Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
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Question: The deal would repeal a cost-control measure in “Obamacare” known as the Cadillac Tax, an unpopular levy on benefit-rich health insurance plans scheduled to take effect in 2022. That means Congress is upsetting the balance between expanding access and controlling costs that former President Barack Obama tried to strike in his signature law, said Kathleen Sebelius, who served as his health secretary. “President Obama thought it was very important to have additional access paid for,” said Sebelius. “This just takes a big step backwards.” The deal was reached in late stage negotiations between congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as part of a broader agreement to keep the government operating past this weekend. As part of the package, the Trump administration would be barred from using its rule-making authority to take certain actions that would destabilize the ACA’s health insurance markets. But it punts on the two biggest consumer health care issues this year: curbing prescription drug costs and ending surprise medical bills. Lawmakers will try again early next year — when another round of budget legislation is due. The Cadillac Tax was intended as a levy on the most generous plans, pegged at 40% of the value above a certain threshold. In 2022 that threshold would have been $11,200 for single coverage and $30,100 for a family plan, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. One in five employers would have been affected. The tax was widely supported by economists and health policy experts, who argued it would help confront the problem of high U.S. health care spending. That’s because employers were expected to scale back their plans or shift costs to workers to avoid paying. Many employers and labor unions opposed it from the beginning. “It could have meant higher deductibles for employees or less choice,” said Cynthia Cox, who leads research on the Obama health law at the Kaiser Foundation. Repeal will “have a positive effect on a lot of people with health insurance coverage.” But critics said taxpayers will be on the hook for more debt, since repeal of the Cadillac tax and two other unpopular “Obamacare” levies is estimated to add about $400 billion to the federal deficit over 10 years. “The Cadillac tax may have resulted in some modest cost increases when it took effect, but what it was actually going to do is reduce health care costs, which would have raised wages,” said Marc Goldwein, of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for reining in the nation’s $1-trillion deficit. Here’s an overview of some of the other major health care components of the budget deal: — Also repeals the health law’s health insurance tax and its sales tax on medical devices. These taxes were intended to help pay for the cost of expanding coverage under the health law, which currently provides insurance to about 20 million people. Even without these taxes, most of the law’s financing stays in place. —Blocks the Trump administration from issuing regulations that would end the health law’s automatic re-enrollment provision, or from shutting down a state-level workaround called “silver loading,” which has helped stabilize “Obamacare”premiums. —Extends and increases Medicaid funding for U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico.

Answer: Budget deal puts access to health care above curbing costs.


Question: But following a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the 42-year-old vendor has turned to making plastic face shields for frontline medical workers instead. “I was once a patient myself and I feel like my family owes doctors a lot”, said Linh, who received hospital treatment a few years ago for a blood-related illness. “I want to make these shields to keep them healthy. If they are healthy, then they can protect us”. Last week, Vietnam began a 15-day social distancing campaign to slow the spread of the virus that has seen most non-essential businesses shut, including Linh’s stall. There have been 241 reported cases of the coronavirus in Vietnam and no reported deaths, according to the health ministry. Aggressive contact tracing and a mass quarantine programme have helped keep that tally low. When the lockdown began, Linh assembled a group of family members, friends and fellow vendors to start making the face shields. They can be worn in addition to face masks to better protect medical workers from the tiny virus-carrying droplets released by infected patients. In just a few days, Linh and her gang of volunteers made almost 1,000 face shields, she said, and distributed them to at least three nearby hospitals. Linh said she had drawn on her experience as a hat vendor to line the shields with comfortable padding. She watched media reports of doctors in the United States and consulted a friend who works as a nurse there to perfect the design, she said. The finishing touch? A sticker, with an important message to Vietnam’s medical workers: “Fight Covid-19 disease”. “Keep believing, because we are always with you”. (This story is refiled to correct dateline)

Answer: Vietnamese hat seller turns to homemade face shields in virus fight.


Question: The total death toll in the world’s hardest-hit country since its outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 rose to 17,127, the Civil Protection Agency said. The total of confirmed cases increased by 3,039 on Tuesday to 135,586, the second successive daily decline, underscoring growing confidence that the illness is on the retreat thanks to a nationwide lockdown introduced on March 9. New cases rose by 3,599 on Monday. Previous daily increases since March 17 had all been in a range of 4,050-6,557. Of those originally infected, 24,392 were declared recovered on Tuesday against 22,837 a day earlier. There were 3,792 people in intensive care against 3,898 on Monday — a fourth consecutive daily decline.

Answer:
New coronavirus cases in Italy fall to 25-day low, deaths rise by 604.