Thursday, March 28, 2024

What Is Trump Doing To Medicare

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How Does Virtual Medicine Work

President Trump signs executive order on Medicare

Liberating Virtual Medicine . The ability to deliver medical care remotely is growing by leaps and bounds. It promises to lower medical costs, increase quality and lower the time and travel cost of patient care. For example: 1 After hip and knee replacements at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, patients are transported to rehab facilities, nursing homes and even to their own homes — where follow-up observations are made with video cameras. 2 A nurse at Mercy Virtual Hospital in St. Louis can use a camera in a hospital room in North Carolina to see that an IV bag is almost empty. She can then call and instruct a nurse on the floor to refill it. The telemedicine cameras are powerful enough to detect a patients skin color. Microphones can pick up patient coughs, gasps and groans.

Savings Accounts To Benefit The Wealthy And Healthy

The executive order proposes wider access to Medicare Medical Savings Accounts , which are available to those enrolled in high-deductible Medicare Advantage plans. Like health savings accounts , the money in MSAs is tax-free and can be used toward health care costs, including dental, hearing, and vision. While high-deductible health plans and MSAs can be a good value for relatively healthy seniors who have high enough incomes to afford to fund these accounts, they may not provide adequate financial protection for those who need first-dollar coverage or have greater health needs.

President Trump has previously proposed turning MSAs into a tax shelter, which would chiefly benefit the wealthy. Trumps FY 2020 budget proposed allowing seniors to deposit additional funds into MSAs beyond the plans contribution, as they can with HSAs. Data on HSA contributions show that higher-income individuals are more likely to contribute toward accounts and to benefit more from the tax exemption.

Fact Check: No Evidence For Trump’s Covid

Jane C. Timm and


In recent months, our nation, and the entire planet, has been struck by a new and powerful invisible enemy. Like those brave Americans before us, we are meeting this challenge. We are delivering lifesaving therapies, and will produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner! Trump claimed on Thursday night.

This is largely false. The U.S. is still struggling to meet the challenge of the deadly coronavirus, which is still spreading rapidly and killing sometimes more than a thousand people a day while other countries have managed to reduce transmission and dramatically reduce deaths. The U.S. has a quarter of the globe’s confirmed infections, despite having just 4.2 percent of the global population. Meanwhile, testing is limited and shortages of personal protective equipment persist six months after the first days of the pandemic.

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Rnc Goes After Bill De Blasio Hes Not On The Ballot And Already Has Low Approval Ratings

Dartunorro Clark

The RNC played a montage fearing residents and tenant leaders from New York Citys House Authority buildings, which houses low-income New Yorkers.


The residents and video slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is not on the Democratic ticket. Whats more, he was not invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Since the start of the pandemic and racial unrest, de Blasio has been routinely criticized by both conservatives and progressives.

A Change Research poll in March put him at a 40 percent approval rating among the citys residents.

Rnc Plays Video Of Younger Voters Denouncing Liberalism

Medicare Office Lexington Ky: Trump Changing Medicare

A video of unidentified younger voters played at the Republican National Convention on Thursday.

The video featured the voters denouncing liberalism, with some of them saying they had once believed in some of the tenets of the ideology but now support Trump instead.

Its another example of Trump reaching out to disaffected progressive voters, some of whom voted for him in 2016.


“The last time we had a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters,” Trump said earlier this year. “I think if they take it away from him like they did the last time, I really believe you’re going to have a very riotous time in the Democrat Party.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders has implored his supporters not to turn against the Democratic party despite his losing the nomination.

At last week’s Democratic convention, Sanders said, “My friends, I say to you, to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary, and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake.”

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How The Medicare Levy Works

The formula is simple: the Medicare levy is 2% of a persons taxable income. The Medicare levy is collected from employees in the same way income tax is collected. Generally, the pay as you go amount that an employer withholds from a salary or wages includes an amount to cover the Medicare levy. The Australian Taxation Office does its calculations on the actual amount owed when an income tax return is lodged, but usually there will not be a big disparity.


The levy is in addition to other forms of income tax. It is listed on the Notice of Assessment or a tax refund estimate at the end of every financial year.

Changes Fall Far Short

Jayapal on Thursday said the Biden administration didnt go far enough in revamping the model.

While Im glad to see the administration taking steps to redesign this flawed programI am disappointed that these changes will not be enacted for 10 months and that there are no limits on how many seniors are funneled into this experimental model, Jayapal said in the statement from Physicians for a National Health Program. More needs to be done, and I will continue to fight tooth and nail against any and all efforts to privatize Medicare.

Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, which has lobbied to end these arrangements, also said the administrations changes to the model were insufficient.

Changing the name doesnt change the fact that the direct contracting program is backdoor privatization of Medicare. This dangerous experiment must be stopped before it further harms the health of vulnerable seniors, eats into the Medicare Trust Fund, and destroys traditional Medicare, Lawson said The tweaks that CMMI announced today fall far short of that goal.


