February 2012 – Healthcare-NOW

Occupy Wall Street Gives Award to Pfizer: “Excellence in Profiteering”

Part of National Day of Action against corporate greed and corruption New York, NY – February 29 – Healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, and Occupy Wall Street activists gathered outside of Pfizer’s International Headquarters in New York City to protest the world’s largest drug company’s connection to the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a right-wing,…

Action Alert: Never Mind the Mandate

The Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or “Obamacare,” in late March. The mandate would require that almost everyone in the US be covered by some form of health insurance, public or private, by 2014 or be fined. Therefore, it’s no surprise that…

As Court Showdown Nears, Our Healthcare System Still a Mess

By Rose Ann DeMoro – With the approaching Supreme Court showdown on the President Obama’s 2010 health care law (the Affordable Care Act, modeled, of course, on Mitt Romney’s law in Massachusetts), the U.S. healthcare system remains a dysfunctional mess, as nurses bear witness to every day. In late March, the Court will devote six…

Jan. 2012 National Strategy Conference Report

On January 28th and 29th over 140 active single-payer supporters from 21 different states and Washington, D.C. attended Healthcare-NOW!’s (HCN) Annual Strategy Conference in Houston, Texas. Though healthcare justice activists across the United States face similar struggles when organizing for single-payer – restricted time, resources, and capacity, classism, racism, consumerism, geographical barriers, and more –…

Many Texas residents cross Mexican border to obtain healthcare

From AHRQ.gov – The U.S.-Mexico border stretches from San Diego, CA all the way to Brownsville, TX. Many residents living on the U.S. side of the border are poor and uninsured, and have difficulties accessing health care services. A new study reveals that many U.S.-border residents in Texas cross the border into Mexico for health…

The Pampered Patient: Perverting healthcare into a luxury commodity

By Jim Hightower for The Austin (Texas) Chronicle – In these times of cold health care austerity, it reaffirms one’s faith in humanity to learn that many hospitals are now going the extra mile to provide top quality care for all. For all superrich people that is – so rich that they can buy their…

Single-Payer Health Care Is Coming To America-Are We Ready?

By Rick Ungar for Forbes – Speaking at a recent conference, Mark Bertolli, CEO and Chairman of Aetna Insurance, announced that the end is near for profit driven health insurance companies. “The system doesn’t work, it’s broke today. The end of insurance companies, the way we’ve run the business in the past, is here.” In…

Court action could prolong health care fight

From USA Today – Next month’s challenge to the Obama-sponsored health care law could affect the care available to most Americans, alter the balance of power between Washington and the states and remain a flash point through this presidential campaign. Yet there is a path the Supreme Court could take when it hears the case…

Even When Employed, Health Care A Challenge

From NPR – Zumba is a fitness craze; a high-energy dance and exercise program. You can find it in high-end gyms and even the community center in Hazelwood, Mo., where Casaundra Bronner, 40, lives. Still breathing heavily, Bronner comes out to her car after one of the classes and turns on a small digital recorder…

Transparency for health insurance?

By Trudy Lieberman for Columbia Journalism Review – The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that health insurers and employers must provide more information to consumers shopping for health insurance. The ensuing coverage, shall we say, was a classic case of journalistic bungling. Reporters took what HHS officials fed them and crafted their…