On the final day of Obamacare’s open enrollment, Fox News host Jenna Lee hammered Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) about why Republicans have yet to offer a comprehensive alternative to the health law — despite repeatedly voting for its repeal.
During an interview with the network, Graham agreed that his party should introduce a unified health care proposal. But Lee persisted, pressing him for more details. “Why do you think Republicans can put together a better plan to get the trust back in government?” she asked. “What are Republicans putting out there that says to the American, people, ‘no, you can trust us. If you don’t trust what is happening now, trust us?’”
After Graham evaded the question, Lee followed up. “Getting back to the question,” she said, “what is preventing the Republicans from putting forward a real plan that everybody can look at, even before November?”
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“I think it is good for the Republican party to have a plan of its own to insure Americans without losing your doctor and bankrupting the country,” Graham agreed. “Let’s start with the idea that pre-existing illnesses should not deny you coverage, that means you’re gonna have to have pools for the really sick, but why would you want to deny somebody insurance because they got sick? Allowing children to stay on the policies up to they’re 26 makes sense given this economy and buying policies across state lines makes a lot of sense to me.”
Those proposals are already part of the Affordable Care Act, which establishes a temporary insurance program for sick people, prohibits insurers from discriminating against pre-existing conditions, and keeps young adults on their parent’s health care plans. The health law also allows insurers to sell policies across states that have established uniform regulations.
House Republicans are reportedly planning to unveil a replacement for the law later this year. In 2009, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a bill backed by a majority of House Republicans would cover just 3 million additional uninsured Americans. Meanwhile, an estimated 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gained coverage under Obamacare.
Graham insisted that Republicans should continue chipping away at the health care law. “If we had the Senate and House, we would have hearings about what is really going on,” he said. “[I]f I were the leader of House, I would have an Obamacare hearing almost every other day to find out what’s in these numbers.”
The ObamaCare enrollment deadline arrives, UConn and Kentucky round out the Final Four, and more
1. ObamaCare enrollment deadline arrives
Obama administration officials are making last-minute public appeals urging Americans to sign up for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges before open enrollment ends at midnight Monday. The White House approved extra time for those who have tried but been unable to enroll due to glitches, but others will face a penalty if they are uninsured in 2014. In the last week, ObamaCare operators fielded a record 2.5 million calls. [USA Today]
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2. UConn and Kentucky round out the Final Four
The Final Four is set. The UConn Huskies upset Michigan State Sunday to advance to the semi-finals of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Kentucky beat Michigan to win the other slot, joining Wisconsin and overall No. 1 seed Florida to round out the Final Four. The Gators lost two games all year — one to UConn, whom they play next, and the other to Wisconsin, whom they could face in the final. [Fox News]
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3. Kerry and Lavrov deadlock over Crimea
Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, failed to break an impasse over the Crimea crisis on Sunday. Kerry said they held four hours of constructive talks in Paris, and agreed that diplomats should continue working on how the contested Ukrainian region, which Russia is annexing, should be governed. “In the end, Ukrainians are going to have to make that decision,” Kerry said. [Los Angeles Times]
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4. Erdogan declares his party dominated Turkish elections
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory in local elections on Sunday, declaring that he and his allies had delivered an “Ottoman slap” to their rivals. Opposition leaders contested early counts giving a big lead to Erdogan’s party, which faces a corruption probe and widespread street protests. The vote was seen as a test of strength for Erdogan, whose party has held power since 2002. [CNN]
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5. More crews arrive to hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines plane
The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 intensified on Monday as 10 planes and 10 shipshunted for fresh clues in the sea west of Perth, Australia. On Sunday, crews dismissed suspicious flotsam as fishing buoys. Investigators hope to find traces of the aircraft, which disappeared March 8, before the pings of its black boxes start fading out next week. Relatives of Chinese passengers demanded an apology from the Malaysian government for declaring that the plane had crashed. [The New York Times]
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6. Tech rivals Apple and Samsung start another legal battle
Apple and Samsung return to court in California on Monday, continuing their ongoing legal battle. Apple is demanding $2 billion in damages from its rival, which it says stole iPhone designs and features. Apple wants a $40 royalty for every Samsung device running software Apple says it conceived. Samsung hopes to enlist help from Google engineers who designed the Android system by getting them to testify they didn’t use Apple’s ideas. [The Guardian]
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7. North and South Korea shell each other’s waters
North Korea, upset over annual U.S.-South Korea military exercises, shelled South Korean watersin the Yellow Sea on Monday. Residents of South Korea’s Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands were evacuated to shelters. The South responded by firing hundreds of shells into Northern waters. Such displays aren’t uncommon along the disputed naval border, although this time North Korea reportedly notified Seoul ahead of time by fax — a first. [Yonhap]
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8. U.N. scientists say climate change is hurting harvests
Climate change has started cutting into the world’s food supply, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a sweeping report released Monday. The authors said climate change was once a distant threat but is now increasingly hurting people “on all continents” and across every ocean. “It’s about people now… not just butterflies and sea ice,” said Virginia Burkett, one of the authors. [The New York Times, The Guardian]
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9. Earthquake rattles Yellowstone
A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck Yellowstone National Park on Sunday. It was the strongest quake recorded there in 34 years. No damages or injuries were reported. Yellowstone sits on one of the world’s largest super-volcanoes. A U.S. Geological Survey team was dispatched to tour the Norris Geyser Basin to see whether the temblor had changed any of Yellowstone’s famous geysers, mud pots, and hot springs. [Reuters]
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10. Frozen beats Toy Story 3‘s world box office record
Disney’s Frozen blew past Toy Story 3 to become the highest grossing animated film in history, with the final push coming over the weekend as the film opened in Japan. Frozen has now hauled in $1.072 billion at the box office worldwide. Toy Story 3 took in $1.06 billion. Frozen, which took two Oscars, was released in the U.S. in November. It’s now showing in 36 counties, including South Korea, the U.K., and Germany. [Los Angeles Times]
In the four years since the signing of the Affordable Care Act, right-wing media has engaged in a campaign to undermine the law in any way possible, frequently resorting to lies, myths, and misinformation. Among the most prominent and long-lasting of these myths are claims that the law amounts to socialized medicine, will harm the economy, provides federal funding for abortions, kills thousands of jobs, and of course, creates death panels.
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