Healthcare-NOW

Single-Payer Health-Care Advocates Disrupt Senate Hearing

By Patrick Yoest— WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Eight advocates of government-run health care disrupted a Senate hearing Tuesday on health-care coverage, complaining that their viewpoint was shut out of Senate debate on the issue. One-by-one, the eight people stood up just before a Senate Finance Committee hearing and spoke in favor of so-called “single-payer” health care –…

Doctors Challenge Exclusion of Single-Payer from Health Care Debate

May 5, 2009 Washington DC –- Doctors and other advocates of a national single-payer system–also known as Improved Medicare for All–directly confronted Senators at the Senate Finance Committee roundtable on health reform today. The single payer advocates wanted to know why single-payer experts were being excluded from the roundtable of fifteen witnesses. The doctors said…

Get Them Out: Rotten Apples in Congressional Witness Bushel on Health Reform

By Donna Smith– Many know by now that a single payer healthcare system is the type of reform most widely supported by the American people and a majority of nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals. Many also know that Congress has so far deftly and purposely shunned most expert witnesses who would offer evidence in favor…

Action Alert: Make Single-Payer Part of Senate Roundtable Discussions

We need your help getting a single-payer supporter into Senate Finance Committee roundtable discussions on healthcare reform. The Finance Committee (Led by Sen. Max Baucus – MT) is holding three roundtable discussions on healthcare reform in the coming weeks. The first discussion, titled “Reforming America’s Health Care Delivery System,” on April 21st, had thirteen witnesses.…

Health care reform with no reform

By Marie Cocco for the Denver Post— Every so often, I remember Ronald Reagan fondly – not for his policies but for his skill at the art of persuasion. Right now, for example, I’d like to call the Gipper back to cock his head, give us that quizzical look, and say “there you go again.”…

Big health insurer’s calls to members draws criticism

By Bobby Caina Calvan for The Sacramento Bee— WellPoint, the nation’s largest health insurer, has launched what could be the start of a campaign for the hearts and minds of the American public as the country prepares for debates over reshaping its much-maligned health care system. The company, which operates in California as Anthem Blue…

Cost control, universal care impossible without single-payer health system

Policy expert challenges effectiveness of lesser reforms at House panel With President Obama and congressional leaders vowing to pass a health reform bill by the end of the year, a prominent Harvard-based health policy analyst warned a House subcommittee Thursday that the leading incremental models for reform, including those patterned after the Massachusetts plan, are…

Belly Dancers Rally for Universal Health Care

By Scott Hershberger for Your4State.com— MARTINSBURG, WV – It may have looked like a party in Martinsburg: belly dancers and loud, festive music, but the people involved weren’t celebrating. The group is hoping to see “single payer” health insurance in the United States, and they want some support from a local lawmaker. They’re hoping to…

Interview: Robert Kuttner on single-payer health care

By Vermont Public Radio— Two nationally known health care policy thinkers will be in Vermont this week, engaging in a debate over health care organized by the Janus forum at UVM. Yesterday we heard from Arnold Kling of the Cato Institute, who argues that while our current system of health insurance is broken, a universal…

Action Alert: Get Single-Payer into Congressional Hearings

House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) announced that the Committee will hold another hearing in a series on reforming the health insurance market. The hearing will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 22, and will focus on strategies to reform the health insurance market to ensure greater accessibility and affordability.…