Healthcare-NOW

On Medicare anniversary, lawmakers tout inevitability of single payer

By Sahil Kapur for the Raw Story – A trio of progressives in Congress invoked the 45th birthday of Medicare Friday to call for a national single payer health insurance system, predicting it’s “inevitable” if Americans want lower costs. “It has never been more important to have a strong movement behind Medicare for All,” wrote…

Private insurers cause health care heartbreak

As a dedicated activist for single-payer health care, it has become crystal clear to me that the private, for-profit health insurance companies are the biggest detriment to having a health care system in the United States that is comparable to the rest of the developed nations of the world. I have been exposed to thousands…

For-Profit Insurers Leaning on Regulators to “Reform” Health Reform

By Wendell Potter for Huffington Post – The nation’s biggest insurers — not happy with provisions of the four-month-old health care reform law that would force many of them to spend more of the money they collect in premiums for their policyholders’ medical care — are pressuring regulators to disregard what members of Congress intended…

Rx on Medicare’s Birthday: Expand it to All

By Dr. Quentin Young of PNHP – Medicare, one of our nation’s most cherished social programs, turns 45 on Friday. I was in active medical practice when, on July 30, 1965, Medicare was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. The law’s impact on older Americans and their families was swift and spectacular. I saw…

Happy 45th Birthday, Medicare

Join in actions across the country this Friday, July 30th in celebrating 45 Years of Medicare – and call for Medicare for All. Groups across the country are organizing events this Friday to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Medicare – and to continue to push for a single payer, improved and expanded Medicare for All…

Who Tells the Dead Patient Stories Now?

by Donna Smith – Since the health insurance reform bill passed this past spring, you’d think we suddenly stopped having American patients die and suffer unimaginable horror at the hands of the corporate owned and operated healthcare business system in the United States. No one tells the stories. The reality is that patients were props,…

Health Law May Cost Children Coverage as UnitedHealth Ends Plans

By Alex Nussbaum for Bloomberg – UnitedHealth Group Inc. and insurers in Florida and Oklahoma stopped offering children-only health coverage because of the potential added costs of sick youngsters under the new U.S. health-care law, state officials said today. UnitedHealth’s Golden Rule subsidiary won’t sell new policies that cover only children, foreclosing an option for…

Hands Off Our Medicare!

At a time when this nation faces the deepest recession in decades, skyrocketing unemployment, and fiscal crisis in our states, towns, and families, the nation’s safety net is threatened by a select group whose overwhelming majority have historically favoured cutting benefits or privatizing federal social programs in order to balance the budget and enriching the…

Don’t Gamble with Our Social Security

Andy Stern, a key member of the president’s deficit commission, proposes to invest a part of our Social Security funds in the stock market. Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal think tank, has expressed approval for Stern’s proposal. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea,” said Baker.…

Insurers Push Plans That Limit Choice of Doctor

New York Times – As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals. The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely…