Author: tourist_yp6g7u

Originally published by The 19th.

North Carolina voters have spoken — Attorney General Josh Stein has won the race for governor.

The Democratic nominee beat Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, Decision Desk HQ projects. Robinson, a Republican who gained national notoriety with social media posts invoking misogyny, racism, homophobia and transphobia, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”  

Stein will replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. North Carolina’s position as a swing state in the presidential election heightened scrutiny of the governor’s race, as did Robinson’s disturbing comments on a porn forum and its aftermath. He pressed ahead despite the mass resignation of key campaign members and distancing from Republican Party leaders and candidates, including Trump. 

“We choose hope over hate, competency over chaos, decency over division,” Stein told supporters at an election night rally. “That’s who we are as North Carolinians, and I am so honored that you have elected me to be your next governor.”

Stein’s promises to protect abortion rights will be crucial during his term as Republican legislators have discussed restricting reproductive health care in 2025 across North Carolina even further by attempting to pass a six-week abortion ban in the state.

As of July 1, 2023, North Carolina has had a 12-week abortion ban, tightened from a previous 20-week ban. The new restrictions have made it more challenging for people traveling in search of abortion care from other southern states, where access is heavily restricted.

The 12-week abortion ban had been vetoed by Cooper, who had been supportive of abortion rights, but Republican legislators overrode his decision by one vote.

In the year since, this ban has contributed to a heightened shortage of OB-GYNs and primary care doctors who no longer want to practice in the state due to a fear of government prosecution for performing abortions, the Cicero Institute reports.

Stein has also said he is committed to defending access to contraception and IVF. 

A four-year Stein term as governor could also mean more protections for the LGBTQ+ community across the state, especially after legislators enacted a law last year that restricts how gender identity and sexual orientation are taught and addressed in public schools. 

Six additional anti-LGBTQ+ bills were recently introduced in North Carolina. Stein had been endorsed by a national LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, the Human Rights Campaign. He will become the state’s first Jewish governor when he is sworn in.

He struck an optimistic tone Tuesday night: “We have big challenges ahead but we have even bigger dreams to realize.”

The post Democrat Josh Stein wins pivotal North Carolina governor’s race appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Vice President Kamala Harris won New York’s presidential contest on Tuesday, picking up the state’s 28 electoral votes. New York has now voted for the Democrat in every presidential contest since giving Ronald Reagan the nod in his landslide 1984 election. Former President Donald Trump has consistently struggled to gain traction in his home state, losing New York in each of his three runs for the White House. New York’s electoral vote haul is the fourth richest, after California, Texas and Florida, but has one fewer vote than it did four years ago due to population shifts. The Associated Press declared Harris the winner at 9:00 p.m. EST.

The post Kamala Harris wins New York appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was reelected to a U.S. Senate seat representing New York on Tuesday. Gillibrand defeated Republican Mike Sapraicone, a retired New York City police detective. Gillibrand has been New York’s junior senator since 2009. In Washington, she’s been a voice against sexual harassment and assault in the military. She ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, but dropped out of the race after polling and fundraising struggles. New York hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate since Al D’Amato won in 1994. The Associated Press declared Gillibrand the winner at 9:00 p.m. EST.

The post Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand wins reelection to U.S. Senate appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

On the campaign trail, both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are eager to portray themselves as guardians of Medicare. Each presidential candidate accuses the other of backing spending cuts and other policies that would damage the health insurance program for older Americans.

But the election’s outcome could alter the very nature of the nearly 60-year-old federal program. More than half of Medicare beneficiaries are already enrolled in plans, called Medicare Advantage, run by commercial insurers, and if Trump wins, that proportion is expected to grow — perhaps dramatically.

Trump and many congressional Republicans have already taken steps to aggressively promote Medicare Advantage. And Project 2025, a political wish list produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation for the next presidency, calls for making insurer-run plans the default enrollment option for Medicare.

Such a change would effectively privatize the program, because people tend to stick with the plans they’re initially enrolled in, health analysts say. Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from Project 2025, though the document’s authors include numerous people who worked in his first administration.

