Don’t Gamble with Our Social Security

Andy Stern, a key member of the president’s deficit commission, proposes to invest a part of our Social Security funds in the stock market. Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal think tank, has expressed approval for Stern’s proposal. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea,” said Baker.…

Read More

Insurers Push Plans That Limit Choice of Doctor

New York Times – As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals. The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely…

Read More

Report From the US Social Forum

Healthcare-NOW! had a tremendous presence at the US Social Forum, which converged over 20,000 activists for social change into Detroit for 5 days in June. We organized two major events at the forum. First, a workshop attended by about 50 folks from Detroit and elsewhere. Michael Lighty of the National Nurses United broke down the…

Read More

Support the Single-Payer Expressions for Access to Care Equality Project

Every movement has its music. With this in mind, CUUSP is joining efforts with Healthcare-NOW! to produce a compilation album of songs and stories that will serve to further inform and inspire this present-day civil rights movement. S-PEACE (Single-Payer Expressions for Access to Care Equality) will combine folk, rock, blues, hip hop, and spoken word…

Read More

Town Hall Meetings Say No to Cutting Social Security

By Al Benchich for Labor Notes – I can’t help but think that the folks behind the “America Speaks” town hall meetings, held June 26 in 19 cities across the country, were shell-shocked by the results. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and, principally, the foundation of Wall Street financier Peter Peterson had spent…

Read More

Vermont health reform panel recommends analyst

By Nancy Remsen for Burlington Free Press – MONTPELIER — The Health Care Reform Commission recommended Monday that the Legislature hire the Harvard economist who helped Taiwan revamp its health-care system for a six-month, $300,000 health research project for Vermont. The consultant’s task: Give lawmakers three roadmaps the state could follow to achieve a more…

Read More

‘Don’t shred our safety nets’

The following text is the testimony that Katie Robbins, national organizer for Healthcare-NOW!, presented to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on June 30 in Washington. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Katie Robbins and I am here on behalf of Healthcare-NOW!, an organization founded in 2004 to support…

Read More

Speak Up for Medicare and Social Security

For decades, Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson has been trying to privatize or get rid of Social Security and Medicare. Now he is funding AmericaSpeaks, a private company that is organizing town hall meetings with citizens across the country on Saturday, June 26th. Pete Peterson wants to use these meetings to shape the national discussion…

Read More