Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Allison Bailey

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 2d

In most states open enrollment for Affordable Care Act health insurance starts Nov. 1.

This year 22 million people are about to see their premiums more than double, on average.

At the heart of the government shutdown is the battle to keep these huge costs down.

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Larry Levitt @larrylevitt.bsky.social · 3d

A lot of people are curious why insurers are increasing benchmark ACA premiums by an average of 26%. The publicly-available rate justifications from insurance companies typically look something like this. So, it's kind of hard to tell for sure.

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

AK Press @akpress.org · 4d

STARTING SOON!

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘈𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵: 𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘴 virtual book launch with @mskellymhayes.bsky.social & @boston-a-bookfair.bsky.social starts at 7pm EDT / 4pm PDT.

Stream here: www.youtube.com/live/4m0kUkt...

Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis

YouTube video by AK Press

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Public Citizen @publiccitizen.bsky.social · 5d

This will impact 17 MILLION Americans.

Meanwhile, Republicans are refusing to extend ACA subsidies and forcing this government shutdown.

Instead of protecting healthcare, Republicans in congress are making it more expensive for hardworking families.

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 7d

Disabled Americans experience the highest rates of poverty of every marginalized group in America. 27% live below the poverty line (12% for ableds).

Their median earnings are $18,865 compared to $28,983 for the abled.

These numbers WILL get worse.

If you can help you will save lives.

castawayfarm.bsky.social @castawayfarm.bsky.social · 7d

Feeding America has a page where you can input your zip code and it'll show you all of the food banks near you overlaid on a map. If you need it, it's there. If you don't need it, think about donating money if you have it and your time if you don't.

www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...

Find Your Local Food Bank | Feeding America

Find the Feeding America member food bank nearest you. Over 200 member food banks can connect you with free food, food pantries, soup kitchens, and mobile pantries in your community.

www.feedingamerica.org

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Liberal Jane @liberaljane.bsky.social · 18d

digital illustration of a large pink and green haunted house with ghosts and stars. text reads, ‘my body is not a temple, it is a haunted house.’

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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 11d

more on this important discovery today www.nature.com/articles/d41...

People with some cancers live longer after a COVID vaccine

mRNA vaccines seem to boost the effectiveness of an immune therapy for skin and lung cancer ― in an unexpected way.

www.nature.com

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 11d

Health insurance costs jumped for workers & employers in 2025.

This will get worse if the GOP refuses to extend ACA subsidies.

Meanwhile, the seven largest health insurance companies made a combined $71B in profits in 2024.

Still not sure we need Medicare for All?

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 12d

“More than 420 anti-science bills attacking longstanding public health protections – vaccines, milk safety and fluoride – have been introduced in statehouses across the U.S. this year, part of an organized, politically savvy campaign to enshrine a conspiracy theory-driven agenda into law.“

Anti-science bills hit statehouses, stripping away public health protections built over a century

More than 420 anti-science bills attacking longstanding public health protections – vaccines, milk safety and fluoride – have been introduced in statehouses across the U.S. this year.

apnews.com

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Audrey Dutton @audreydutton.bsky.social · 13d

Schools in South Carolina recently sent home unvaccinated kids, to stem a growing measles outbreak. Turns out 5 of them were infected and, if they'd been at school, could've unwittingly infected their classmates for days.

That kind of precaution is now illegal in Idaho.

Idaho Banned Vaccine Mandates. Activists Want to Make It a Model for the Country.

The Idaho Medical Freedom Act makes it illegal to require anyone to take a vaccine or receive “medical intervention.” Leslie Manookian, the activist behind the law, hopes to make it a “societal norm” ...

www.propublica.org

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Bubba's Dad @bubsdad.bsky.social · 13d

Just receieved this today from Florida Blue. This is for a Bronze plan. Our monthly premiums are going from $333 (2025) to $2300 in 2026.

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 13d

This whole thread.

Catastrophic insurance ONLY works if you have the money to save in an HSA so that if you do have a catastrophe, you can pay the incredibly steep deductible, and also so that you can cover the cost of preventative care yourself. Otherwise it can still bankrupt you.

Robin Marty @robinmarty.com · 13d

The reality is that catastrophic insurance is in fact just paying for insurance AND paying for your care out of pocket in most cases. And making people avoid preventative care because of the cost is how you end up in that catastrophe.

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Lisa Needham @snipy.bsky.social · 14d

Cannot stress enough that I would be dead if insurers were still able to refuse me insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

Mrs. Detective Pikajew, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 14d

My best friend was able to leave her abusive husband because the ACA made it possible for her to still get health insurance

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Boo-lie Lynch @jlynch13.bsky.social · 14d

RFK is undoing human subjects protections so he can conduct placebo trials of vaccines. That means infecting people knowingly. I wonder who will “volunteer” for these trials? If history is any guide, a lot of incarcerated and other powerless people.

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 14d

Dismantling the Institutional Review Board (IRB), that oversees all human subjects research, is bad. Really bad.

