Healthcare-NOW

Health Changes Spur Test of More Part-Time Workers

By the Associated Press – The owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants is putting more workers on part-time status in a test aimed at limiting costs from President Barack Obama’s health care law. Darden Restaurants Inc. declined to give details but said the test is only in four markets across the country. The…

Romney, Obama can do better on health care access

By Ray Stever – In the first presidential debate, President Barack Obama pointed out that his “Obamacare” was practically the same health care plan as the one that Gov. Mitt Romney established in Massachusetts. Not only is it the same plan, but it was put together by many of the same advisers. In other words,…

Post Election Deficit Deal Threatens Medicare and Social Security

The solution is Improved Medicare for All By Kay Tillow – After the November election, there will be a major effort in Congress to pass a budget deal that will make cuts in Social Security, raise the Medicare and Social Security eligibility age, and perhaps more–unless we act to stop it with a solution that…

Worse Than War: Deaths from Uninsurance

‘We’re not done with health care reform yet’ By Johnathon Ross for Common Dreams – A recently released Census Bureau report reveals that 48.6 million Americans lack health insurance. We know that being uninsured is dangerous to your physical and fiscal health. Research has shown that for every million uninsured, 1,000 preventable deaths occur due…

Overhaul offers multi-billion dollar growth opportunity for health insurers

By the AP, Washington Post – The health care overhaul is poised to pour billions of dollars into an insurance industry thirsty for customers, according to health care consultant PwC. The massive federal law aims to cover millions of uninsured people and will take a major step toward that goal in 2014, when the government…

TX Gov. Rick Perry Pressured to Expand Medicaid

By Ken Kenegos, Healthcare for All – Texas – On Friday September 21st, advocates for healthcare rights brought together by The Texas Organizing Project, SEIU, Good Jobs = Great Houston, Mi Familia Vota, Health Care for All Texas and others converged on the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Buses from Houston, San Antonio and Dallas…

Many States Not Prepared for Healthcare Law

By Sandhya Somashekhar for the Washington Post – More than three dozen states could be unprepared or unwilling to set up the insurance marketplaces called for under the 2010 health-care law, leaving at least part of the task up to the federal government, according to a new report. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia…

Doctor Visits Dropping, New Census Figures Show

By Sabrina Tavernise for the New York Times – Americans of working age are going to the doctor less frequently than they were 10 years ago, according to a new report by the Census Bureau. In 2010, people age 18 to 64 made an average of 3.9 visits to doctors, nurses and other medical professionals,…

Why Obamacare is a Conservative’s Dream

By J. D. Kleinke for the New York Times – If Mitt Romney’s pivots on President’s Obama’s health care reform act have accelerated to a blur — from repealing on Day 1, to preserving this or that piece, to punting the decision to the states — it is for an odd reason buried beneath two…

What President Obama isn’t saying about Medicare

By Jonathan Martin for Politico – President Barack Obama wanted to make the differences with his GOP opponents crystal clear at a rally in senior-heavy Melbourne, Fla., earlier this month. “Here’s the bottom line,” Obama said: “Their voucher plan for Medicare would bankrupt Medicare. Our plan strengthens Medicare. No American should have to spend their…