Category: US House

Tevlin: Health care debate is ‘legacy’ of the times

NOTE:  Minnesota Third CD DFL was not involved in the organization of this meeting.

The following article by Jon Tevlin was posted on the StarTribune website June 6, 2017:

Across the country, angry crowds have gathered at public forums on health care changes, booing and heckling members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted for President Donald Trump’s American Health Care Act (AHCA). On Monday, more than 200 people in Eden Prairie, in Minnesota’s Third District, flipped the script, giving standing ovations to a congressman.

That congressman, however, doesn’t represent that district, and most of the people in the crowd can’t vote for him. Continue reading “Tevlin: Health care debate is ‘legacy’ of the times”

‘Town hall’ meetings mostly draw angry people. Should members of Congress hold them anyway?

The following article by Sam Brodey I was posted on the MinnPost website June 1, 2016:

MinnPost photo by Ibrahim Hirsi
3rd District activists held a town hall style event “with our without” Rep. Erik Paulsen. (It turned out to be “without.”)

What’s more American than the town hall meeting? Open debate, confrontation of those in power, yelling — town hall meetings, where communities gather for discussion and debate of the day’s issues, have it all, and they’ve persisted as a civic practice throughout U.S. history.

There’s a specific kind of town hall that gets the most attention these days, however: one in a school auditorium or coffee shop or library, where a member of Congress stands before his or her constituents and answers their questions about what’s going on in Washington. Continue reading “‘Town hall’ meetings mostly draw angry people. Should members of Congress hold them anyway?”

Reading Erik Paulsen’s hate mail

The following article by Mike Mullen was posted on the CityPages website May 24, 2017:

Erik Paulsen’s vote for the AHCA, aka Trumpcare, has pissed off a few of his suburban constituents.Star Tribune, Glen Stubbe

Last week GOP U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen picked up a Democratic challenger: Dean Phillips, heir to the Phillips liquor brand and grandson to the nationally syndicated advice columnist Dear Abby. Not unlike Dear Abby, Paulsen’s been getting a lot of questions by mail lately.

Dear Congressman Paulsen,
We don’t see you around here much anymore, but I know how busy the people’s work must keep you! I write because I think you made a mistake when you voted in support of the American Health Care Act. I myself am a physician — with “one foot firmly on the golf course,” my wife says — and I worry about the effect this plan will have on my lower-income patients, facing less-certain retirements than mine. Won’t you reconsider?

Sincerely, Uneasy in Eden Prairie Continue reading “Reading Erik Paulsen’s hate mail”

Scott Pruitt, left, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, with President Trump and a group of coal miners in March as the president signed an executive order that rolled back many climate-change policies. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

The following article by Jason DeRusha was posted on the WCCO website May 6, 2017:

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — WCCO has learned wealthy Twin Cities businessman Dean Phillips says he will run for Congress against Rep. Erik Paulsen in Minnesota’s 3rd District covering the western suburbs from Eden Prairie to Maple Grove.

Phillips told WCCO’s Jason DeRusha that Republican Rep. Paulsen’s Thursday vote in favor of “Trumpcare,” the health care bill designed to roll-back parts of Obamacare, moved up his timeline to begin the process to declare as a candidate. He said he expects to officially announce in the coming week.

Phillips’ family started the Phillips Distilling Co., a Minneapolis company that created Phillips Vodka and Prairie Organic spirits, he also owned Talenti Gelato. He has sold both of those businesses and in recent years has worked on philanthropic issues and co-founded Penny’s Coffee, a Minneapolis coffee shop near downtown.

Phillips created a Twitter account Friday, tweeting: “@RepErikPaulsen? More like Mis-Representative. Your vote for #TrumpCare betrays the people you serve. #ReadTheBill ’18 can’t come soon enough,” and DFL leaders and activists have been recruiting him after a disappointing showing by former Plymouth mayor and State Representative Terri Bonhoff.

Dean Phillips @deanbphillips

.@RepErikPaulsen?More like Mis-Representative.Your vote for betrays the people you serve. ’18 can’t come soon enough

DFL leaders and activists have been recruiting him after a disappointing showing by former State Senator Terri Bonoff.

WCCO reached out to a spokesperson for Paulsen Saturday morning but did not get a response.

View the post here.

Health care is now set to be a defining issue in the next election cycles

The following article by Philip Rucker was posted on the Washington Post website May 5, 2017:

With one hasty and excruciatingly narrow vote, House Republicans have all but guaranteed that health care will be one of the most pivotal issues shaping the next two election cycles — including congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative races in the 2018 midterms and President Trump’s likely reelection bid in 2020.

