Healthcare-NOW

GOP Pushes To Let States Reduce Medicaid Rolls

By Mary Agnes Carey and Phil Galewitz for KHN – With their proposal to turn Medicaid into block grants all but dead, Republicans now are pushing legislation to let states tighten eligibility rules for the health program for the poor and disabled. The move, which would affect Medicaid as well as the Children’s Health Insurance…

Single Payer in California?

By Truthout – The national debate over health care can be summed up in a bill being debated in Sacramento. Supporters of Senate Bill 810 say the legislation would be the only way to provide medical coverage for every Californian. Opponents deride the measure as socialized medicine. The California Universal Healthcare Act was introduced by…

Poll: Medicare doesn’t have to be cut

By the AP – WASHINGTON (AP) – They’re not buying it. Most Americans say they don’t believe Medicare has to be cut to balance the federal budget, and ditto for Social Security, a new poll shows. The Associated Press-GfK poll suggests that arguments for overhauling the massive benefit programs to pare government debt have failed…

A Doctor’s Push for Single-Payer Health Care for All Finds Traction in Vermont

By Amy Goodnough for the New York Times – Many people move to Vermont in search of a slower pace; Dr. Deb Richter came in 1999 to work obsessively toward a far-fetched goal. She wanted Vermont to become the first state to adopt a single-payer health care system, run and paid for by the government,…

GOP plan is a non-starter

By Rep. John Conyers, Jr. – Medicare is arguably one of the nation’s most successful and cherished public insurance programs. The program covers 47 million elderly and disabled Americans, and helps pay for hospital, physician visits and prescription drugs. It is truly hard to argue with success. The traditional Medicare program, coupled with a supplemental…

America’s Healthcare Crisis is Getting Worse

By Roger Bybee for In These Times – “I don’t think the American people want shared sacrifice. I think that they want shared prosperity.”—John Watson of Chevron, testifying this month against a proposed $2 billion cut in oil-companies’ annual tax breaks in a year when they are on track to make $100 billion in profits…

Healthcare Costs Per Family More Than Doubled In Nine Years

From the Huffington Post – U.S. healthcare is so expensive that records are broken even when cost increases slow. According to a new report by Milliman, a global consulting and actuarial firm, the total cost of healthcare for the average family of four, if covered by a preferred provider organization, is now a record $19,393.…

Why Won’t Corporate America Support Single Payer Medicare-for-All?

By Mark Dudzic, National Coordinator of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer – On the surface, it appears to be a no-brainer. Healthcare costs in the U. S. are twice as high as any other industrialized country. Most large corporations still pay a big chunk of their employees’ health care insurance premiums. Some are obligated…

Health Insurers Making Record Profits as Many Postpone Care

By Reed Abelson for New York Times – The nation’s major health insurers are barreling into a third year of record profits, enriched in recent months by a lingering recessionary mind-set among Americans who are postponing or forgoing medical care. The UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest commercial insurers, told analysts that so far this…

Corporations, Federal ‘Reform’ Keep Shifting Healthcare Costs to Workers

By Roger Bybee for In These Times – Despite its $14.2 billion in profits last year untouched by federal income taxes, General Electric is now demanding that its unionized workers accept a new high-deductible “Health Choice” health savings account plan. GE’s demands are particularly obscene because it is sitting on $25 billion in savings and…