Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Biden honors distinguished Americans; Trump back in N.Y. court

Hope Hicks witnessed nearly every Trump scandal. Now she must testify.

State laws measure if a woman is close enough to death for an abortion

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud’

Google’s empire is massive. A judge will soon rule if it’s a monopoly.

An I bond is now at 4.28 percent. Are they still a good deal?

Use these 6 points to say no to a college you and your kid can’t afford

How this new rule protects retirement savers from costly advice

The New York Times, alone in its outrage over access to Biden

Wait, what is Stephen A. Smith talking about? Find out with our quiz.

Stephen A. Smith would like even more of your attention

Israel’s offensive is destroying Gaza’s ability to grow its own food

Riot police and over 2,000 arrests: A look at 2 weeks of campus protests

‘It’s been abused’ Rep. McCaul on motion to vacate threat

What’s the best bus to New York? We tested 5 for comfort and value.

You asked: Do I need a passport for my cruise?

Adaptive equipment is making national parks more inclusive

Ask Amy: Should I be the best man if I think the bride is abusive?

Carolyn Hax: Husband keeps pushing modest spouse to wear sexier clothes

Miss Manners: Host eats luxurious breakfast, leaves cereal for guest

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Journalism in India is under assault

The dangerous new call for regime change in Beijing

Ukrainian men abroad voice anger over pressure to return home to fight 

On Press Freedom Day, little to celebrate for Hong Kong’s journalists

Young Georgians want to be part of Europe. Their government is in the way.

Taxes are inevitable. Paying to prepare them doesn’t have to be.

The Capitals, a team in transition, know what they want this offseason

Is Pastis as good as our food critic thought? He sent spies to find out.

Nationals can’t solve Nate Eovaldi, drop series finale to Rangers

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to summon Congress into a special session to end and replace the Affordable Care Act, as he portrayed the repeal of the contentious health-care law as a prime reason for voters to elect him.

In midday remarks in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Trump went slightly beyond his previous promise to try to end the ACA, widely known as Obamacare, on the first day of a Trump administration. But his call for a special session puzzled many, as the current Congress is scheduled to reconvene after the election, and the new one will gavel in January, before Inauguration Day.

[The future of health care, according to Clinton or Trump]

Trump did not, however, plow any new ground with the contours of his proposals to replace the 2010 law. He said that he would encourage Health Savings Accounts, allow insurers to sell policies across state lines and convert Medicaid from an entitlement program to a block grant to states — ideas long favored by GOP conservatives.

“People all across the country are devastated,” Trump said to a small invited audience gathered outside Philadelphia. “In many instances, their health-care costs are more than their mortgage costs or their rent, which by the way is a first in American history. This is particularly unfair to millennials and younger Americans, generally, who will be totally crushed by these massive health-care costs before they even get started on their journey through life.” He did not provide data to support his assertions.

The rare joint speech by Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, was timed to coincide with the opening day of the fourth year's open-enrollment period for insurance marketplaces across the country created under the ACA. Obama administration officials have predicted that 13.8 million people will sign up for health plans by the time the enrollment season ends three months from now — about 1 million more than a year ago.

[ACA's big price hike reflects challenges of expanding coverage amid political static]

Federal health officials last week announced insurance prices for 2017 that reflected what had become clear piece by piece: With some major insurance companies dropping out of ACA exchanges in many states, insurance premiums are tending to rise, and the average number of insurers selling plans to marketplace customers in their area is tending to decrease. For the 38 states relying on HealthCare.gov, the federal exchange, premium rates for the coming year are increasing, on average, by 25 percent for a significant group of midlevel “silver” plans that are the basis of federal ACA subsidies.

According to an analysis by the Health and Human Services department, most customers buying ACA coverage — intended for people who cannot get affordable health benefits through a job — will be cushioned from the effects of the rising prices by the tax credits under the law. With about 85 percent qualifying for those subsidies, more that three-fourths of ACA customers will be able to find a health plan for which they will pay no more than $100 a month in premiums.

“This year, the vast majority of consumers will qualify for tax credits that help keep coverage affordable, and it’s easier than ever to shop around and compare options,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said on Tuesday, as she spent the day giving radio and television interviews in targeted markets to draw attention to the start of the enrollment period.

[Average premiums for popular ACA plans rising 25 percent]

That comforting portrayal contrasted markedly with the alarmist characterizations by Trump and Pence. “If we don’t repeal and replace Obamacare, we will destroy health care in America,” Trump said, saying that rescinding it “is one of the single most important reasons why we must win on Nov. 8.” Still, Trump dedicated only about five minutes to the topic in a roughly 20-minute speech.

Speaking just before the candidate at the top of the ticket, Pence said: “Families will be pummeled with unprecedented sticker shock.”

Trump also said of his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, “she wants to put the government totally in charge of health care in America.” His assertion goes far beyond Clinton's position. She endorses the ACA, which relies on private insurers in the marketplaces created under the law. She wants to make a variety of changes to the statute, including allowing people 55 and older to buy into Medicare and permitting states to choose to create a government-administered alternative to private insurers in the marketplaces.

Trump said, too, that ACA insurance premiums will increase by 60 percent next year in Pennsylvania. In contrast, the HHS analysis predicts that, taking subsidies into account, 75 percent of insurers will be able to pay $100 or less for monthly premiums.

The event was held in a hotel ballroom near a mall in this town in the Philadelphia suburbs, not far from Valley Forge, the military encampment where the American Continental Army spent a painful winter during the nation's war for independence. Pence said the campaign selected the location because Valley Forge was “a turning point in the Revolutionary War.”

The event had more of a Pence vibe than a Trump one. Before the candidates arrived, soft jazz played as a few hundred guests, many of whom work in the health-care industry, mingled. Half a dozen Republican members of Congress took turns addressing the small crowd and denouncing the Affordable Care Act. Trump, who has been at odds with party leaders lately, repeatedly called on voters to elect Republicans to the House and Senate, in addition to the White House.

Goldstein reported from Washington. Sean Sullivan and Paul Kane contributed to this report.

Part of Washington Post team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for coverage of 9-11 and the government's response to the attacks

2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist for national reporting for series co-wrote on the medical treatment of immigrants detained by the federal government.

Janesville: An American Story

Brown University, AB in American civilization, magna cum laude

Fellowships at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

Amy Goldstein is The Washington Post’s national health-care policy writer. During her three decades at The Post, her stories have taken her from homeless shelters to Air Force One, often focused on the intersection of politics and public policy. She is the author of "Janesville: An American Story."

Amy Goldstein

University of Nebraska at Lincoln

Jenna Johnson is the deputy democracy editor at The Washington Post. She previously worked as a National politics reporter, covering the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, the White House and voters.



Jenna Johnson

The Washington Post

Biden administration

The Fix

The 202s

Polling

Democracy in America

Election 2024

Politics

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/politics&limit=20

Post Politics from The Washington Post is the source for political news headlines, in-depth politics coverage and political opinion, plus breaking news on the biden administration and White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, elections and more.

prism://prism.query/site,/politics/the-fix&limit=6