Skip to content

health insurance

News / National / State

New interactive map details unpaid debt in U.S.

Alabamians, mush like residents in many other Southern states, have more unpaid, uncollected debt than those living in other U.S. states, according to new updates to an interactive map.  The updated interactive map by the Urban Institute, a Washington D.C.-based economic and policy think tank, shows how many Alabamians have unpaid debts, and breaks those … Continued
December 18, 2019

General Fund Budget goes to a conference committee

Tuesday the Alabama Senate approved the fiscal year 2020 state General Fund Budget. The general fund budget funds all non-education state spending: including prisons, Medicaid, mental health, state law enforcement, forensics, courts, public health and dozens of other state agencies. All education funding meanwhile is in the education trust fund budget. Most states do not … Continued
May 22, 2019

Pistol, pistol, who has the pistol?

As a state, Alabama isn’t much of a problem solver. That’s why we rank near the bottom in practically every quality of life survey of the nation. It’s why we’re lousy at fixing education and prisons and mental health and child welfare. Somebody (usually the feds) has to tell us how to fix those problems. … Continued
April 18, 2019

Sewell condemns Trump’s “health care sabotage.” Brooks supports Trump’s efforts

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Selma, voted in favor of House Resolution 271 on Wednesday, condemning the Trump Administration’s legal support for an effort by conservative states, including Alabama, to have the courts declare key parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, popularly called Obamacare, unconstitutional. “Not only are the Trump Administration’s … Continued
April 4, 2019

Should Medicaid expansion be on the 2019 legislative agenda? Experts say it has to be

In Alabama, Republican politicians have ignored the question of Medicaid expansion or rejected it outright, refusing to bring the issue to the floor of the state Legislature, but an outgoing Republican senator and hospital officials are pushing for it to be on the 2019 legislative agenda. Voters appear to be on the side against expansion, … Continued
December 7, 2018

Report: 146,000 Alabamians with pre-existing conditions could lose coverage, see premium increases

Note: This piece was originally published in October 2018. As many as 146,000 people in Alabama who have pre-existing conditions and purchase their health insurance coverage through the individual market could see premium increases or lose their coverage if the Affordable Care Act is overturned in court, according to a new report from the House … Continued
October 24, 2018

AG Marshall moves to strip pre-existing conditions coverage from hundreds of thousands of Alabamians

Nearly one million non-elderly adults in Alabama have pre-existing conditions and can’t be denied health insurance coverage under current law. However, Alabama’s appointed Attorney General Steve Marshall is currently engaged in a court battle that would deny those individuals health care coverage. Marshall, the Republican nominee for attorney general, is part of a federal lawsuit … Continued
September 20, 2018

We’re perfecting the “art” of being mean

My mother, Patricia Ann Harper Kennedy, has been dead more than 21 years now. She died young, in 1997. She had cancer. She did not have health insurance. Mom couldn’t get health insurance because she had a “pre-existing,” non-malignant tumor a decade before her fatal cancer. She wanted insurance. She could have paid for insurance. … Continued
June 14, 2018

McCutcheon, Ward, Whatley, and Patterson awarded for autism bill efforts

By Brandon Moseley Alabama Political Reporter The National Autism Law Summit was held in San Diego, California.  Several members of the Alabama legislative delegation were awarded as legislative champions for their efforts to pass legislation requiring that insurers cover autism therapy.  State Representative Jim Patterson, R-Meridianville, Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, state Senate … Continued
January 2, 2018