Healthcare-NOW

He Had Worked Hard Since He Was 12

Dear Speaker Boehner: My husband died in 2003 due to lack of care for diabetes and cancer after we lost our health insurance. There were times we couldn’t get insulin and no churches or private agencies could help either. We lost our home, our business and eventually him, because the only jobs I could get…

Hsiao says hybrid single-payer is best option for Vermont

By Jon Margolis for VTDigger.org – Dr. William Hsiao made his presentation to the full Vermont House and Senate Wednesday, Jan. 19. His full 138-page report in PDF is here. His PowerPoint presentation is available in PDF here. For his 10-page summary statement in PDF click here . The very day the U.S. House of…

Will You Cry for Me, John Boehner?

Tired of the political theater in Washington, DC? Want to tell real stories by real people who need real change from Congress? As House Republicans make their futile attempt to repeal health reform, join us in launching the “Will You Cry for Me, John Boehner?” campaign. Because we know Speaker of the House Boehner has…

Vermont Delegation Will Seek Path To Single-Payer Health Care Reform

By Bob Kinzel for Vermont Public Radio – (Host) Vermont’s Congressional delegation is pledging to work together to make it easier for the Shumlin Administration to implement a single payer health care plan. The goal is to make it possible for Vermont to seek a waiver from the federal government for a single payer plan…

GOP Launches Bid To Repeal Health Care Law

By Julie Rovner for NPR – The formal title of the two-page bill the House is scheduled to vote on Wednesday is “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.” But in the wake of the recent shootings in Arizona that killed six people and critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the phrase “job-killing” was barely…

Update on Single Payer from Dr. Margaret Flowers

An interview with Dr. Margaret Flowers from OpEdNews.com by Joan Brunwasser – My guest is Dr. Margaret Flowers, congressional fellow of Physicians for a National Health Program [PNHP]. Welcome back to OpEdNews, Margaret. Republican lawmakers, fresh from their November victory, are pledging to move immediately in the new Congress to dismantle the health care law…

Nation Conversations: Wendell Potter on the Health Insurance Industry’s Lock on Congress

From The Nation – Listen below. Wendell Potter, author of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, stopped by The Nation’s offices this week to explain how insurance companies are manipulating the conversation surrounding healthcare legislation. Potter was a health insurance executive for…

Oh, For Civil Healthcare in America

by Donna Smith – Ah, we must be more civil. No more taunts. No more tirades. No more gun crosshair targets, no matter how innocently placed on our graphics (though I am not sure gun crosshairs are ever really innocent in placement). We’ll be more civil in our discourse. In light of the tragedy in…

Two Dead Since Arizona Medicaid Program Slashed Transplant Coverage

From ABC News – Hospital Confirms Former Patient Died While Awaiting Liver Transplant Two Arizona Medicaid recipients denied potentially life-saving organ transplants have died, even as Arizona doctors, transplant survivors and some lawmakers push to restore health care benefits slashed last fall. On Oct. 1, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System stopped paying for…

Let’s stop pretending it was a government takeover of healthcare

By Deborah Burger for The Hill – If the Obama healthcare bill is just a “government takeover,” why are healthcare industry CEOs being rewarded with so much money? The alleged expropriation of healthcare by big government is, of course, a major story line of the right and the new leadership of the House which is…