Uninsured figures show mandate-based health reforms don’t work

17,000-member organization of physicians says latest numbers show urgent need for single-payer health reform Official estimates released this morning by the Census Bureau showing a marginal increase in the number of Americans without health insurance in 2008 – now estimated at 46.3 million, up from 45.7 million in 2007 – masks the true dimensions of…

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Two Harvard Medical professors critique our current system and offer a better vision

From PNHP – Universal Health Care Even with its dazzling technical advances and sophisticated medicines, health care increasingly frustrates Americans. Patients must contend with a system that won’t pay for some treatments, long waiting lists, rushed visits with doctors, copious paperwork and — of course — the ever-soaring cost of medical coverage and medications. Many…

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Data Reveals California’s Private Insurers Deny 21% of Claims

From Democracy NOW! – President Obama begins his final drive for healthcare reform tonight with a nationally televised prime-time address to a joint session of Congress. His speech comes after an explosive August recess consumed by raucous town halls and talk of government-run “death panels.” We take a look at California’s “real death panels.” That’s…

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The Lion Sleeps Tonight

By Helen Redmond for Counter Punch – Spoiler alert: this is not a fawning, gushing, lie-filled eulogy of Saint Edward Kennedy. Read no further if you believe the “Liberal Lion” or as I prefer to call him, the “Lion King,” actually made this country a healthier, more equitable place to live in. You have been…

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A puzzled Canadian ponders surreal U.S. health-care debate

Why are Americans distorting the reality of Canada’s most prized social program? By Alastair Rickard for the Toronto Star – Earlier this year, before the political battle over health-care reform in the U.S. reached its current fever pitch, I was in Tuscaloosa answering questions from University of Alabama business students. They were interested in my…

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Sick and Wrong

How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it By Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone – Let’s start with the obvious: America has not only the worst but the dumbest health care system in the developed world. It’s become a black leprosy eating away at…

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Giving Single-Payer a Second Look

By Rep. Anthony Weiner – As President Obama prepares to address the nation about his vision for health care reform, we should not overlook the last, best truly transformative change to our health care system: Medicare. We have been staring so intently at the lessons of 1993 that we may have forgotten the universal rule…

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