Healthcare-NOW

The Recession’s Impact: Closing The Clinic

60 Minutes: Bad Economy Leaves Cancer Patients Without Health Insurance In Dire Straits (CBS) In the economic crisis, public hospitals are needed now more than ever. If you’re down on your luck without insurance, the county hospital can be your last resort. Recently thousands of letters went out across Las Vegas telling cancer patients that…

Health insurance woes hit workers

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar for the AP— Premiums rising 6 to 8 times faster than wages have American workers – whose taxes pay for massive government health programs – are getting squeezed like no other group by private health insurance premiums that are rising much faster than their wages. While just about all retirees are covered,…

Does the Health Insurance Industry Have Congress In Its Pocket?

No one ever talks about dismantling the Fire Department, Police Department, or Postal Service because they’re models of a scary socialist project. Why should healthcare be any different? Quite simply, the health insurance industry stands in the way. And as the Real News Network reports, they’ve been lobbying hard to make sure that a for…

Massachusetts Faces Costs of Big Health Care Plan

By Kevin Sack for the New York Times— Three years ago, Massachusetts enacted perhaps the boldest state health care experiment in American history, bringing near-universal coverage to the commonwealth with Paul Revere speed. To make it happen, Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, made an expedient choice, deferring until another day any serious…

Single-Payer Health Care: A Burning Issue

By Andrew Price for GOOD— It seems we might actually be changing health care in America this time around. One way we could go would be to adopt what’s called a “single-payer” system like Canada has. Under a single-payer system we would do away with the health insurance companies and one payer (the government) would…

Conference of Missouri Utility Unions Endorses HR 676

A statewide conference of all local unions, representing employees who work for all of Missouri’s utilities, has endorsed HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). The Missouri State Labor Utility Workers Conference represents more than 15,000 workers at every utility company in the state. It is comprised of local unions…

Americans Should Not Stand for Lock-down on Single-Payer Discussion

By Laura Bonham– As an ardent advocate of single-payer healthcare for many years, I am more than a little frustrated by Washington insiders—beholden to healthcare corporations—telling the American people that passing single-payer healthcare reform, specifically HR. 676, the United States National Health Care Act, can’t happen. The fact is they are standing in the way…

NEA Vermont and AFT in Oregon Endorse HR 676

Teacher unions in Vermont and Oregon have endorsed HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). In Vermont, the Board of Directors of the Vermont NEA voted unanimously to support HR 676. The Vermont NEA is the first state NEA to endorse HR 676. In Portland, Oregon, the Executive Board of…

Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care Officially Launches

Yesterday, Healthcare-NOW, co-founder of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, took part in the official launch of the coalition in Washington, DC. Nurses, doctors, students, large community-based membership groups, labor unions, religious organizations, and activists launched a new healthcare alliance called the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care. The member organizations lay claim to…

Philadelphia City Council Votes to Support Single-Payer Healthcare

Today, groups representing doctors, nurses, healthcare advocates and labor unions are applauding the Philadelphia City Council for passing a resolution in support of national, single payer health care (HR 676) and two state single payer bills. The resolution, sponsored by Councilman Greenlee and Councilwoman Tasco, makes Philadelphia the 28th city and 46th local government to…