Melody Schreiber @melodyschreiber.com · 19d

The entire HR department at the CDC is gone. Everyone at the IRB, which makes sure studies are conducted ethically and rigorously, and the ethics office, which oversee conflicts of interest for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Liz Szabo @lizszabo.bsky.social · 16d

It’s ‘too late’ to extend ACA subsidies without major disruptions, some states and lawmakers say
States are worried Congress missed its opportunity to extend enhanced ACA subsidies and lower premiums before consumers start picking plans in a few weeks. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

It’s ‘too late’ to extend ACA subsidies without major disruptions, some states and lawmakers say

States are worried Congress missed its opportunity to extend enhanced ACA subsidies and lower premiums before consumers start picking plans in a few weeks.

www.politico.com

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Amy Kapczynski @akapczynski.bsky.social · 16d

which also describes the last-mile issues getting these needed drugs to patients. Check it out! wustllawreview.org/2025/09/03/d...

Drug Dealing: Making Public Pharma Work – Washington University Law Review

The U.S. market for prescription drugs is failing many Americans. Drug prices in the United States are nearly three times higher than in comparable countries, and evidence shows that patients regularl...

wustllawreview.org

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Amy Kapczynski @akapczynski.bsky.social · 16d

Wow - California's public insulin will be on the market in Jan! Big milestone for public pharma efforts. Could help millions of diabetics, esp if they can build a more public supply chain too. We describe why public pharma is important in this paper ... www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

In shot across Big Pharma's bow, California will sell its own insulin

Delivery of the state-branded drug makes good on a longstanding promise by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

www.politico.com

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social · 17d

Explains Colleen Thomas, the advocate from @hoosiersvaccinate.bsky.social: what about your diabetic cousin? Someone who has cancer? Remember that vaccination is a form of kindness: you help not just yourself but also others.

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Physicians' Gallery @physiciansgallery.bsky.social · 19d

Sore legs? Considered putting herrings on your feet? - Handy 1785 medical tip

Printed recipe. Reads: For swelled legs. Take salt herrings, open them, pulling out the back-bone, lay them to the soles of your feet: by doing this once per day, for 7 days, you will experience the benefit.

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio @rlmartstudio.bsky.social · 21d

This week in 1988: 1,000+ ACT UP demonstrators shut down the FDA headquarters, demanding (and eventually winning) action on developing HIV/AIDS treatments. ACT UP's militant and creative actions always included powerful visual artwork, and paved the way for movements in the decades to come.

A photograph from the 1988 ACT UP demonstration outside the FDA. Many people are participating in a die-in on the front steps, holding mock tombstones with messages like "RIP - killed by the FDA" and "Dead from lack of drugs." A line of police officers (some with classic 80s mustaches) wearing riot helmets stands between them and the building; one cop wearing white gloves is walking through the demonstrators. Affixed to the 2nd story windows of the building is a series of posters and a large blank banner reading Silence = Death.

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🇵🇸 Samtheghost// BlackLivesMatter @teoami.bsky.social · 21d

Everyone should read this & remember 2 things: 1) everyone has the potential to become disabled 2) our healthcare system is not designed to make us better, it's designed to make money

Kristen Immoor @kristenimmoor.bsky.social · 21d

Enjoyed the New Yorker interview with Tim Curry, a free-wheeling conversation in which there were several sensitive questions about his paralyzing stroke. But oh my goodness, why was there no follow-up at all to this staggering answer? www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Screenshot of text from the interview:

You’ve always been an incredibly physical performer: your strut during “Sweet Transvestite” in “Rocky Horror,” or the way you run around unfurling the mystery at the end of “Clue.” Do you still feel that in your body? Does that live somewhere in you still?

I think it does, but it’s angry. My mobility is angry to get out. But it’s not happened yet. I do a certain amount of physical therapy. I did a whole bunch of it at Cedars-Sinai, and I got very close, I think, to walking. That was tantalizing. For insurance reasons, I had to withdraw. And I have a visiting physical therapist now, but I can only really do exercises from my bed, which is pretty pathetic. It’s not going to get me walking, I don’t believe.

[I have underlined the sentence "For insurance reasons, I had to withdraw."]

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Reposted by Allison Bailey

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 23d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social · 23d

RFK Jr. says vaccines don’t save lives. He’s wrong. Yes, sanitation saves lives; so do vaccines. www.statnews.com/2025/10/10/m... via @statnews.com

RFK Jr. says vaccines don’t save lives. He’s wrong

Now RFK Jr. is claiming vaccines don’t actually save lives. Here’s the math to show what he gets wrong.

www.statnews.com

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Meghan Bartels @meghanbartels.bsky.social · 25d

The science is in: COVID boosters are worth it, even if you've been vaccinated and/or infected before. Stay safe out there, friends!: 🧪 🛟 www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-...

Annual COVID Vaccines Save Lives, New Study Shows

A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people’s risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination

www.scientificamerican.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 25d

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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