WASHINGTON — Vying to become House speaker in a few months, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries outlined four items on the agenda that he said would enjoy “uniform Democratic support” and advance the party’s goal of “making life more affordable.”
The first two were about healthcare, and all four set a direct contrast with President Donald Trump.
“We have to reverse the Medicaid cuts. We should extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Monday in response to a question from NBC News. “We should restore congressional authority as it relates to tariffs, because the Trump tariffs are making life more expensive for the American people. And we should end, decisively, if it’s still going on, Donald Trump’s reckless and costly war of choice in the Middle East.”
While there’s agreement on restoring the Medicaid and ACA funds that were undone by Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, there are divisions inside the Democratic Party about what its own healthcare agenda should be.
Ocasio-Cortez is part of a large and influential faction on the left that wants to pursue a “Medicare for All” system that would diminish — if not abolish — private insurance and give the government power to negotiate prices of medication and services downward. Many moderate Democrats have rejected that idea in favor of less disruptive changes, although the center-left hasn’t coalesced around a preferred vision. One outside center-left group floated “free primary care for all” as a way to break the stalemate between supporters of a single-payer Medicare for All system and of focusing on building on the current ACA.
So, the party establishment is behind proping up their donors? The entire developed world has universal health-insurance. Even Mexico has it. But not the people in the US? That is one thing that would drastically improve the lives of the American people. Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year.
Our government hates us. This is the s#it that lead up to DJT in the first place. Going back to half measures like this is a recipe for:
Especially since the AI job losses.
Is that the list of things To-Do Nothing about?
Jeffries can shove his tax credits up his ass.
Dems will pass improvements to aca if enough majority to do it, but will get repealed when voters go back to maga. Need at least 8 years of Dem prez and enough majority to pass shit, that’s not blocked by courts, so people see they like it better than before and want to keep it. Healthcare for all costs less and healthier people, don’t lose with layoffs, but still not enough people care, or believe the propaganda against it. They have insurance they think is good, but it’s not if they understood the whole story, and what about others that don’t have the right job with “good insurance” and much easier to have universal healthcare and cut insurance out. Many industries and companies fade away and it’s time for the health insurance scam to fade.
Jeffries is such garbage, I wish someone would primary his ass already.
Adopting right wing framing on M4A is so typical of an empty suit like him. Yes, abolish private insurance, that’s the idea dipshit - and replace it with the objectively better Medicare insurance to make doctor’s lives easier and help patients get desperately needed care.
It blows my mind how many people are necessary in a modern family-practice office.
It also blows my mind that my insurance company:
- won’t let my vascular doc perform tests on veins and arteries on the same day. Had to reschedule for two separate appointments
- thinks I don’t need physical therapy anymore, despite monthly flare-ups that leave me barely able to stand for more than a few minutes, and despite the words of my DPT and my Ortho.
- recognizes that I have (at least) 3 qualifying criteria for glp-1 coverage, but since all of them are borderline, I’m not sick enough yet and must pay cash (or at least a “heavily discounted” price that’s still several times more the generic prices abroad).
Would really like to understand how oral semalglutode contains something like 70x the active ingredient of subQ semalglutode, yet the oral is cheaper.
Don’t even get me started on the bullshit of HSA or especially FSA reimbursements.
Injectables cost way more than oral drugs because of sterility requirements. You literally almost have to build a new building and have the FDA watch it.
Then why is online compounded semalglutide so much cheaper?
And how are the overseas generic manufacturers able to sell so cheaply?
They literally have a cure for the biggest chronic condition, responsible for a huge array of comorbidities, brought on entirely by their friends in the food industry selling addictive, nutritionally void food cheaper and more shippable than anything actually good for you…and they lock it up right behind steep profits.
Those cheap void foods that are making us all fat are largely cheap due to farm subsidies, too, so we’re paying for that too.
It’s bullshit and anti-human. Not as vulgar as when they do it to insulin, but still evil.
Remember that documentary…Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead? With that guy who sold juicers? Yeah he was a fucking kook. But I definitely think he’s right about pharma and food working in lockstep to keep us fat and sick.
Would really like to understand how oral semalglutode contains something like 70x the active ingredient of subQ semalglutode, yet the oral is cheaper.
Not to defend the drug price bullshit in any way, everything is more expensive than it should be across the board… but if those price differences are a pill versus a prefilled autoinjector, that’s a big difference in material and manufacturing cost per dose.
Jeffries needs to go.
Someone who will restore accountability to the criminals is what’s needed. Jeffries will waste time on Medicare for all at exactly the wrong time.
We need a shark in the speaker slot.
WASHINGTON — Vying to become House speaker in a few months, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries outlined four items on the agenda that he said would enjoy “uniform Democratic support” and advance the party’s goal of “making life more affordable.”
This is why people are frustrated with politicians and Jeffries in particular. No, we don’t want the goal to be to make life “more affordable.” We’re well past “more affordable.” Saving $5 on a $15,000 hospital bill is “more affordable.” No, we want life to be “affordable.” That’s single-payer system. Maybe “more affordable” is the temporary compromise until we finish a clearly defined path to “affordable.” But it’s not a goal.
The mere fact that he’s out here talking about extending tax credits and using weasel words is utterly demoralizing also because it suggests this is the starting position which he’s going to negotiate down from later.
He can’t lead on policy, he’s certainly not following the voters’ stated wishes, so it would be great if he could kindly get out of the way.
But think of how much better your life will be when the modest costs of primary care are taken away. Sure, you’ll still go bankrupt when that primary care finds something and refers you to specialized treatment, but before that you’ll be saving upwards of $150 a year. Or probably more like $25 if you have insurance, because they’re sure not going to reduce premiums to make up the difference.
Democrats are so awful at setting objectives. I feel like they’re only committing to this because it’s DOA. Priority 1 in the event of a 2026 victory is shutting down the president and reining in presidential power. When that is done, purge government institutions of magats. Investigate and prosecute right wingers, especially the billionaires who sabotaged the United States and the president’s enablers in Congress and the supreme court.
Get your house back in order.
Jeffries is a politician from a former age of politics. We need warriors today, not weasels.
Who’da thunk that making fundraising the sole criteria for leader selection would result in out-of-touch leadership?
“this is our top priority”
“so what exactly are you going to do about it?”
“we don’t know”
“We have concepts of a plan”
And those concepts are subject to spineless capitulation should the Republicans breath a slight whisper of dissent.
They’re not going to genocide transgender people in camps, or deport them to hellhole countries. So thats already an improvement.
Nobody is putting trans people in camps and the Dems abuse ICE more than Trump has, CNN just didn’t put it in your face when Obama or Biden did it.
Our plan revolves around preserving a private insurance system that profits from something that should be a basic human right. Why, you ask?
while a small democrat majority may exist in the next session, it won’t be any thing even remotely close to veto-proof. no meaningful legislation would level-up to law as long as dipshit is around.
if they did have the numbers to override a veto–they’d have the numbers to do a hell of a lot more.