Conservatives say Medicare beneficiaries are better off in the popular Advantage plans, which offer more benefits than the traditional, government-run program. Critics say increasing insurers’ control of the program would trap consumers in health plans that are costlier to taxpayers and that can restrict their care, including by imposing onerous prior authorization requirements for some procedures.

“Traditional Medicare will wither on the vine,” said Robert Berenson, a former official in the Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton administrations who’s now a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a left-leaning research group.

While the fate of Medicare has gotten scant attention so far in the campaign, the different visions under Trump versus Harris indicate the high stakes.

A candidate’s position on protecting Medicare and Social Security is the most important health care issue, or among the most important, in determining 63% of Americans’ vote in the presidential election, according to a September poll by Gallup and West Health, a family of nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations focused on health care and aging.

Medicare, which covers about 66 million people, is funded largely by payroll taxes. At age 65, most Americans are automatically enrolled in Medicare coverage for hospitalization and doctor visits, known as Part A and Part B, though others must sign up. Consumers must also sign up for other aspects of Medicare, specifically drug coverage (Part D) and supplemental plans from insurers that pay for costs that aren’t covered by traditional Medicare, such as extended stays in skilled nursing facilities and cost sharing.

People on Medicare pay premiums plus as much as 20% of the cost of their care.Medicare Advantage plans typically combine coverage for hospital and outpatient care and prescriptions, while eliminating the 20% coinsurance requirement and capping customers’ annual out-of-pocket costs. Many of the plans don’t charge an extra monthly premium, though some carry a deductible — an amount patients must pay each year before coverage kicks in.

Sometimes the plans throw in extras like coverage for eye exams and glasses or gym memberships.

However, they control costs by limiting patients to networks of approved doctors and hospitals, with whom the plans negotiate payment rates. Some hospitals and doctors refuse to do business with some or all Medicare Advantage plans, making those networks narrow or limited. Traditional Medicare, in comparison, is accepted by nearly every hospital and doctor.

Medicare’s popularity is one reason both candidates are pledging to enhance it. Last month, Harris released a plan that would add benefits including care for hearing and vision, and long-term in-home health care. The costs would be covered by savings from expanding Medicare’s negotiations with drugmakers, reducing fraud, and increasing discounts drugmakers pay for certain brand-name drugs in the program, according to Harris’ campaign.

Trump’s campaign said he would prioritize home care benefits and support unpaid family caregivers through tax credits and reduced red tape.

The Trump campaign also noted enhancements to Medicare Advantage plans during his tenure as president, such as increasing access to telehealth and expanding supplemental benefits for seniors with chronic diseases.

But far less attention has been paid to whether to give even more control of Medicare to private insurers. Joe Albanese, a senior policy analyst at Paragon Health Institute, a right-leaning research group, said “a Trump administration and GOP Congress would be more friendly” to the idea.

The concept of letting private insurers run Medicare isn’t new. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, asserted in 1995 that traditional Medicare would fade away if its beneficiaries could pick between the original program and private plans.

The shift to Medicare Advantage was accelerated by legislation in 2003 that created Medicare’s drug benefit and gave private health plans a far greater role in the program.
Lawmakers thought private insurers could better contain costs. Instead, the plans have cost more. In 2023, Medicare Advantage plans cost the government and taxpayers about 6% — or $27 billion — more than original Medicare, though some research shows they provide better care.

The Trump administration promoted Medicare Advantage in emails during the program’s open enrollment period each year, but support for the privately run plans has become bipartisan as they have grown.

“It helps inject needed competition into a government-run program and has proved to be more popular with those who switch,” said Roger Severino, lead architect of Project 2025’s section on the Department of Health and Human Services. He served as director of HHS’ civil rights office during the Trump administration.

But enrollees who want to switch back to traditional Medicare may not be able to. If they try to buy supplemental coverage for the 20% of costs Medicare doesn’t cover, they may find they have to pay an unaffordable premium. Unless they enroll in the plans close to the time they first become eligible for Medicare, usually at age 65, insurers selling those supplemental plans can deny coverage or charge higher premiums because of preexisting conditions.

