Healthcare-NOW

Dr. Quentin Young: Marcia Angell or David Satcher for HHS secretary

Today, Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, called on President Barack Obama to nominate Dr. Marcia Angell or Dr. David Satcher to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Angell is a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.…

Are they listening?

As Tom Daschle, President-elect Obama’s choice for secretary of health and human services, flies across the country to attend community meetings on health care reform, and the Obama Web site solicits opinions and health care stories from citizens, those of us who support a single-payer national health insurance program hold our collective breath. Will the…

Nothing to Fear but No Health Care

By Amy Goodman– Fifty million Americans are without health insurance, and 25 million are “underinsured.” Millions being laid off will soon be added to those rolls. Medical bills cause more than half of personal bankruptcies in the U.S. Desperate for care, the under- and uninsured flock to emergency rooms, often dealing with problems that could…

Health Insurer Accused of Overcharging Millions

UnitedHealth Group agrees to a $50 million settlement after investigation One of the nation’s largest health insurers has agreed to pay $50 million in a settlement announced today after being accused of overcharging millions of Americans for health care. The New York attorney general’s office launched an investigation after receiving hundreds of complaints about Oxford…

Single-Payer Health Push Rallies Behind Conyers

As Obama prepares to take office, many women’s advocates are backing a single-payer health insurance reform championed by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. With so many Americans uninsured and underinsured, it’s “past time for change” says Conyers. In December, President-elect Barack Obama invited Americans to hold more than 4,000 “health care house parties” and discuss medical…

Why Single-Payer Health Care Can’t Wait

Americans’ experience with employer-paid health benefits has been far from happy. A steady stream of reporters from corporate news media outlets warmed things up at a frigid Camp Hope in Chicago last week, when CNN and the local affiliates of ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS all called at Drexel Park on day two of the…

COBRA Too Costly for Many Unemployed, Report Finds

The cost of buying health insurance for unemployed Americans who try to purchase coverage through a former employer consumes 30 percent to 84 percent of standard unemployment benefits, according to a report released yesterday. Because few people can afford that, the authors say, the result is a growing number of people being hit with the…

Oppose Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General

The following letter was sent to members and supporters of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) by Dr. Quentin D. Young. Dear PNHP members and friends, The report this week that President-elect Obama is considering Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, for the position of U.S. surgeon general is deeply troubling. Among our…

Health Care Tops Agenda

Louisvillians had a strong message for President-elect Barack Obama yesterday: The nation’s health-care system needs either massive reforms or a complete overhaul. “Health care in this nation costs too much and is serving too few,” said Scott Wegenast of AARP Kentucky, one of more than 80 people who attended a community health-care forum at the…

Change policies to aid auto industry

This new year, we’ve got a huge task ahead of us: Restructuring the American auto industry for a viable, long-term future. It won’t be easy — just as it wasn’t easy to win the emergency bridge loans which give us a chance for a brighter tomorrow. When we went to Washington seeking to help so…