Healthcare-NOW

Rutland, VT Mayor Gets Behind Single-Payer Health Plan

By Peter Hirschfeld for TimesArgus.com – MONTPELIER — Rutland City Mayor Christopher Louras on Wednesday urged lawmakers to pursue with force the single-payer health-care proposal now under consideration in the Statehouse. At the risk of offending his former Republican colleagues and the Rutland business community at large, Louras said, he believes the state’s health-care system…

With the nurses on the road to Madison

Helen Redmond, a social worker in Chicago, describes the “festival of fighters” she encountered on a trip to Madison, Wis., with a delegation from National Nurses United. THE MOOD on the bus was jubilant and serious. National Nurses United (NNU) organized a group of union members to go to Wisconsin to support state workers in…

Anthem Blue Cross, again, seeks dramatic rate increases on individual policies

From Southern California Public Radio – It’s déjà vu all over again—almost a year ago exactly Anthem, the California division of Blue Cross health insurers, proposed raising rates on individual policy holders by as much as 39%. That rate increase was stalled and eventually scaled back due to mathematical inaccuracies in Anthem’s rate filings, as…

WSJ/NBC Poll: Hands Off Medicare, Social Security

Many Deem Big Cuts to Entitlements ‘Unacceptable,’ but Retirement and Means Testing Draw Support By NEIL KING JR. and SCOTT GREENBERG for the WSJ – WASHINGTON— Less than a quarter of Americans support making significant cuts to Social Security or Medicare to tackle the country’s mounting deficit, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News…

State health law waivers: where will they take us?

The president supports state innovation in health care, but vigilance is required to ensure state reforms improve health as we continue to call for national reform By Margaret Flowers, M.D. for PNHP – President Obama announced at the National Governors Association on Monday that he supports an amendment to the health law that would allow…

Action Alert: Ask Your Rep. to Cosponsor HR 676

Watching working people stand up and fight back inspires us! We don’t have to tell you that Wisconsin’s groundswell is what we need to create real change. As workers lose benefits, the people in Wisconsin and around the country know that unreasonably high health insurance costs are at the root of the fiscal crisis in…

Experts: Individual mandate might fail

By David Nather for Politico – Forget all the shouting you’ve heard about the new mandate to buy health coverage. Forget the lawsuits, the cries of “Big Government” from Republicans and the Democrats’ claims that the new health care law would fall apart without it. What if it just plain doesn’t work? That’s a real…

Obama Backs Easing State Health Law Mandates

From the New York Times – WASHINGTON — President Obama, who has stood by his landmark health care law through court attacks and legislative efforts to repeal it, told the nation’s governors on Monday that he was willing to amend the measure to give states the ability to opt out of its most controversial requirements…

Disheartening response to adultBasic fiasco

A DelCo Daily Times editorial – Today is D Day for close to 42,000 working Pennsylvanians in terms of their health insurance. Today adultBasic, a state program designed to provide health insurance for residents ages 19 through 64 who meet income-eligibility requirements, has officially run out of money. More than 1,700 Delaware County residents who…

New York Medicaid Panel Backs Cuts

By Thomas Kaplan for the New York Times – ALBANY — In an unexpected vote, a committee appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to cut billions in health care spending approved on Thursday an annual spending cap and across-the-board reductions for all Medicaid providers. The vote, on 79 cost-cutting measures, was part of a sweeping…