Single-Payer News
Many Texas residents cross Mexican border to obtain healthcare
From AHRQ.gov – The U.S.-Mexico border stretches from San Diego, CA all the way to Brownsville, TX. Many residents living on the U.S. side of the border are poor and uninsured, and have difficulties accessing health care services. A new study reveals that many U.S.-border residents in Texas cross the border into Mexico for health…
Read MoreThe Pampered Patient: Perverting healthcare into a luxury commodity
By Jim Hightower for The Austin (Texas) Chronicle – In these times of cold health care austerity, it reaffirms one’s faith in humanity to learn that many hospitals are now going the extra mile to provide top quality care for all. For all superrich people that is – so rich that they can buy their…
Read MoreSingle-Payer Health Care Is Coming To America-Are We Ready?
By Rick Ungar for Forbes – Speaking at a recent conference, Mark Bertolli, CEO and Chairman of Aetna Insurance, announced that the end is near for profit driven health insurance companies. “The system doesn’t work, it’s broke today. The end of insurance companies, the way we’ve run the business in the past, is here.” In…
Read MoreCourt action could prolong health care fight
From USA Today – Next month’s challenge to the Obama-sponsored health care law could affect the care available to most Americans, alter the balance of power between Washington and the states and remain a flash point through this presidential campaign. Yet there is a path the Supreme Court could take when it hears the case…
Read MoreEven When Employed, Health Care A Challenge
From NPR – Zumba is a fitness craze; a high-energy dance and exercise program. You can find it in high-end gyms and even the community center in Hazelwood, Mo., where Casaundra Bronner, 40, lives. Still breathing heavily, Bronner comes out to her car after one of the classes and turns on a small digital recorder…
Read MoreTransparency for health insurance?
By Trudy Lieberman for Columbia Journalism Review – The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that health insurers and employers must provide more information to consumers shopping for health insurance. The ensuing coverage, shall we say, was a classic case of journalistic bungling. Reporters took what HHS officials fed them and crafted their…
Read MoreHospitals Demand Payment Upfront From ER Patients With “Routine Problems”
From Kaiser Health News – Next time you go to an emergency room, be prepared for this: If your problem isn’t urgent, you may have to pay upfront. Last year, about 80,000 emergency-room patients at hospitals owned by HCA, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, left without treatment after being told they would have to…
Read MoreWhy Did Single-Payer Health Care Fail in California?
By Lenny Potash for Labor Notes – Though it’s passed the legislature twice before, a bill to establish a single-payer universal health insurance system in California failed in the state senate in January. Not surprisingly, the bill received no Republican votes, but it fell just two votes short of passage when two Democrats voted no…
Read MoreVenerated Physician & Activist Dr. Quentin Young Urges Single-Payer Healthcare
From Uprising Radio – Single payer healthcare has been a hot topic since the great healthcare debates of 2009 and 2010, but the organization, Physicians for a National Health Program, has advocated for a single payer system since 1987. The National Coordinator for the program, Dr. Quentin Young, spoke with Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar on…
Read MoreNY Hospitals Saddle Uninsured Patients with Massive Debt Despite $100s of Millions in Gov’t Aid
From Democracy Now! – As the ranks of the uninsured continue to rise, a major new study has found that most New York medical centers are violating rules intended to help patients who are uninsured and cannot afford healthcare. Two-thirds of hospitals studied either violated the law, failed to comply with state guidelines or created…
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