Archive for July 2010
Insurers Push Plans That Limit Choice of Doctor
New York Times – As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals. The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely…
Read MoreReport From the US Social Forum
Healthcare-NOW! had a tremendous presence at the US Social Forum, which converged over 20,000 activists for social change into Detroit for 5 days in June. We organized two major events at the forum. First, a workshop attended by about 50 folks from Detroit and elsewhere. Michael Lighty of the National Nurses United broke down the…
Read MoreSupport the Single-Payer Expressions for Access to Care Equality Project
Every movement has its music. With this in mind, CUUSP is joining efforts with Healthcare-NOW! to produce a compilation album of songs and stories that will serve to further inform and inspire this present-day civil rights movement. S-PEACE (Single-Payer Expressions for Access to Care Equality) will combine folk, rock, blues, hip hop, and spoken word…
Read MoreSocial Security Cuts Eyed by Deficit Commission ‘Especially Painful,’ Report Finds
by Mike Hall for AFL-CIO NOW Blog – Next month, Social Security, one of the nation’s most successful and important government programs, turns 75. It is the cornerstone of retirement security for tens of millions of Americans. (Today, the U.S. House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security will examine the success of Social Security…
Read MoreTown Hall Meetings Say No to Cutting Social Security
By Al Benchich for Labor Notes – I can’t help but think that the folks behind the “America Speaks” town hall meetings, held June 26 in 19 cities across the country, were shell-shocked by the results. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and, principally, the foundation of Wall Street financier Peter Peterson had spent…
Read MoreObama’s Health Care Bill Is Enough to Make You Sick
By Chris Hedges for Truthdig – A close reading of the new health care legislation, which will conveniently take effect in 2014 after the next presidential election, is deeply depressing. The legislation not only mocks the lofty promises made by President Barack Obama, exposing most as lies, but sadly reconfirms that our nation is hostage…
Read MoreVermont health reform panel recommends analyst
By Nancy Remsen for Burlington Free Press – MONTPELIER — The Health Care Reform Commission recommended Monday that the Legislature hire the Harvard economist who helped Taiwan revamp its health-care system for a six-month, $300,000 health research project for Vermont. The consultant’s task: Give lawmakers three roadmaps the state could follow to achieve a more…
Read More‘Don’t shred our safety nets’
The following text is the testimony that Katie Robbins, national organizer for Healthcare-NOW!, presented to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on June 30 in Washington. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Katie Robbins and I am here on behalf of Healthcare-NOW!, an organization founded in 2004 to support…
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