday.
France’s public hospitals have been forced to drastically slash spending in recent decades, and doctors and nurses have long complained of insufficient staffing and low pay.
Nineteen plaintiffs have now accused Health Minister Catherine Vautrin and Higher Education Minister Elisabeth Borne of allowing “totally illegal and deadly working conditions” for workers and staff in training at public hospitals across France, according to the complaint seen by AFP.
They charge in the complaint they filed on Thursday that the ministers hold overall responsibility for workplace harassment and involuntary manslaughter over the deaths by suicide.
A member of Vautrin’s team told AFP she did not wish “to comment at this stage.”
Also contacted by AFP, Borne was not immediately available for comment. The complaint described a system of “coercion to illegally organize work overtime,” “threats” and “forced labor outside any regulatory framework,” as well as “totalitarian” management practices.
Case files had been “individually or systematically completely ignored,” with “no political awareness or willingness to change” current public hospital policies, it read.
It said conditions were particularly dire in three hospitals in the northeastern region of Alsace, Herault area in southern France, and the Yvelines region west of Paris, which had “witnessed a particularly preoccupying wave of suicides.”
Elon Musk announces Starlink license for Somalia
- Roughly 30 percent of Somalia’s population has access to the internet, according to the World Bank in 2022, but regular connectivity is frequently stymied by the country’s poor infrastructure
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk announced that his Starlink satellite internet service had been granted a license in Somalia.
Starlink’s network of low Earth orbit satellites can provide internet to remote locations or areas with standard communications infrastructure disabled.
Roughly 30 percent of Somalia’s population has access to the internet, according to the World Bank in 2022, but regular connectivity is frequently stymied by the country’s poor infrastructure.
“Starlink now in Somalia!” Musk said in a post on X, without giving any further details.
“Today is another historic day for Somalia’s communications and technology sectors; today we have issued here and provided Starlink, one of the major satellite telecommunications and internet services company the license to operate in Somalia,” a post on state media outlet Sonna said.
Graves of babies among dozens vandalized in suspected Islamophobic attack at UK cemetery
- Grieving relatives find up to 85 graves damaged in a section of a cemetery in the town of Watford designated for Muslim burials
- Police are investigating and the local council, which owns the burial site, says it will replace damaged name plaques and restore the cemetery to its proper state
LONDON: Dozens of graves, including those of babies and young children, were desecrated in a suspected Islamophobic hate crime in the British town of Watford, near London, prompting widespread condemnation and sorrow from the local community.
The vandalism, which affected up to 85 graves, is under investigation by Hertfordshire Police. Officers have yet to make any arrests, The Independent newspaper reported on Monday.
The damage was discovered over the weekend by a grieving family visiting the cemetery following a recent burial. The distressing scene sparked an immediate outpouring of grief and support.
A spokesperson for Wadi Funeralcare described the vandalism as “unspeakable acts of disrespect,” and added: “Their pain and anguish was deeply felt by all of us. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the many individuals and organizations who responded swiftly and stood in solidarity with the affected families and our wider community.”
The spokesperson said the incident had “deeply shaken” the Muslim community but the swift response and shared outrage reinforced the “strength we have when we stand together.”
The leader of the local Brent Council, Muhammed Butt, urged members of the public to come forward with any information that could help police, and expressed his sympathy for the bereaved families.
“I cannot imagine how they must be feeling at this moment,” he said. “It looks as though Muslim graves have been targeted in what appears to be an Islamophobic hate crime.
“There is absolutely no place for hate or discrimination of any kind anywhere, but particularly in London, a city where everyone is welcome and our diversity is one of our greatest strengths.”
Brent Council will replace the damaged name plaques and work to restore the cemetery to its proper state, he added.
“We will return Carpenders Park Lawn Cemetery to a peaceful, quiet place of remembrance as quickly as possible once the police have finished their investigation,” said Butt.
Hertfordshire Police confirmed that officers were still at the site carrying out inquiries. Chief Superintendent Jon Simpson, from the Local Policing Command, said the force was treating the incident with the utmost seriousness.
“This is an abhorrent incident and one that will understandably spark an emotive reaction in the community,” he said.
“We are continuing to work closely with our local community leaders and our partners at Brent Council, which owns the site, to identify those families who have been affected but we appreciate that this will take some time.
“At this stage, we are keeping an open mind as to the nature of this incident and in the coming days we will continue to engage with our Muslim communities to provide support and reassurance.
“We’re also working with specialist officers in the constabulary to ensure we remain sensitive and respectful to the needs of the communities involved.”
Bangladesh arrest warrant issued for British lawmaker linked to ex-Premier Hasina
- Siddiq, 42, was named in arrest warrant along with more than 50 others including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, and her brother, Radwan Siddiq, newspaper reported
DHAKA: A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for British lawmaker and former government minister Tulip Siddiq, a niece of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted from her 15-year rule in a mass uprising in August.
The country’s Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near the capital, Dhaka.
Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission, the leading Dhaka-based Bengali-language Prothom Alo newspaper reported.
Siddiq, 42, was named in the arrest warrant along with more than 50 others including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, and her brother, Radwan Siddiq, the newspaper reported.
Siddiq said the charges were “a completely politically motivated smear campaign, trying to harass me.”
“There is no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong,” she told reporters in London.
Siddiq’s lawyers also called the charges baseless. “To be clear, there is no basis at all for any charges to be made against her, and there is absolutely no truth in any allegation that she received a plot of land in Dhaka through illegal means," the law firm Stephenson Harwood said in a statement.
The lawmaker, who represents the north London district of Hampstead and Highgate in Parliament, served in Britain’s center-left Labour Party government as economic secretary to the Treasury — the minister responsible for tackling financial corruption.
She quit that post in January after she was named in an anti-corruption investigation into Hasina and her family in Bangladesh. The investigation alleged that Siddiq’s family was involved in brokering a 2013 deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh in which large sums of money were said to have been embezzled.
Siddiq said in January that she had been cleared of wrongdoing, but that the issue was becoming “a distraction from the work of the government.”
Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League party says the charges are politically motivated to destroy the reputation of the prominent family. Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is Bangladesh’s independence leader. The country gained independence in 1971 under his leadership after a nine-month war against Pakistan.
Hasina has been in exile in India since early August.
After the ouster of Hasina on Aug. 5 last year, Siddiq’s mother’s home in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan area was looted and vandalized, and so far no police case has been filed over the incident. Hasina accused Bangladesh's interim administration headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus of backing mobs to attack her followers across the country. The home affairs adviser says they are trying to restore order in the country.
