Archive for January 2014
Single-Payer Activism Gets Boost from Obamacare
By Claire Hughes for the Times Union – Dr. Richard Propp and Alice Brody thought Obamacare might sink their movement. Instead, based on the interest they say they are getting, the federal Affordable Care Act has buoyed their cause of universal health coverage, or “improved Medicare for all,” they said. At the heart of the…
Read MoreVermont House Committee Considers Road to Single Payer
From the Brattleboro Reformer – The health care committee of the Vermont House is lining up some of the tasks that will have to be finished before the state rolls out the first-in-the-nation single payer health care system, now scheduled for 2017. Meeting Friday at the Statehouse, the committee heard from legislative staffers who outlined…
Read MoreMaine Advocates Push for Single-Payer Care System
From the AP – A government-run health care system in Maine would provide universal coverage to residents, cut down on administrative costs and free businesses from the complexities of providing insurance for their employees, supporters of a single-payer model said Thursday. Advocates of a single-payer system have long been trying to implement the model in…
Read MoreThe Left After the Failure of Obamacare
By Shamus Cooke for Truth-Out – It’s satisfying to watch rats flee a sinking ship. This is because onlookers knew the ship was doomed long ago, and swimming rats signify that the drawn-out tragedy is nearing an end. A collective sense of relief is a natural response. The rats who propped up the broken boat…
Read MoreThe Obamacare We Deserve
By Michael Moore for the New York Times – Today marks the beginning of health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s new insurance exchanges, for which two million Americans have signed up. Now that the individual mandate is officially here, let me begin with an admission: Obamacare is awful. That is the dirty little…
Read MoreDiscretionary Deeming: How Libby Montana Got Improved Medicare With Free Drugs
By Kay Tillow, Unions for Single Payer – Buried deep in the health reform law is Section 10323. It amends the Social Security Act to extend Medicare coverage to individuals exposed to environmental health hazards in the region defined by the Emergency Declaration of June 17, 2009. That declaration limits this benefit to the area…
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