DCEs and their investorswhich include private equity firmsare focused on generating profits. They are incentivized to deny and delay care as much as possible. There are no changes that can address that fundamental flaw at the heart of the program, he said.

With assistance from

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Creating Hurdles For Beneficiaries To Enroll And Maintain Coverage

The Trump Administration is encouraging states to add complexity to their systems for verifying Medicaid coverage. For example, based on past guidance, Idaho had been using a simple process to automatically renew coverage for Medicaid beneficiaries for whom administrative data sources showed no income a best practice for keeping beneficiaries enrolled. But the Administration recently informed the state that its process didnt comply with federal requirements, leading Idaho to change its verification process and require additional documentation from beneficiaries. These changes have caused low-income people including eligible children with complex health care needs to lose coverage and forgo needed medical care while trying to re-enroll in Medicaid. Pressure for added paperwork and verification may have contributed to some states large declines in Medicaid enrollment, and will likely worsen the problem going forward.

What Is Trumps Healthcare Plan It Looks A Lot Like Obamacare

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  • For years, Republicans have lambasted Obamacare, and promised that a full replacement for the Affordable Care Act is in the works.
  • But more than 10 years after the ACA was signed into law, no major GOP replacement plan has surfaced.
  • Trumpâs administration has instituted incremental changes to the landmark healthcare law, and zeroed out the universal coverage mandate.
  • Evidence suggests he would do more of the same if given a second term, largely leaving the ACA alone.
  • Biden, if elected, would likely usher in a different set of tweaks to the law: heâs floated the ideas of a public option, and more health insurance tax credits available to middle- and upper-class Americans on ACA plans.

President Trump talks a lot about getting rid of President Obamaâs landmark Affordable Care Act, which has extended health insurance to 20 million more Americans.


He often says heâll be replacing that 2010 law with âsomething terrificâ and/or âsomething great.â

But the truth is that Trump and Republicans in Congress havenât unified behind replacing Obamacare at all.

Trumpâs domestic policy chief Brooke Rollins recently told Business Insider that a backup for the ACA is still âbeing worked on.â

Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy expert who was an architect of the original ACA in the Obama administration, is skeptical that any major Republican changes to his legislation are truly in the works.

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Covid Tests Masks Not Required For Trump Speech

Hallie Jackson and Winston Wilde

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Thursday that “a number of” GOP convention guests at the White House tonight will have been tested for COVID-19 but that “you make choices individually.”

“I think it’s a pretty safe environment, given the circumstances,” Meadows said. “I’m not worried about that based on the protocols that we have in place.”

Chairs set up on the lawn ahead of the speech were well under 6 feet apart, flouting local social distancing guidelines. With a crowd of more than 1,000 people, tonight’s speech appears to be the largest non-socially-distanced White House event in the COVID era. The crowd is made up of a mix of GOP lawmakers, delegates, friends, family and donors from all over the country some of whom have flown in.


Masks were not required.

A History Of Borderline Statements

Even if most legal experts say Trumps comments at his Saturday rally did not amount toincitement, some feared how his speech might affect supporters.

Those kind of remarks, she said, usually didnt amount to incitement because they were too generalized.

That changed in December 2020 after he lost the election, said Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at Harvards Kennedy School of Government. And now I think its safe to say that you dont need to parse his words to determine what he wants and what his listeners are hearing.

He says who to target. In some cases he says when and where, Kayyem said. And he utilizes language that is understood by his listeners as a call to violence.


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One Jan. 6 rioter, Stephen Ayres, testified how he believed Trumps repeated false assertions about the 2020 election being stolen was what prompted him to travel to Washington and join the mob that stormed the Capitol.

Trump launched some especially inflammatory attacks against the FBI and Justice Department after their Mar-a-Lago search last month.

Soon after, a man armed with an AR-15 rifle and a nail gun attacked an Ohio FBI office after posting Kill F.B.I on sight on Trumps Truth Social site. He was shot and killed in a standoff with police.

Bookbinder told USA TODAY that given Trumps past history, the Justice Department and FBI need to be prepared to respond.

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When Does Trumpcare Take Effect

The ACHA first had to pass a vote in the House of Representatives, which it did so on May 4 by a margin of 217-213.1 The bill will still need to pass a vote in the Senate before it can be signed into law by President Trump.

Despite passing the House, the bill has stalled at the Senate level, as many GOP senators have balked at approving the ACHA as it was originally written. A committee of senators has been formed to draft a new version of the bill. There is no deadline for this new version, and no date has been set for a vote.

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Watch Vice President Pence’s Full Speech At The 2020 Rnc

Funny Medicare Medicaid Memes of 2017 on me.me

The third night of the RNC the traditional political pep rally that Trump is hoping will boost his flagging re-election campaign was held as the country faces turmoil.

A teenager was arrested Wednesday for fatally shooting protesters in Wisconsin demonstrating against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. The NBA postponed playoff games in response to Blakes shooting. Texas and Louisiana braced for a catastrophic hurricane. Deadly wildfires continued to burn in Northern California. All while the coronavirus death toll rapidly nears 200,000.

