Healthcare-NOW

Seniors Rally Against Cuts To Medicare, 47 Arrested

By Aricka Flowers for Progress Illinois – More than 1,000 Chicago-area seniors and their allies took part in an act of civil disobedience today to push back against cuts to safety net programs, like Medicare and Social Security. The group rallied outside of the offices of U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D) and Mark Kirk (R)…

Increasing Medicare Age Could Lead To Higher Costs

By Julie Rovner for NPR – Congress’ so-called deficit reduction “supercommittee” is down to the final weeks of deliberations in its efforts to come up with $1.2 trillion in budget savings. And one proposal that keeps cropping up is the idea of raising the eligibility age for Medicare. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney became just…

Thursday, November 3rd: Make Wall Street Pay!

Join Healthcare-NOW! and National Nurses United for a day of action on Thursday November 3rd. We have to let the world know we will not let the 1% continue to steal our money or cut Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security–the programs that help keep us housed, healthy, and fed through hard times and older age.…

Dems Propose $400 Billion in Medicare Cuts

By Sam Stein for Huffington Post – Democrats on the congressional super committee have produced a “presentation” that would include a roughly equal mix of spending cuts and revenue increases to achieve an estimated $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion in deficit reduction. The early reviews among progressives is that the outlines, as introduced by Senate…

Deficit commission showing no progress

By Robert Pear for the New York Times – With just five weeks until its deadline, a secretive congressional committee seeking ways to cut the federal deficit is far from a consensus, and party leaders may need to step in if they want to ensure agreement, say people involved in the panel’s work. The 12-member…

Supercommittee operating in secret

By Jake Sherman and Matt Dobias for Politico – The supercommittee has become supersecret about most of what it’s doing. On Tuesday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) encapsulated the attitude of the members of the Joint Deficit Reduction Committee: “I don’t want to discuss what we discussed.” As 12 lawmakers tackle the historic task of slashing…

If U.S. is Serious About Debt, There’s a Single-Payer Solution

An STL Today editorial – If America truly is serious about dealing with its deficit problems, there’s a fairly simple solution. But you’re probably not going to like it: Enact a single-payer health care plan. See, we told you weren’t going to like it. But the fact is that everyone who has studied the deficit…

Physicians group: debt deal threatens health of seniors and disabled

The New York Metro chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), an 18,000-member national organization, denounces the federal debt ceiling deal signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday. “Politicians who say Medicare and Social Security are spared cuts are not being honest,” said Dr. Oliver Fein, Chair of PNHP-NY Metro. “Plans to…

Debt Ceiling Deal Threatens Medicare, Medicaid

With a decision finally reached this afternoon on the debt ceiling, both the President and Congress have put Wall Street and the wealthy in front of the needs of their constituents. Our most important social insurance programs are squarely on the chopping block. The spending cuts will only exacerbate the economic crisis and people’s suffering.…

Medicare’s 46th Anniversary Roundup!

July 30th was Medicare’s 46th anniversary and we’ve been celebrating all over the country. Improved Medicare-for-all supporters in 21 states organized over 45 events, rallies, birthday parties, and congressional visits aimed at preventing cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while also calling for Medicare-for-all as the solution to, not the problem with, our national…