Healthcare-NOW

Cigna Gives $110.9 Million Compensation Package To Ex-CEO

By Sam Stein for Huffington Post – The insurance giant Cigna last year gave compensation packages worth more than $120 million to two executives who left the company, according to a filing with the SEC on Friday. The vast majority of that total went to former chairman and CEO H. Edward Hanway who left his…

Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader: A Discussion on Healthcare, Politics and Reform

From Democracy Now! – Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio announced on Wednesday he would switch his vote on the Democrat-led healthcare reform bill and support the legislation even though it does not create a public option. Kucinich’s decision came two days after he spoke with President Obama aboard Air Force One on their way to…

Kucinich’s Healthcare Sell-out

by Billy Wharton – The Obama administration cracked a tough nut today in their relentless drive to sponsor a corporate restructuring of the American healthcare system. Dennis Kucinich, who had been one of the few voices of opposition to the faulty healthcare “reform,” announced today that he intend to vote “Yes” on the healthcare bill…

Healthcare Not Warfare Vigils in 82 Districts on March 17

From Progressive Democrats of America – Labor and advocacy groups organized “brown bag” lunch vigils against war funding in 22 congressional districts in January and 67 in February. Currently 82 are planned for March 17th, with more being added. Organizations participating include: Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), AfterDowningStreet, the Backbone Campaign, Democrats.com, the California Nurses…

Blame the Pharmaceutical Industry

By Debra Grace Khattab for the Women’s Economic Agenda Project – I have read many articles about the failure of President Obama and Congress to enact either Single Payer, or at least a public option, in the health insurance legislation currently struggling its way through Congress. One thing that bothers me about those articles is…

On Grayson’s “Public Option Act” or “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act”

PNHP’s Response to Grayson’s Public Option Act Congressman Alan Grayson Press Release March 9, 2010 Congressman Alan Grayson, D-Fla., today introduced a bill (H.R. 4789) which would give the option to buy into Medicare to every citizen of the United States. The “Public Option Act,” also known as the “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act,”…

Health reform needs to end fee for service medicine

by Pearl Korn – As the health reform debate rages on, the central issue of how to improve care while reducing costs remains unaddressed. Fee-for-service has reduced doctors to assembly line pieceworkers, paid by the office visit and procedure rather than by effectiveness of treatment. The result is an inefficient, costly and dangerous system. It…

Maine AFL-CIO Organizes Single Payer Education Program

One state AFL-CIO is actively trying to build the social movement necessary to pass single payer legislation such as HR 676. The Maine AFL-CIO takes its lead from resolution 34 passed at the September National AFL-CIO convention. Recently, The Maine state AFL-CIO has developed a number of materials, including a power point presentation, leaflets, cost…

Will Jerry Brown Sign Single Payer?

From Single Payer Action – When Jerry Brown was running for President in 1992, he wholeheartedly embraced a single payer national health insurance system. “When I see in Canada that they pay $500 less per person, that they cover every citizen, and that they live two years longer and their infant mortality is 50 percent…

Kill Bill: Death to Obamacare

By Dave Lindorff for Counterpunch – When Obama came to my neighborhood this week to press for public support for his health “reform” bill, he wasn’t just greeted by teaparty hecklers. Speaking to a large group of mostly supportive students and local residents at Arcadia University in Glenside, the president at one point mentioned that…