Healthcare-NOW

Health Law to Be Revised by Ending a Program

By Robert Pear for the New York Times – The Obama administration announced Friday that it was scrapping a long-term care insurance program created by the new health care law because it was too costly and would not work. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said she had concluded that premiums would…

Why Wall St. and Corporate Insurance Should Get Out of Healthcare

The October 2011 movement brings us these two powerful videos. We need Wall Street, the health insurance industry and investors out of healthcare; replaced by a publicly financed single-payer, improved Medicare-for-all system. Doctors, health providers and patients should decide healthcare–not Wall Street. Adara Scarlet’s story. Dr. Flowers explains why Wall Street should be ashamed of…

Healthy Rebellion: The Uninsured Step Forward

By Paul Glover for Tikkun – For ninety-nine years the campaign for universal health coverage has relied on conferences, panel discussions, petitions, and rallies. These vent moral indignation but lack power. Today, 51 million Americans without medical insurance and 30 million Americans paying for inadequate coverage will not get prompt affordable health care through polite…

CLUW 2011 Convention Calls for Mobilization for National Single Payer Healthcare

From Unions for Single Payer – The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), meeting in September, 2011 in Orlando, Florida, for its 16th Biennial Convention, voted to “wholeheartedly renew its endorsement of HR 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.” CLUW first endorsed HR 676 at its 2003 Convention, leading the way for many unions…

Single-payer healthcare: better care, lower cost

By Josh Starcher – Healthcare has already been proclaimed the central issue of the 2012 Presidential election, just like it was hailed the central issue of Obama’s presidency. It was also a central issue during the 2010 election, and the 2008 campaign. So why don’t we ever hear the end of it? Our leaders still…

Montana Gov. Seeks Waiver To Establish Single Payer In His State

By Zaid Jilani for ThinkProgess – As ThinkProgress previously reported, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) made history earlier this year when he signed into law legislation that would make his state the first state to lay the groundwork for a single payer health care system. In order to enact this system, the state needs a…

Administration Asks Supreme Court to Rule Quickly on Health Law

By Adam Liptak for the New York Times – The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to hear a case concerning the 2010 health care overhaul law. The development came unexpectedly fast and makes it all but certain that the court will soon agree to hear one or more cases involving challenges to…

Supercommittee operating in secret

By Jake Sherman and Matt Dobias for Politico – The supercommittee has become supersecret about most of what it’s doing. On Tuesday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) encapsulated the attitude of the members of the Joint Deficit Reduction Committee: “I don’t want to discuss what we discussed.” As 12 lawmakers tackle the historic task of slashing…

Health care and the Ron Paul redux

In the US, 45,000 people die every year because they cannot afford basic medical services, according to a Harvard study. By Helen Redmond for Aljazeera – When Tea Party supporters at a recent Republican presidential debate in Florida laughed wickedly and shrieked out “YEAH!” to Wolf Blitzer’s question to Ron Paul asking if society should…

Sharp Rise in U.S. Health Insurance Cost

By Reed Abelson for the New York Times – The cost of health insurance for many Americans this year climbed more sharply than in previous years, outstripping any growth in workers’ wages and adding more uncertainty about the pace of rising medical costs. A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group…