Posts by Benjamin Day
AFL-CIO Endorses National Day of Action for Medicare’s 50th Anniversary!
The AFL-CIO has endorsed the National Day of Action to Protect, Improve and Expand Medicare to All being organized by Healthcare-NOW! and our national allies on July 30, 2015. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka circulated this letter to the AFL’s 56 affiliated unions and their 12.5 million members, urging them to mobilize for Medicare’s 50th Anniversary, because: [A]dopting…
Read MoreIs the Single-Payer Movement Winning?
Benjamin Day, Executive Director for Healthcare-NOW!, delivered the keynote address for the 12th Annual State Conference of Single-Payer Action Network Ohio on “The State of the Single-Payer Movement and Movement Action Planning.” The keynote provides a detailed analysis of how to evaluate social movements as opposed to campaigns, why it is that most activists in…
Read MoreNew York Assembly Passes Universal Healthcare Bill!
From Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, lead sponsor of the New York Health Act: PRESS RELEASE Assembly Passes Universal Health Care Bill Historic Vote Makes It “Truly Achievable Goal” Says Sponsor On Wednesday, May 27, the New York State Assembly passed the “New York Health Act” universal health care bill (A. 5062/S. 3525) by a vote of…
Read MoreHealthcare-NOW!’s Office Has Moved!
Starting June 2015, Healthcare-NOW! has moved its offices from Philadelphia to Boston! We are sharing office space with Mass-Care, the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care in the heart of downtown Boston, right on the Boston Common and a block from the Massachusetts State House. Our phone and email contact information remain the same…
Read MoreIf The Fire Department Were Run Like Healthcare…
During a press conference prior to the first of six public hearings held by the New York Assembly across the state, Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, Chair of the Assembly Health Committee since 1987, was asked by a reporter whether his legislation for universal, public health coverage for all of New York would limit patients’ choice of…
Read More150th Central Labor Council Endorses HR676!
From Unions for Single Payer Health Care April 6, 2015 The Chattanooga Area Labor Council endorsed HR 676 at its regular monthly meeting March 23, 2015, reports Gary Watlkins, Council President. HR 676 is the national single payer health care legislation sponsored by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). The bill currently has 48 co-sponsors including Rep.…
Read MoreDon’t Privatize Medicare
From Ida Hellander, Director of Policy and Programs at Physicians for a National Health Program, appearing in Truthout March 26, 2015 The bipartisan “Doc Fix” legislation (H.R. 1470, now H.R. 2) and proposed amendments will undermine traditional Medicare and advance the goal of privatization, according to Dr. Don McCanne in a series of posts to…
Read MoreNew Study: Health Insurance Overhead Waste Unchanged by Affordable Care Act
The International Journal of Health Services published a research paper by Healthcare-NOW!’s Executive Director, Benjamin Day, PNHP co-founders David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, and former Healthcare-NOW! intern Michael Broder, titled “The Affordable Care Act and Medical Loss Ratios: No Change in First Three Years.” The article found that, despite the promise of the Affordable Care…
Read MoreHealth care law did not end discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions
By Kay Tillow on Firedoglake In 2010 the giant health insurance company WellPoint created an algorithm that searched its database, located breast cancer patients, and targeted them for cancellation of their policies. A few years earlier Michael Moore’s stunning documentary, “Sicko,” showed an unending list of illnesses that had been used by insurers to refuse…
Read MoreThe U.S. Medical Education No One Discusses
Chelsea McGuire, a medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, couldn’t believe what she was asked to do for her psychiatry clerkship: track down whether desperate patients have a source of income, in order for the hospital to decide whether to treat them or not. Listen to her testimony, and her plea for a…
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