To Your Health: House Republicans yesterday passed their promised “improved” healthcare bill by a margin of just four votes without a single Democrat. As the votes crept toward passage, the Democrats taunted the majority. Like the fans of a winning team, dozens of Democrats sang “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye,” to the Republicans who could be the political losers if the whole thing explodes.

The law would cut millions in taxes for the rich and potentially endanger health care coverage for millions of people, including the chronically ill and those with pre-existing conditions.

The financial impact of the law has yet to be assessed by the Congressional Budget Office.

One of the primary features of the bill is that it carves out the segment of the insurance market that requires more healthcare, putting them in subsidized pools, thereby raising insurance costs for the sick and elderly and lowering it for the younger, healthier portion of the population.

Some other features of the American Healthcare Act:

-Removes direct subsidies and offers tax credits to help pay for insurance, more so for younger people than older.

-Allows insurers to charge older customers up to five times what young customers pay.

-Removes the requirement that everyone must have insurance, but penalizes those who lapse and come back.

-Cuts Medicaid up $880 billion over 10 years.

-Cuts taxes on the wealthiest taxpayers by $300 billion over 10 years.

-Allows states to opt out of the “essential services,” including maternity, mental health, and emergency care.

Religious Freedom: President Trump yesterday signed an executive order that allows churches and religious organizations to get involved in politics, despite their tax-free status. It also allows them to deny birth control in their employee health insurance policies.

Texassss Tough: The governor of Texas is expected to sign a new law that would outlaw sanctuary cities and jurisdictions, punishing officials and law enforcement who refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It would be the harshest crackdown in the country on the sanctuary movement.

World: At least 30 people are dead after weeks of demonstrations in Venezuela over the failed socialist government and President Nicolás Maduro’s grab for absolute power. Demonstrators have been met with teargas and bullets, both real and rubber. An armored vehicle ran right over a group of demonstrators.

The government has failed to provide enough food, sometimes even toilet paper. The political opposition demands better food distribution, the restoration of the National Assembly’s constitutional power, and free elections.

The Royals: Britain’s Prince Philip may have performed his last ribbon cutting. The queen’s husband, who is 95 and seemingly pretty healthy for his age, announced that he will no longer be performing public official duties.

Philip is known as the most loose-tongued and sometimes politically incorrect of all the royals.

The Royal staff and the press were all summoned to Buckingham Palace yesterday, throwing up a scare that there may be some emergency with the queen. But oh, it’s just that guy she married and sent out to open bridges and shopping centers for 69 years.

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