Healthcare-NOW

Conference calls keep movement alive

By Bennett Hall for DemocratHerald.com – It’s 8 o’clock in the morning, and Betty Johnson and Mike Huntington are huddled around a cordless phone set up on a folding table in Johnson’s Corvallis living room. The two veteran health care activists listen intently to the voices coming over the speaker. A caller from Portland is…

Vermont’s Struggle for Single-Payer Healthcare

By Steve Early for the Nation – After years of political frustration, Earl Mongeon had to see it to believe it. Often, when he finishes his twelve-hour night shift at IBM in Essex Junction, Mongeon heads home for breakfast and a few hours of brush clearing on his sixty-acre lot in Westford. In mid-January, the…

‘Single payer’ still their goal

By Bennett Hall for the Corvallis Gazette-Times – Shortly after noon on Friday, state Rep. Michael Dembrow stepped to the microphone and addressed a crowd of about 150 people gathered on the steps of the Oregon Capitol in Salem. “You look so healthy,” he told his audience. “You must all have good health insurance.” The…

England ‘healthier than the US’

By Michelle Roberts for BBC News – People living in England enjoy better health than Americans, despite less investment in healthcare, research published in the US has revealed. Across all ages, US residents tend to fare worse in terms of diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease markers, data on over 100,000 people show. The reason…

Forbes 400 or the SiCKO 12?

By Donna Smith – It’s a club I will never be in. Michael Moore told us about them this week. The Forbes 400. The richest 400 people in America. They own more stuff and have more cash and assets than half of the rest of us (roughly 150,000,000+ people) combined. But I had to dig…

Who Will Be Uninsured After Health Insurance Reform?

According to a recent study by the Urban Institute, 23 million people will still be uninsured after The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is fully implemented. 40 percent of those 23 million would be eligible for, but not enrolled in, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). A further 22 percent would…

The Human Cost of Boehner’s Cuts

John Boehner is calling for cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid this spring claiming these programs aren’t sustainable. The only thing unsustainable is the parasitic greed of the corporations and a Congress complicit in supporting them. Just a few weeks ago Congress approved huge tax cuts to the wealthy, and now we have to…

Massachusetts reform hasn’t stopped medical bankruptcies: Harvard study

Skimpy health insurance policies are likely culprit in continuing problem; findings indicate national reform law won’t stop bankruptcies From Physician for a National Health Program – The percentage of personal bankruptcies linked to medical bills or illness changed little, and the absolute number actually increased in Massachusetts after the implementation of its landmark 2006 law…

Rally, Hearing for Single Payer in Oregon Friday

Dissatisfied with Obamacare, single-payer advocates are taking their message to the state capital By David Rosenfeld for The Lund Report – Advocates for single-payer healthcare in Oregon plan to make their voices heard in Salem, Oregon on Friday. Supporters of HB 3510, which calls for a universal state health plan, will rally in front of…

Rising Calls to Replace Top Man at Medicare

By Robert Pear for the New York Times – WASHINGTON — Members of Congress, including Democrats, have urged the Obama administration to search for another Medicare chief after concluding that the Senate is unlikely to confirm President Obama’s temporary appointee, Dr. Donald M. Berwick. Dr. Berwick’s principal deputy, Marilyn B. Tavenner, has emerged as a…