VP Pick Ryan’s Plan Would Be Path to the Poorhouse

By Wendell Potter for the Huffington Post – If Americans who are embracing Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” — and that now includes Mitt Romney — spent a few minutes reviewing a few recent research reports, they just might conclude that the Wisconsin Republican’s plan to reduce the deficit might better be renamed the…

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Happy Birthday to Medicare

By Dr. Margaret A. Nosek for the Houston Chronicle – With all the commotion surrounding the Supreme Court and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it would be easy to overlook an important birthday: Today is the 47th anniversary of Medicare, the public health insurance program that covers our nation’s seniors and people with severe disabilities.…

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Happy Birthday Medicare!

Happy birthday Medicare! Medicare’s 47th anniversary is today and is a valuable opportunity to highlight why we still need single-payer Medicare-for-all. Take a minute to email and then call Congress to let them know you support improving and expanding Medicare to everyone living in the US. Medicare celebrations are happening around the country, including: Monday,…

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July 30: Celebrate Medicare’s 47th Anniversary

Coming in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to largely uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicare’s 47th anniversary on Monday, July 30 is a great opportunity to highlight why we still need single-payer Medicare-for-all. We know that the ACA will not achieve universal coverage — at least 26 million people will remain uninsured…

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Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France

By Ezra Klein for the Washington Post – There is a simple reason health care in the United States costs more than it does anywhere else: The prices are higher. That may sound obvious. But it is, in fact, key to understanding one of the most pressing problems facing our economy. In 2009, Americans spent…

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Even Critics of Safety Net Depend on It Increasingly

From the New York Times – LINDSTROM, Minn. – Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government. He says that too many Americans…

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Why Are US Health Costs So High? Follow the Bills

By Ralph Nader – Looking at millions of individual bills that makeup the 2.7 trillion dollars of annual health care costs opens a gigantic window on the massive waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and sometimes criminal over-billing. Here is a partial example of what I mean, in the words of Philip M. Boffey, the estimable science…

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Private insurers increasingly reliant on government business

From the Washington Post – Despite the sluggish economy, the nation’s major health insurers have prospered in large part by expanding their role in government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, according to a study released Thursday. The share of large insurers’ revenues contributed by their Medicare and Medicaid business has jumped from 36 to…

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