Archive for February 2012
Hospitals Demand Payment Upfront From ER Patients With “Routine Problems”
From Kaiser Health News – Next time you go to an emergency room, be prepared for this: If your problem isn’t urgent, you may have to pay upfront. Last year, about 80,000 emergency-room patients at hospitals owned by HCA, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, left without treatment after being told they would have to…
Read MoreWhy Did Single-Payer Health Care Fail in California?
By Lenny Potash for Labor Notes – Though it’s passed the legislature twice before, a bill to establish a single-payer universal health insurance system in California failed in the state senate in January. Not surprisingly, the bill received no Republican votes, but it fell just two votes short of passage when two Democrats voted no…
Read MoreVenerated Physician & Activist Dr. Quentin Young Urges Single-Payer Healthcare
From Uprising Radio – Single payer healthcare has been a hot topic since the great healthcare debates of 2009 and 2010, but the organization, Physicians for a National Health Program, has advocated for a single payer system since 1987. The National Coordinator for the program, Dr. Quentin Young, spoke with Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar on…
Read MoreNY Hospitals Saddle Uninsured Patients with Massive Debt Despite $100s of Millions in Gov’t Aid
From Democracy Now! – As the ranks of the uninsured continue to rise, a major new study has found that most New York medical centers are violating rules intended to help patients who are uninsured and cannot afford healthcare. Two-thirds of hospitals studied either violated the law, failed to comply with state guidelines or created…
Read More50 doctors for single payer urge Supreme Court to strike down individual mandate
By Single Payer Action – WASHINGTON — Fifty medical doctors who favor a single-payer health insurance system today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the individual mandate. In a brief (pdf) filed with the Court, the 50 doctors and two nonprofit groups – Single Payer Action and It’s Our Economy – said that…
Read MoreHal Sanders – Advocate of Single-Payer Healthcare
By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Hal Sanders was the epitome of the small-town boy who makes good, except he wasn’t even from a small town. He grew up poor, surrounded by cornfields in rural Illinois, and went on to become a hospital executive who, in retirement, became a champion of single-payer health care…
Read MoreAHIP Hooray!
From the Harvard Crimson – If you were anywhere near Harvard Business School last Saturday you might have seen a 12-foot tall puppet dancing to accordion music while a merry band of “Congresspeople” and “health insurance executives” swilled champagne, showered each other in cash and sang round after round of “For She’s A Jolly Good…
Read MoreEven Critics of Safety Net Depend on It Increasingly
From the New York Times – LINDSTROM, Minn. – Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government. He says that too many Americans…
Read MoreLawrence O’Donnell on Single-Payer and the Birth Control Mess
From MSNBC – MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explains how President Obama’s healthcare bill traded old problems for new problems by keeping the employer-based insurance system in place. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Read MoreHealth Insurers Remain in Many “Socially Responsible” Funds
From the Wall Street Journal – Mention “socially responsible investing” and most people think of a stock-picking strategy that involves abstinence—that is, avoiding industries or companies whose ethical, environmental or governance practices fall short of certain standards. The mutual-fund industry began offering products based on this idea in the 1970s, and Morningstar Inc. recently identified…
Read More