Healthcare Reform – Page 6

Can SEIU Help Vermonters Win Single Payer?

By Steve Early for Labor Notes – While the nation waits for an overdue Supreme Court decision that will decide the fate of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, another health care drama with wide implications for universal health care is just starting in Vermont. Prodded by a strong grassroots movement, the Vermont legislature voted last…

How to Organize a Healthcare Teach-In or Speak Out

On March 14 we organized our first ever skill-building call for our members and activists on how to organize effective teach-ins and speak-outs. Listen to the call here: Organizing Teach-Ins and Speak Outs You can also download a simple two-sided handout (.doc) on how to hold a successful speak-out or teach-in that includes: An overview…

The Power of Universal Health Care

By Winthrop C. Dillaway III for NJ.com – In 2009, when President Obama began his term of office, the U.S. health care system was painfully dysfunctional. He announced an initiative for health care reform. Early on, “universal health care” garnered thought and attention. Unfortunately, with the ensuing debate and politics, the concept of universal health…

Knoxville-Oak Ridge CLC endorses HR 676, Improved Medicare for All

From Unions for Single Payer – President Suzanne Coile reports that the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Area Central Labor Council unanimously endorsed HR 676, national single payer health care legislation, at its April, 2012 meeting. “Everyone completely agreed on HR 676,” said Coile, “and all of us are totally opposed to any kind of voucher system.” Coile…

Single-Payer Activists’ Views on the Individual Mandate

The Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act hearings last month renewed debate over the individual mandate within the single-payer movement. As expected, there are a wide variety of views on this issue. It’s important to take some time to reflect on some of the arguments made about the mandate. This is by no means comprehensive, but…

Conservatives and Liberals Agree: Medicare for All Would Be Constitutional

By Miles Mogulescu for the Huffington Post – Conservatives and liberals may disagree about the constitutionality of the individual mandate requiring all uninsured Americans to buy health insurance from private companies or pay a penalty to the IRS. But there is no debate about whether single-payer Medicare For All would be constitutional. No one —…

Against the health care mandate

By Helen Redmond for Socialist Worker – IN A highly charged and polarizing case, the Supreme Court heard a series of legal challenges to President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The case was brought to the high court by 26 Republican-led states that are hell-bent on a showdown with the Obama administration,…

Justices meet Friday to vote on health care case

By Mark Sherman for the AP – While the rest of us have to wait until June, the justices of the Supreme Court will know the likely outcome of the historic health care case by the time they go home this weekend. After months of anticipation, thousands of pages of briefs and more than six…

Healthcare Jujitsu

By Robert Reich for RobertReich.com – Not surprisingly, today’s debut Supreme Court argument over the so-called “individual mandate” requiring everyone to buy health insurance revolved around epistemological niceties such as the meaning of a “tax,” and the question of whether the issue is ripe for review. Behind this judicial foreplay is the brute political fact…

As Supreme Court Hears Landmark Case, Does Law Do Enough to Fix Health Crisis?

By Democracy Now! – As the Supreme Court weighs whether the Affordable Care Act goes too far, we host a debate on whether the law goes far enough. The case is reviving the heated tensions that surrounded the healthcare reform law in the debate leading up to its passage two years ago. Although support for…