Single-Payer News
The Unhappy Marriage of Economics and Health Care
By Gerald Friedman – America’s health care system is collapsing, and we can blame the Economics profession. Most economists approach health care in the wrong way, viewing it as a commodity like shoes or the laptop on which I write. Instead, health care is an idiosyncratic commodity, subject to uncertainty and “asymmetric information” leading to…
Read MoreAbout Half of Adults Lacked Adequate Health Coverage in 2012
By Ann Carrns for the New York Times – About half of United States adults ages 19 to 64 didn’t have health insurance for at least part of last year or were underinsured, a new report from the Commonwealth Fund says. The fund, a private nonprofit organization that finances research into health care and health…
Read MoreWhy Are People with Health Insurance Going Bankrupt?
From the Real News Network – Dr. Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese: Obamacare will not put an end to medical bankruptcies – 80% of people going bankrupt due to healthcare costs had insurance. More at The Real News
Read MoreBeyond Obamacare
How a Single-Payer System Can Save US Health Care By Dave Dvorak, MD for Common Dreams – As Minnesota’s physicians, health care leaders and legislators grapple with the complex changes brought by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), many are concerned that even after the law is fully implemented, hundreds of thousands of people will remain…
Read MoreRate of employer-based health insurance keeps dropping
From USA Today – The availability of employer-sponsored insurance has fallen by about 10% over the past decade, which has spurred an increase in the overall number of Americans without health insurance, according to a report released today. “This documents that in virtually every state across the country, there has been a steady decline in…
Read MoreObama Budget to Include Cuts to Programs in Hopes of Deal
From the New York Times – President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects for a long-term deficit-reduction deal, administration officials say. In a significant shift in…
Read MoreGovernment insiders misappropriate funds to Medicare Advantage insurers
By Don McCanne for PNHP – U.S. to boost rather than cut payments to health insurers By Sandhya Somashekhar The Washington Post, April 1, 2013 The Obama administration reversed itself Monday, scrapping plans to cut by 2.2 percent the rates paid to health insurers that take part in the Medicare Advantage program. The insurance industry…
Read MoreInsurers see way to dodge federal healthcare law next year
A little-known loophole in President Obama’s landmark legislation enables health insurers to extend existing policies for nearly all of 2014. By Chad Terhune for the Los Angeles Times – A new fight is brewing over health insurance companies letting millions of Americans renew their current coverage for another year — and thereby avoid changes under…
Read MoreHealth/PAC Bulletins Now Available Online
Searchable and free at www.healthpacbulletin.org. From HealthPACBulletin.org – Before there was an internet, with blogs, listservs and web pages to turn to, there was the Health/PAC Bulletin, the hard-hitting and muckraking journal of health activism and health care system analyses and critiques. A new web site, www.healthpacbulletin.org, is a complete and searchable digital collection of…
Read MoreStrike Debt Kicks Off Second Debt Buy-Up With March for Universal Healthcare
By John Knefel for Truthout – A coalition of groups associated with Occupy Wall Street took to the streets of midtown Manhattan on Thursday evening calling for the abolition of the for-profit health care system in the United States and the creation of a government-run single-payer system. Around 70 protesters marched to four major health…
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