Healthcare-NOW

Why Medicare is the Solution–Not the Problem

By Robert Reich for RobertReich.org – Not only is Social Security on the chopping block in order to respond to Republican extortion. So is Medicare. But Medicare isn’t the nation’s budgetary problems. It’s the solution. The real problem is the soaring costs of health care that lie beneath Medicare. They’re costs all of us are…

Gang of Pain: Who Suffers Under the Bipartisan Deficit Reduction Scheme

By George Zornick for the Nation – President Obama endorsed the Senate’s Gang of Six deficit reduction plan Tuesday, saying that the proposal “is broadly consistent with the approach that I’ve urged” and “makes sure that nobody is disproportionately hurt from us making progress on the debt and deficits.” However, an examination of the plan’s…

Doctor: Universal Health Care Opponents Play Public for Fools

In an address to the Redlands Democratic Club, Dr. Bill Honigman said the arguments that a single payer plan is socialized medicine or that the state cannot afford the plan is simply wrong. By Gina Tenorio for LomaLinda.Patch.com – When it comes to a universal and single payer health care plan, Dr. Bill Honigman says…

Study Shows Benefits of Providing Medical Insurance to Poor

By Gina Kolata for New York Times – When poor people are given medical insurance, they not only find regular doctors and see doctors more often but they also feel better, are less depressed and are better able to maintain financial stability, according to a new, large-scale study that provides the first rigorously controlled assessment…

Progressives Were Right: Obama’s Health Plan Not Solving Crisis

New Data Show Why Simply Having Insurance Isn’t Enough by David Sirota for Salon – While the contest for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination is already revolving around conservative-themed attacks on “Obamacare,” back when the healthcare bill was being legislated, the most important debate was within the Democratic Party, which held large majorities in both…

Obama pushing for cuts to Social Security, Medicare

By Glenn Greenwald for Salon – This is at once an extraordinary and completely unsurprising headline: For months, the standard narrative among progressive commentators was that Republicans were outrageously exploiting the debt ceiling deadline to impose drastic entitlement cuts on a resisting and victimized Democratic President (he’s weak in negotiations!), but The Post article makes…

Health Insurance Brokers Win A Round

From NPR – Score one for the health insurance brokers in their fight to avoid going the way of buggy-whip manufacturers. A task force of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners voted Thursday to endorse legislation that would effectively spare their commissions from being counted as administrative costs. And consumer groups aren’t happy about it.…

Health care cuts proposed in deficit negotiations

Congress reconvenes this week to consider options in budget talks From the New York Times – Obama administration officials are offering to cut tens of billions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid in negotiations to reduce the federal budget deficit, but the depth of the cuts depends on whether Republicans are willing to accept any…

Universal Health Care: Can We Afford Anything Less?

By Gerald Friedman for Dollars and Sense – America’s broken health-care system suffers from what appear to be two separate problems. From the right, a chorus warns of the dangers of rising costs; we on the left focus on the growing number of people going without health care because they lack adequate insurance. This division…

Nonprofit Insurers: Reaping Profits at the Expense of the Consumer

By Wendell Potter for MichaelMoore.com – Nowhere are health insurers working harder to thwart reforms that could save consumers billions of dollars than in California. One measure they are especially determined to kill is a bill that would give state regulators the authority to reject rate increases that were excessive or discriminatory. The California Assembly…