Healthcare-NOW

Students Occupy for Health Justice

By Danielle Alexander for AMSA On Call blog – I met a patient last week who stopped taking her antidepressant medications because she had been denied long-term health insurance and thought it would improve her chances of eligibility. Unfortunately this obviously wasn’t in the best interest of her health. I had another patient who presented…

Video: Health costs killing us

From Newsday – Imagine a health insurance system with runaway costs, millions left without coverage, administrative headaches galore and unhealthier people than in many other countries spending less. Actually, you don’t have to bother imagining such a system. You’re already living with it. And it’s bankrupting our country. Curing the ills of our health care…

House Dems look to exempt Medicare from automatic spending cuts

From the Hill – While some Republicans are taking heat for seeking to mitigate $600 billion in sequestration cuts to the Defense Department, a handful of House Democrats this week put forward their own proposal to spare Medicare from spending cuts triggered by the August debt deal. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) introduced H.R. 3519, along…

Less care for fewer and fewer

By Helen Redmond for the Socialist Worker – EVIDENCE of how bad the U.S. health care crisis has gotten continues to pile up. And with the federal government preparing to impose automatic cuts in the Medicare health program for the elderly and Medicaid health program for the poor, it will only grow worse–unless something is…

The Highmark-UPMC battle shows how private insurers serve no useful purpose

By Ed Grystar, Chuck Pennacchio and Tony Buba for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – The current contract disagreement between Highmark and UPMC provides a clear example of why the free-market health care system has failed. When profit is the primary motive, patient needs get short shrift. Health care is not a commodity, but a human right.…

Doctors again face steep Medicare cuts unless Congress acts before Jan. 1

From the Washington Post – It’s become a symbol of sorts for the federal government’s budget dysfunction: Unless Congress acts before Jan. 1, doctors will again face steep Medicare cuts that threaten to undermine health care for millions of seniors and disabled people. This time it’s a 27.4 percent cut. Last year, it was about…

Hundreds Join Occupy Portland on Peaceful March for Universal Healthcare

From Oregon Single Payer Campaign and the Portland Occupier – Hundreds of protesters attended a rally on November 19 in Portland after which they planted 558 crosses, representing the 558 uninsured Oregonians who die each year because they lack healthcare. According to Dr. Paul N. Gorman, specialist in geriatric and internal medicine, who was one…

For Debt Committee, No Final-Hour Deal Apparent

From NPR – Monday is the last day the congressional supercommittee can reach a deficit-reduction deal and still make its Wednesday deadline. The legislation has to be publicly available for 48 hours before a vote, and the clock is ticking. But instead of announcing an agreement, the committee is widely expected to admit it has…

New study shows health insurance premium spikes in every state

From the Washington Post – Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance have risen faster than incomes in every state in the nation, according to a report released Thursday. The analysis of federal data by the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research organization, shed new light on the state-by-state picture while essentially confirming a national trend, highlighted in…

Insurance Mandate May Be Health Bill’s Undoing

From the New York Times – As Barack Obama battled Hillary Rodham Clinton over health care during the Democratic presidential primaries of 2008, he was adamant about one thing: Americans, he insisted, should not be required to buy health insurance. “If things were that easy,” Mr. Obama told the talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in…