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Pat Lynch: The Democrats Have Walked Away From Us

The Democrats have walked away from us. They have walked away from police officers and they’ve walked away from the innocent people we protect, Lynch said. Democratic politicians have surrendered our streets and our institutions. The loudest voices have taken control, and our so-called leaders are scrambling to catch up with them.

Its worth noting that, according to The New York Times, major crimes have not risen in NYC and the papers analysis of city data shows that the recent spike in shootings is largely because of the number of arrests for gun crimes has sharply decreased.

Fact Check: ‘record’ Job Gains Still Leave The Us Labor Market In Worse Shape Than Great Recession

On the last night of his partys convention, President Trump bragged about record job gains in recent months, but the 9.1 million jobs he touts come with some qualifiers.

“Over the past three months, we have gained over nine million jobs, and thats a record in the history of our country,” Trump said Thursday.

The recent job gains are still less than half the number of jobs the economy shed in March and April at the height of pandemic-ordered lockdowns. From March through July, the economy lost a net 12.9 million jobs, the most in American history.

The nearly 2 million jobs added in July also represent a sharp slowdown from the almost 5 million jobs added in June.

And several major groups of workers are at greater risk of falling behind. Black unemployment, at 14.6 percent in July, registered less than a percentage point of improvement. Among Hispanics, the rate of unemployment also remained elevated at nearly 13 percent, compared to just nearly 9 percent for white workers.

It still has a long way to go, and risks falling back in as the pandemic continues to rage and causes more layoffs and curtails hiring, he said.

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Sen Harris: Rnc Was Designed To ‘soothe Donald Trump’s Ego’

Harris spoke hours before President Trump is set to formally accept his party’s nomination for re-election at the final night of the Republican National Convention, pre-emptively criticizing the president for his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead of rising to meet the most difficult moment of his presidency, he froze. He was scared. He was petty and vindictive, Harris said.

Trump Mentions Kenosha Not Jacob Blake

Trump on ABC News town hall: We will protect coverage for preexisting conditions

Midway through his speech Thursday, Donald Trump mentioned Kenosha, Wisconsin but did not make mention of Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times in the back by the city’s police.

He began by saying: We have to give law enforcement, our police, back their power.

They are afraid to act, he continued. They are afraid to lose their pension. They are afraid to lose their jobs, and by being afraid they are not able to do their jobs. And those who suffer most are the great people who they want so desperately to protect.

When there is police misconduct, the justice system must hold wrongdoers fully and completely accountable, and it will, he continued. But what we can never have in America and must never allow is mob rule. In the strongest possible terms, the Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson, and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, and New York.

Trump did not make mention of the pro-police sympathizer and Trump-supporter who is alleged of shooting and killing two protesters in Kenosha earlier this week. Some have connected Trump’s rhetoric to the actions taken by the armed teen.

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Trump To Attack Biden As ‘extreme’ In Rnc Speech

President Trump will focus his Republican National Convention speech Thursday on attacking Joe Biden, according to excerpts of his address.

At no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas,” Trump will say, according to excerpts of the speech from his campaign.

We have spent the last four years reversing the damage Joe Biden inflicted over the last 47 years. At the Democrat convention, you barely heard a word about their agenda. But that’s not because they don’t have one. It’s because their agenda is the most extreme set of proposals ever put forward by a major party nominee.”

How Do I Avoid The Medicare Levy

The vast majority of Australian taxpayers pay the Medicare levy, even if they have private health insurance.

The way to avoid the Medicare Levy Surcharge is by taking out the required private health insurance policy it must include hospital cover. Singles require an excess of $750 or less, and couples and families must have a minimum excess of $1,500.

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Fact Check: Trump Repeats Out

President Trump, arguing that Americans wouldn’t be safe under Joe Biden, repeated a claim Mike Pence made Wednesday, quoting the former vice president as saying, “Yes, absolutely,” as a response to whether he’d broadly support cutting funding for law enforcement.

“When asked if he supports cutting police funding, Joe Biden replied, yes, absolutely,” Trump said Thursday night.

The accusation repeats, nearly verbatim, a false claim touted in a series of ads being run by the Trump campaign and by the pro-Trump PAC America First Action.

In one such ad, a narrator discusses how “the radical left wing of the Democratic Party has taken control” and says, “Joe Biden stands with them and embraces their policies defunding the police.”

Biden is then heard saying, “Yes, absolutely.” Another ad follows the same pattern, with a narrator saying Biden supports “reducing police funding” and Biden saying, “Yes, absolutely.”

The remark in both ads that Pence cited is taken out of context. It is from a , in which Biden is responding to a question from progressive activist Ady Barkan about whether some government funding for law enforcement should redirected to other areas, like increased social services.

“Yes, absolutely,” Biden replies.

Biden has explicitly said he doesn’t support “defunding” the police. In an interview with CBS News, he said he instead supports “conditioning federal aid to police, based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness.”

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