“More members of Congress are hearing from constituents who are horrified and realize they are trapped in these plans,” said Andrea Ducas, vice president of health policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal public policy organization.

The post Election outcome could bring big changes to Medicare appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Headed into Election Day, a near record number of New Yorkers have already voted early. 

According to the city Board of Elections’ unofficial tally, 1,089,328 voters cast ballots in the early voting period, which ran from Oct. 26 through Nov. 3. 

That’s just shy of the 1.1 million early voters that turned out in 2020, the first presidential election in which early voting was allowed in New York. Voters then endured long lines, chaos and COVID-related complications at 88 early voting sites that were often unable to meet demand. 

But in 2024, the city opened 155 early voting sites — and by almost all accounts, voting proceeded efficiently and without delay. On Sunday alone, 149,319 New Yorkers voted early, the highest single-day early voting total in NYC history, according to the Board.

All in all, the number of people who voted represented about 20% of registered voters in the city. 

Polls open on Election Day at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m, and you can find your polling location, which may differ from your early voting site, here. The Board of Elections, which predicts a busy day with some lines, is offering an election day wait time map. 

Michelle Quimi, 31, who works at a charter school in The Bronx, was among early voters when she cast her ballot last week at the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community Center part of the NYCHA Sotomayor Houses in Soundview.

“I do work in the education system so sometimes the polls during Election Day are, like, really packed, and I don’t want to miss a chance,” she told THE CITY, just after casting her vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

At the top of the ballot, the presidential race has gotten major attention last week from Puerto Ricans in The Bronx, migrants living in the city’s shelters and progressives sending handwritten notes to swing states in such high numbers that they’ve bought out postcard stamps at post offices all across the city.

Juditch Pisano, a 67-year-old Puerto Rican living in Bensonhurst, said she heard the notorious “garbage island” joke told by a comedian at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally — but that didn’t change her mind.

“Who else but Trump? He’s my man. I think he’s great,” she said. “He’s a strong man even though maybe they don’t like the way he talks. So what? What we need is the best for our country, for our kids and our children that have seven grandkids.”

The races to watch in the five boroughs include several state-level contests in purple parts of the city that could see Republicans gain a bigger share of the heavily blue state legislature. But educating voters attuned to the top of the ticket about those State Senate and Assembly races has been tough for candidates.

Even in a super tight legislative race in Howard Beach — where the Democratic incumbent won by just 15 votes last time around — voters have hardly registered the competitiveness of the contest, or anything about the candidates.

Judge races are also on the ballot, with a handful of competitive races for judicial jobs that will affect how thousands of cases are adjudicated in local courts every year.

And New Yorkers have flipped their ballots to find a series of six questions, one to change the state constitution and the rest to change the City Charter. Proposal 1, an amendment to strengthen anti-discrimination rights and enshrine the right to an abortion in the state, has faced major pushback from New York Republicans and right-leaning advocates who have fought it on the grounds that it would give new rights to trans people and immigrants.

Locally, ballot questions two through six deal with city-level government reforms set forth by a commission convened by Mayor Eric Adams over the summer. City Hall says they’re common-sense changes that will make city operations easier, but opponents in the City Council are campaigning hard against them, saying they amount to a rush-through power grab by the mayor.

Tanya Campbell, 52, told THE CITY after voting last week at the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community Center in Soundview, “I don’t want Trump in office, and I want to give a Black woman a shot.” 

Campbell, who had her 10-year-old son Wendell in tow, added “I told my son too many people died for Black people to have this privilege or for people as a whole to have this privilege. And I’m taking him to see what he needs to do when comes of that age. Vote.” 

The top-of-the-ballot contest pushed Dave, a teacher from Bensonhurst who declined to share his last name, to cast an early vote for Trump — the first time he did so. For him, the influx of migrants galvanized him to vote Republican.

“I do see that they were trying to open a migrant shelter around here recently,” he said. “I was really against that. This issue falls to Democrats.”

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. DONATE to THE CITY

The post More Than 1 Million New Yorkers Cast Early Ballots appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here