health care reform – Page 2

Healthcare overhaul won’t stop premium increases

The new law doesn’t prevent rate hikes such as Anthem Blue Cross’ double-digit increase last year. ‘It is a very big loophole,’ says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is pushing regulatory legislation. By Noam N. Levey for the LA Times – Public outrage over double-digit rate hikes for health insurance may have helped push President Obama’s…

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…

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…

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…

Democrats Put Lower Priority on Health Bill

From the New York Times – WASHINGTON — With no clear path forward on major health care legislation, Democratic leaders in Congress effectively slammed the brakes on President Obama’s top domestic priority on Tuesday, saying they no longer felt pressure to move quickly on a health bill after eight months of setting deadlines and missing…

Bernie Sanders Presses For Vote On State Single-Payer Option

By Jeff Muskus for Huffington Post – While Democratic leaders abandoned the public option on Thursday, one senator reignited his push for an amendment that would allow states to test-pilot single-payer health insurance systems. No matter what federal health care reform finally looks like, the Senate should give interested state governments the right to prove…

Remember Medicare for All in the healthcare reform debate

By Kay Tillow for the Hill Blog – We are in danger of losing the opportunity to bring Improved Medicare for All, a single payer plan, before the Congress. Last July Congressman Anthony Weiner and six of his colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee attempted to substitute the real public option—HR 676, a single…

iSinglePayer iPhone App Censored by Apple

From LambdaJive – Apple, Inc. has censored an iPhone application promoting health insurance reform in the United States. iSinglePayer, an iPhone application that advocates for single-payer health care reform was rejected from the App Store by Apple because it is “politically charged.” The application displays charts and bullet points about single-payer health care systems, and…

Building on the Hopeful Aspects of Obama’s Health Care Speech and Helping Him Get Beyond His Internal Contradictions

By Rabbi Michael Lerner for Tukkin Daily – Media analyses of President Obama’s health care speech were divided on whether he had indicated serious support for a public option or had, instead, cleverly tossed a bone of “recognition” to the progressives while simultaneously demanding that they drop their insistence that the health care reform undercut…

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…