Don’t ask what drugs can do for you – ask what you can do for drugs makers!
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Don’t ask what drugs can do for you – ask what you can do for drugs makers!
Eideard 
“The dirtiest little secret of the Republicans’ Obamacare repeal campaign is that its genesis has nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act as such, but with a long-cherished desire to gut Medicaid, which predated the ACA by nearly a half-century.
To advance this goal, conservatives and GOP leaders have asserted consistently that Medicaid doesn’t work or even “harms its beneficiaries.” Health economist Austin Frakt of Veterans Affairs and Boston University now has done Medicaid’s defenders an important service by issuing a call to collect in one place all the claims that the program is broken or harmful, and then pointing us to research debunking those smears.” http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-medicaid-success-20170703-story.html
The Milbank Memorial Fund’s Issue Brief “Exploring Claims That Medicaid Doesn’t Improve Health,” explains the policy claims associated with each study, analyzes each study’s methodology and findings, and summarizes the policy relevance of and key points for each study. https://www.milbank.org/publications/exploring-claims-that-medicaid-doesnt-improve-health/
Republicans’ Obamacare repeal is starting to look like Medicaid repeal https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/17/republicans-obamacare-repeal-is-turning-into-an-attack-on-medicaid/
A Las Vegas TV station reports the office of Nevada Sen. Dean Heller was broken into and a threatening note addressed to the senator was left behind. http://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/break-in-at-sen-hellers-las-vegas-office/766978424 Heller is one of the Republican senators who has thus far refused to endorse Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s bill to “repeal and replace” Obamacare and as a result has been the target of a far-right “astroturfing” campaign in which the Trump-aligned group America First Priorities spent $250,000 to place anti-Heller stories on social media.
“A Trump-backed group’s effort to attack a GOP senator shows just how far politically active nonprofits can go” http://www.businessinsider.com/america-first-trump-heller-attacks-healthcare-nonprofits-2017-6 “…the outside nonprofit is staffed by many who have close connections to Trump’s campaign and the White House. Earlier this year, deputy White House chief of staff Katie Walsh left the administration to head up the outside group. And Nick Ayers, another leader at the nonprofit, is considered to be Vice President Mike Pence’s top political adviser. On Thursday, Pence announced Ayers will take over as his chief of staff in August. The New York Times reported that the anti-Heller ads had the White House’s blessing, per an America First official, as Trump allies were angered by the Nevada Republican’s decision to side with his state’s Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, who accepted Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. See also “Trump advisers start ‘America First Policies’ nonprofit” https://apnews.com/77133d470c634a458b3198063af4a14b/trump-advisers-start-america-first-policies-nonprofit
“How Two Common Medications Became One $455 Million Specialty Pill” https://www.propublica.org/article/horizon-pharma-vimovo-common-medication-455-million-specialty-pill “Americans pay more for health care than anyone else in the world, and experts estimate that the U.S. system wastes hundreds of billions of dollars a year.” (part of an ongoing investigation)
“Liberals can’t fathom how Trump voters see health care” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2017/07/16/Liberals-can-t-fathom-how-Trump-voters-see-health-care/stories/201707160125
Federal Medicaid funding could drop by as much as 39 percent over the next two decades under Senate Republicans’ healthcare plan, according to a report presented at the National Governors Association meeting. http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/342175-states-may-see-up-to-39-percent-decline-in-medicaid-funding-under-repeal
“Republicans’ Catch-22 on health care” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/07/17/republicans-catch-22-on-health-care/