News You Should Know

House Republicans reveal Obamacare replacement, face backlash

On Monday, Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a healthcare plan intended to be the replacement for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

The proposed bill is not a “full” or so-called “clean” repeal of Obamacare. The new plan is at least somewhat similar to the one it replaces. Like Obamacare, it would still stop insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, allow children to stay on parents’ plans until age 26, disallow lifetime limits on coverage and require all plans to meet minimum coverage requirements.

However, the bill has significant differences in the areas where Republicans most often disagreed with the former president’s healthcare law. It eliminates the widely disliked ‘individual mandate’ forcing people to buy coverage or pay a penalty but replaces it with a new penalty for lapses in continuous coverage.

The bill also drops the requirement that large companies must provide healthcare to employees, slowly rolls back the expansion of state Medicaid programs, loosens restrictions on charging older people more for insurance and raises caps on tax-free health savings accounts. Last, it would restructure certain insurance subsidies for low-income individuals into tax credits and offer them to higher income earners as well.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have endorsed the bill, along with Republican House leadership including Speaker Paul Ryan, but it has drawn criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats say it hurts sicker and poorer Americans, benefits the rich and will fail to cover as many as the 20 million Obamacare does now.

However, it’s not just the opposition party who has come out against the bill. Many prominent conservative figures and organizations say the bill is too much like Obamacare, and allows too much government interference. Senator Paul Rand went so far as to call the bill “Obamacare Lite.”

 

Also This Week

…From Local News

In Warwick, Rhode Island, construction is underway at T.F. Green Airport to expand runways. However, some residents in the area have complained about the number of trees cut down to make room for the construction. The Rhode Island Airport Corporation stated that the environmental changes were required by federal law.

Police responded to a threat towards the Jewish Community Day School on Tuesday in Providence. A receptionist told police that a man claimed he was on top of the building carrying an assault rifle, but police found nothing to substantiate the threat.

Rhode Island Congressman James Langevin (D) has co-sponsored the FAST Voting Act bill in the United States House of Representatives. The bill would allow states to apply and compete for federal grants to introduce their own policies to increase voter participation.

…From National News

Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from all investigations related to Russian involvement with President Trump’s campaign, after news surfaced that he (as did ousted National Security Advisor Michael Flynn) failed to disclose meetings last year with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.

From Texas up to multiple states in the Midwest, at least seven people were killed as a result of wildfires bolstered by strong winds.  As of Tuesday, fires had spread across a total of more than one million acres, or about 1,500 square miles.

…From World News

Poachers in France broke into a zoo on Monday, killed a rhinoceros and stole its horn after cutting it off with a chainsaw. The four-year-old white rhino, named Vince, was shot three times. The two other rhinos in the same area were unharmed.

Iraqi Armed Forces seem to have retaken major government buildings in Mosul, Iraq, in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), according to statements from Iraq’s military. Mosul is the last major city held by ISIS within Iraq’s borders, but the extremist group still holds important urban centers in Syria.

The United Kingdom’s parliament approved a measure that requires the final agreement on the terms of UK’s so-called ‘Brexit’ from the European Union to be approved by both houses of Parliament. The current government under Prime Minister Theresa May opposes the bill.

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