Affordable Care Act – Healthcare-NOW

Obamacare’s Empty Victory

By Margaret Flowers, M.D. for The Indypendent – It feels truly Orwellian that progressives are applauding the forced purchase of private health insurance — one of the most hated industries in the United States — while the right is opposing a model that originated from their political leaders. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a…

A Pro-Single Payer Doctor’s Concerns About Obamacare

By Adam Gaffney for Salon – As a single-payer advocate who is also a doctor, I was concerned after the Affordable Care Act was passed that it didn’t do enough to combat rising underinsurance. A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund, which used new data to demonstrate that in 2012 some 31.7 million Americans were…

Is Obamacare In the Interest of Workers?

From the Real News – In round two of our debate with Dr. Margaret Flowers and economist Dean Baker, we discuss whether CBO’s prediction that Obamacare will trigger reduction of work hours will negatively affect workers.

The Single Payer Movement Expands

From Healthcare Finance News – Even as the Affordable Care Act is in its nascent stages, some states are already looking toward 2017 when they can request waivers to opt out of the healthcare exchanges. And a small, but persistent, movement has popped up toward a single payer system as an alternative to participating in…

Single-Payer Activist Guide to the ACA Now Available

Almost 200 supporters have received their “Single-Payer Activist Guide to the Affordable Care Act” as gifts for donations since December, and it is now available at wholesale prices at our online store. You can order your copy for only $5, which includes the cost of shipping, or save by ordering in bulk. The 30-page, 8.5″…

The Obamacare We Deserve

By Michael Moore for the New York Times – Today marks the beginning of health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s new insurance exchanges, for which two million Americans have signed up. Now that the individual mandate is officially here, let me begin with an admission: Obamacare is awful. That is the dirty little…

The President Wants You to Get Rich on Obamacare

From the New York Times – Tom Scully bolted through the doors and up the stairs to a private dining room on the third floor of the “21” Club. Scully, 56, is slightly taller than average and has tousled graying hair, an athletic build and a lopsided smile. He typically projects a combination of confidence…

Lower Health Insurance Premiums to Come at Cost of Fewer Choices

From the New York Times – Federal officials often say that health insurance will cost consumers less than expected under President Obama’s health care law. But they rarely mention one big reason: many insurers are significantly limiting the choices of doctors and hospitals available to consumers. From California to Illinois to New Hampshire, and in…

New York Times Gets So-Called “Cadillac Tax” Wrong

By Benjamin Day, Healthcare-NOW! Director of Organizing – Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Affordable Care Act’s “Cadillac Tax” will accelerate the erosion of quality health insurance as employers demand higher copays and deductibles from their workers to keep their premiums low enough to avoid the tax. While the Times is correct about…

Some unions protest Obamacare’s impact on Multiemployer Health Plans

By Kay Tillow – The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, also known as Obamacare, presents challenges to the multi-employer plans through which some unions bargain collectively to provide health care insurance for their members. These plans, often called Taft Hartley Plans, currently cover about 26 million workers, families, and retirees. Unless there is a…