Archive for September 2012
Vermont Could Be First In Line for Single Payer
By Joanne Kenen for Politico – Most governors are, at best, slogging their way through the world of health reform implementation. Vermont’s Gov. Peter Shumlin is hurtling through it. Vermont is the only state to have set itself on a path to a single-payer health care system, using the national health care law as a…
Read MoreThe Wrong Way to Save Money on Health Care
By Robert Reich – Employer outlays for workers’ health insurance slowed from a 9 percent jump last year to less than half that — 4 percent — this year, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Foundation. Good news? Our political class believes it is. The Obama administration attributes the drop to the new…
Read More48,000 Preventable Deaths in 2011
Persistence of large numbers of uninsured and related deaths shows urgency of enacting an improved-Medicare-for-all system, physician says By Physicians for a National Health Program – The Census Bureau’s official estimate that 48.6 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2011 means approximately 48,000 people died needlessly last year because they couldn’t get access to timely…
Read More48.6 Million Americans Lacked Health Insurance in 2011
By the AP – The ranks of America’s poor remained stuck at record levels, although dwindling unemployment benefits and modest job gains helped stave off what experts had predicted would be the fourth rise in a row in the poverty rate. With joblessness persistently high, the gap between rich and poor increased in the last…
Read MoreMedical debt still problem in Mass.
From the Boston Globe – Architects of the pioneering 2006 Massachusetts health law, which required most residents to have insurance, expected it would reduce families’ medical debt. But the most recent data suggest the scope of medical debt has remained largely unchanged. Temporary lapses in insurance coverage and increasingly common plans with high deductibles and…
Read MoreHealthcare Costs For Workers Almost Doubled Since 2002
By the AP – It sounds like good news: Annual premiums for job-based family health plans went up only 4% this year. But hang on to your wallets: Premiums averaged $15,745, with employees paying more than $4,300 of that, a glaring reminder that the problem of unaffordable medical care is anything but solved. The annual…
Read MoreThe Illusory Promise of Free-Market Healthcare Miracles
By Wendell Potter for The Center for Public Integrity – While listening to the promises to repeal ObamaCare during the Republican National Convention, I was reminded of what those of us in the health insurance industry said when our friends in Congress were able to block passage of President Clinton’s health care reform legislation 18…
Read MoreVT Gov. Shumlin Pushes For Single-Payer Health Care At DNC
From Vermont Public Radio – Governor Peter Shumlin says he hopes Congress will amend the Affordable Care Act to allow individual states to implement a single payer health care system as soon as possible. Shumlin says controlling health care costs is critical to creating new jobs and he’s convinced that a single payer plan is…
Read MoreNational Strategy Conference – Spring 2013
As you may know, Healthcare-NOW!’s National Strategy Conference is typically held in November each year. However, our next annual National Strategy Conference will be held in early Spring 2013. We will be in touch again soon with further updates on the specific date and location of the conference. With the outcome and political impact of…
Read MoreSo Much for Fixing the Affordable Care Act Later
From Fire Dog Lake – I remember during the end of the health care reform fight how top Democrats promised activists unhappy with the bill that they would “fix it later.” I remember being told that it was very important to pass a bill despite many serious problems, design flaws and terrible compromises, because it…
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