Just as Democrats were forced to defend Obamacare in the 2010 midterms — the result was a coast-to-coast drubbing that President Barack Obama called a “shellacking” — Republicans this time will be in the hot seat. Continue reading “Health care is now set to be a defining issue in the next election cycles”

How To Fight The Republicans Who Voted For ‘Trumpcare’

The following article by Tim Marcin of Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website May 5, 2017:

Lots of liberals, and even some conservatives, are upset that House Republicans passed Thursday a health care bill that hadn’t been vetted by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for its cost or effects, such as the loss of coverage for millions of Americans, as the CBO estimated for a prior version of the legislation. The GOP was apparently ready for it’s Obamacare replacement and ready for it now—but opponents also were ready to fight back.

Causing particular anger is the provision in the American Health Care Act (AHCA)—often dubbed Trumpcare—that undermines protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions. States would be able to apply for waivers to allow insurers to charge higher premiums for those with pre-existing conditions. It has been estimated some 27 percent of people on the individual market suffer from things that could be considered pre-existing conditions—which under Obamacare included having cancer or being the victim of sexual assault. Continue reading “How To Fight The Republicans Who Voted For ‘Trumpcare’”

Was Erik Paulsen Duped By Medical Devicemakers Or Is He Promoting Alternative Facts ?

The following post on the Minnesota Political Roundtable website was posted April 17, 2017:

It wasn’t alternative facts when Congressman Tom Price R-GA-06 offered H.R. 4848 “Healthy Inpatient Procedures Act of 2016” or the “HIP Act” … it was greed.

Background :
Medicare had announced a new regulation – Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model. The CJR model’s goal was to give hospitals a financial incentive to work with physicians, home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities and other providers, promoting coordinated care. Continue reading “Was Erik Paulsen Duped By Medical Devicemakers Or Is He Promoting Alternative Facts ?”

Do members of Congress pay for 100 percent of their health insurance?

The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website April 17, 2017:

Question: “Who pays your salary?”
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.): “I am self-employed, I’ve been self-employed, and I pay more taxes inside my own company personally than I’ll ever receive from being in Congress. I pay my own, and I pay my own insurance. … So don’t mislead and think that you’re paying mine. I do. Also, every member of Congress, they pay for their own insurance, too. We are put into the exchange. We’re not a federal employee. We go into the D.C. exchange and we personally have to pay for 100 percent of it. Not a percentage, all of it.”
— Exchange during a town hall, April 10, 2017

Question: “Where do you get your insurance?”
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.): “I will say, just because there’s a lot of misinformation on it: I am on Obamacare. So that’s what Congress does.”
— Exchange during a town hall, April 10, 2017 Continue reading “Do members of Congress pay for 100 percent of their health insurance?”

GOP Health Care Bill Recycles Tired Moralizing Of The Poor

The following article by Mary Sanchez was posted on the National Memo website March 13, 2017:

Donald Trump meets with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on Capitol Hill. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Conservatives are a curious bunch. They profess a sunny faith, most of the time, in the unique power of free markets to lift society’s poor and afflicted. Yet when markets fail and government steps in to deliver social goods or services, to alleviate suffering or poverty or misdistribution, conservatives switch their tune to moral outrage.

Case in point: the current debate over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. The health care system set up by this law, commonly known as Obamacare, is not perfect but it made huge strides toward two vital social objectives: decreasing the number of uninsured Americans and putting a brake on the spiraling trend of national health care costs.

Some conservatives hate Obamacare because of the president whose namesake it is. Others hate it because they think anything the government does to soften the blows of free-market discipline is immoral. It spares the poor from their deserved punishment. And, of course, Obamacare operated through a framework of taxes and mandates and regulations — all things that good conservatives execrate. Continue reading “GOP Health Care Bill Recycles Tired Moralizing Of The Poor”

Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

The following article by Lena Sun was posted on the Washington Post website March 11, 2017:

Employers could impose hefty penalties on employees who decline to participate in genetic testing as part of workplace wellness programs if a bill approved by a U.S. House committee this week becomes law.

In general, employers don’t have that power under existing federal laws, which protect genetic privacy and nondiscrimination. But a bill passed Wednesday by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce would allow employers to get around those obstacles if the information is collected as part of a workplace wellness program.

Such programs — which offer workers a variety of carrots and sticks to monitor and improve their health, such as lowering cholesterol — have become increasingly popular with companies. Some offer discounts on health insurance to employees who complete health-risk assessments. Others might charge people more for smoking. Under the Affordable Care Act, employers are allowed to discount health insurance premiums by up to 30 percent — and in some cases 50 percent — for employees who voluntarily participate in a wellness program. Continue reading “Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill”