Health Care Reform Is Personal for Wisconsin Congresswoman in Remission for Cancer
*By Justin Chermol*
For veteran congresswoman and cancer survivor Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, the issue of healthcare is both political and personal.
The lawmaker, who just entered remission after 10 months battling small-cell lymphoma, knows she's among the lucky ones. She did not have to battle an insurance company over a pre-existing condition or cope with in spike in her premiums.
In President Trump's second State of the Union speech, he set health care as priority and vowed "to protect patients with pre-existing conditions."
But according to Moore, that promise is empty.
"Despite the rhetoric of Republicans, it's just rhetorical on their part when they say 'Oh, we want to protect people with pre-existing conditions.' No, you can't do it if you in fact repeal the Affordable Care Act," she said.
"I think one of the centerpieces of the Affordable Care Act is that we required insurance companies to provide real plans, not these junk plans, " she added of the Obama-era law that was thrown into question when President Trump took office.
Meanwhile, drug prices continue to surge.
Americans spend nearly $1,200 on prescription drugs a year, according to the [OECD](https://data.oecd.org/healthres/pharmaceutical-spending.htm).
"It is absolutely foolish that the government has one of the biggest pools of customers in the country ー consumers of health care, when you consider Medicaid and Medicare ー and yet we don't require pharmaceutical companies to negotiate their prices.
"It's a totally anti-capitalist notion," Moore continued. "For people who say they are against socialism ー and therefore \[prefer\] the market figuring it out ー one of the things the market would do, is have you negotiate across this huge pool of consumers."
"That's very low hanging fruit."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rep-gwen-moore-d-wi-aims-to-protect-taxpayers-with-new-legislation).
Schools, shops, banks and Iceland's famous swimming pools shut on Tuesday as women in the volcanic island nation — including the prime minister — went on strike to push for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence.
A group of 33 states including California and New York are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for harming young people’s mental health and contributing the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.
In a courtroom showdown five years in the making, Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen testified Tuesday that he worked to boost the supposed value of the former president's assets to “whatever number Trump told us to."
Republican Tom Emmer abruptly abandoned his bid to become House speaker, withdrawing hours after winning the internal party nomination once it became clear he would not have enough support from GOP colleagues for the gavel.
Eighty-five-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz spoke of a “hell that we never knew before and never thought we would experience” as she described the harrowing Oct. 7 assault on her kibbutz by Hamas militants and the terror of being taken hostage into the Gaza Strip.
Jenna Ellis, an attorney and prominent conservative media figure, reached a deal with prosecutors Tuesday and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez returns to court Monday to enter an expected not guilty plea to a conspiracy charge alleging he acted as an agent of the Egyptian government when he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.