May 2011 – Page 2 – Healthcare-NOW

America’s Healthcare Crisis is Getting Worse

By Roger Bybee for In These Times – “I don’t think the American people want shared sacrifice. I think that they want shared prosperity.”—John Watson of Chevron, testifying this month against a proposed $2 billion cut in oil-companies’ annual tax breaks in a year when they are on track to make $100 billion in profits…

Healthcare Costs Per Family More Than Doubled In Nine Years

From the Huffington Post – U.S. healthcare is so expensive that records are broken even when cost increases slow. According to a new report by Milliman, a global consulting and actuarial firm, the total cost of healthcare for the average family of four, if covered by a preferred provider organization, is now a record $19,393.…

Why Won’t Corporate America Support Single Payer Medicare-for-All?

By Mark Dudzic, National Coordinator of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer – On the surface, it appears to be a no-brainer. Healthcare costs in the U. S. are twice as high as any other industrialized country. Most large corporations still pay a big chunk of their employees’ health care insurance premiums. Some are obligated…

June 7th, National Nurses United Rally and Lobby Day

Now is the time to fight to raise standards for America’s working people! Join National Nurses United on Tuesday, June 7th for their national rally and lobby day on Capitol Hill. Please RSVP here. NNU represents 175,000 nurses across the country, and is ready to bring a new deal to Washington DC: the Main Street…

Health Insurers Making Record Profits as Many Postpone Care

By Reed Abelson for New York Times – The nation’s major health insurers are barreling into a third year of record profits, enriched in recent months by a lingering recessionary mind-set among Americans who are postponing or forgoing medical care. The UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest commercial insurers, told analysts that so far this…

Corporations, Federal ‘Reform’ Keep Shifting Healthcare Costs to Workers

By Roger Bybee for In These Times – Despite its $14.2 billion in profits last year untouched by federal income taxes, General Electric is now demanding that its unionized workers accept a new high-deductible “Health Choice” health savings account plan. GE’s demands are particularly obscene because it is sitting on $25 billion in savings and…

Sen. Sanders, Rep. McDermott Introduce Medicare for All Legislation

This week, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a revised version of the American Health Security Act (S 915), legislation which, if implemented, would create a national single-payer healthcare system. Sanders was joined by Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) – who introduced the companion House Bill (HR 1200) earlier this year – and labor leaders from the…

First Universal Health Care Bill in U.S. Marks Success of Vermont’s Human Rights Movement

By Anja Rudiger for NESRI – On May 5 the Vermont House followed the Senate in passing the final version of a health reform bill that creates a path for a universal, publicly financed health care system in Vermont. Governor Peter Shumlin has confirmed he will sign the bill into law. This makes Vermont the…

AFL-CIO Endorses Sanders/McDermott American Health Security Act of 2011

By the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer Healthcare – Stating that, “The fight to reform our nation’s healthcare system has only just begun,” AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker declared the Federation’s support for companion single-payer Bills submitted by Senator Sanders and Congressman McDermott. The Bills provide every American with affordable and comprehensive health care…

Video: Sen. Sanders and Rep. McDermott Introduce Single-Payer Bills

Legislation to provide health care for every American through a Medicare-for-all type single-payer system was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Bernie Sanders and in the House by Rep. Jim McDermott. Their twin bills would provide better care for more patients at less cost by eliminating the middle-man role played by private insurance companies that…