Healthcare-NOW

As Court Showdown Nears, Our Healthcare System Still a Mess

By Rose Ann DeMoro – With the approaching Supreme Court showdown on the President Obama’s 2010 health care law (the Affordable Care Act, modeled, of course, on Mitt Romney’s law in Massachusetts), the U.S. healthcare system remains a dysfunctional mess, as nurses bear witness to every day. In late March, the Court will devote six…

Why Did Single-Payer Health Care Fail in California?

By Lenny Potash for Labor Notes – Though it’s passed the legislature twice before, a bill to establish a single-payer universal health insurance system in California failed in the state senate in January. Not surprisingly, the bill received no Republican votes, but it fell just two votes short of passage when two Democrats voted no…

Venerated Physician & Activist Dr. Quentin Young Urges Single-Payer Healthcare

From Uprising Radio – Single payer healthcare has been a hot topic since the great healthcare debates of 2009 and 2010, but the organization, Physicians for a National Health Program, has advocated for a single payer system since 1987. The National Coordinator for the program, Dr. Quentin Young, spoke with Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar on…

New Coalition to Advocate for Universal Health Care in Oregon

From Salem-News.com – “Oregon’s current health care system is neither humane nor cost-effective.” (PORTLAND, Ore.) – Delegates from 28 unions, nonprofits and grassroots organizations gathered in Portland on Friday, January 27, to form a new coalition that will advocate for universal health care in Oregon and the U.S. Seven labor unions joined with 21 community…

Insurance firms seeking to sow doubt about single-payer in Vermont

By Wendell Potter for IWatchNews.org – You can’t see them. They’re hidden from view and probably always will be. But the health insurance industry’s big guns are in place and pointed directly at the citizens of Vermont. Health insurers were not able to stop the state’s drive last year toward a single-payer health care system,…

Why Are US Health Costs So High? Follow the Bills

By Ralph Nader – Looking at millions of individual bills that makeup the 2.7 trillion dollars of annual health care costs opens a gigantic window on the massive waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and sometimes criminal over-billing. Here is a partial example of what I mean, in the words of Philip M. Boffey, the estimable science…

Message from Senator Leno on California Single-Payer Setback

By Senator Mark Leno, from PDACommunity.org – Most of you have likely heard the disappointing news that our bill, SB 810, the California Universal Health Care Act, failed to move off the Senate Floor by January 31st, meaning it cannot advance further in the legislative process this year. Despite our unwavering advocacy, too few members…

California single-payer health care bill stalls in state Senate

From the Sacramento Bee – California’s “Medicare for all” universal health care legislation fell short of the 21 votes needed to pass the state Senate today. Senate Bill 810 failed on a 19-15 vote during this morning’s floor session, with four moderate Democrats abstaining and one voting no. Democratic Sen. Mark Leno, who authored the…

Single Payer System Continues to Draw Interest in Oregon

A grassroots campaign is forming to build public support for a ballot measure in 2013 By Amanda Waldroupe for TheLundReport.org – January 19, 2012—Healthcare advocates, medical professionals, and legislators are developing a state-wide grassroots campaign to start educating the public about a single payer health system to provide universal coverage for everyone. “It’s really the…

In Dire Health

Despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. medical system is near collapse. What will save it is a single-payer system and physicians in group practice. By Arnold Relman for the American Prospect – Most people assume that insurance is an essential part of the health-care system. Some think it should be provided…