Physicians for a National Health Program – Page 3

Doctor’s survey: Single-payer health care system favored

By Deborah Sederberg for the News Dispatch – MICHIGAN CITY — It was a small sample, but the response was overwhelmingly positive. In early September, The News-Dispatch published a story about Dr. Rade Pejic’s presentation to Michigan City Rotary on his support for a single-payer national health care program. The paper also carried a copy…

What if everyone had Medicare?

By Henry Abrons – The Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the United States earlier this month, and it’s no surprise to learn that we’re in bad shape. The number of people living in poverty was 43.6 million (14.3 percent), up sharply from 2008, and real per…

Single-Payer is Inevitable

Progressives and Conservatives Agree By Rob Stone, MD – “The new health care legislation is a step toward elimination, by slow strangulation, of private health insurance and establishment of government as the ‘single payer.’” – George Will, in his weekly newspaper column, Sunday July 11, 2010 Everyone loves to pick on the Affordable Care Act…

Rx on Medicare’s Birthday: Expand it to All

By Dr. Quentin Young of PNHP – Medicare, one of our nation’s most cherished social programs, turns 45 on Friday. I was in active medical practice when, on July 30, 1965, Medicare was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. The law’s impact on older Americans and their families was swift and spectacular. I saw…

The Baucus 8 One Year Later (Video)

On May 5, 2009, 8 health advocates stood up to the members of the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senator Max Baucus, to expose the exclusion of the health reform favored by the majority of people in America: a single payer/national improved Medicare for All health program. Industry lobbyists were invited to testify before the…

After the Reform: Aiming High for Health Justice

By Margaret Flowers, M.D. for Tikkun Magazine – As we sit here on the other side of the recent health reform process, we have an opportunity for reflection. There were many times during the past year and a half when passage of a health bill seemed unlikely. However, in the end, the White House and…

Patients protest doctor’s dismissal

By Kevin Kelley for Westlife – About 50 protesters demonstrated in front of St. John Medical Center Sunday afternoon to protest the termination of Dr. George Randt’s contract with Cuyahoga Physicians Network. Cuyahoga Physicians Network is a for-profit practice organization owned and managed by the Sisters of Charity Health System. Randt had been seeing patients…

PBS ombudsman: Ignoring single payer was a mistake

Single-Minded About Single-Payer: The Ombudsman Column By Michael Getler, PBS, April 23, 2010 – PBS’s venerable public affairs and investigative series Frontline is, I confess, a favorite of mine, and has been for as long as I can remember watching public television. For me, Frontline, along with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” is the best of what…

Action Alert: Expect Better from PBS

Recently, we announced Frontline’s new program, “Obama’s Deal,” which included a segment that featured single-payer advocates arrested in the Senate Finance Committee protesting the exclusion of single-payer witnesses from the proceedings. It exposed some of the sordid deals struck by congressional lawmakers and the White House with the health insurance industry and Big Pharma. While…

No Time to ‘Wait and See’ on Health Law

By Dr. Quentin Young – Building the Single-Payer Movement Having just gone through a grueling, frequently raucous debate on health reform, capped by the narrowest of votes to pass the Obama administration’s bill, many activists are now tempted to adopt a “wait and see” attitude on how the new law plays out. A few others…