Healthcare-NOW

Medicaid cuts could come from Democrats

By J. Lester Feder for Politico – Defenders of Medicaid have been fighting hard against Republican proposals to cut the program, but they’re just waking up to the threat of one proposed by the Obama administration. It’s an idea to change the way federal matching funds work and save money in the process — and…

NOW Conference Calls for Medicare for All

The National Organization for Women wrapped up its 45th National Conference in Tampa, Fla. on Sunday, June 26, setting NOW’s policy and agenda for the coming year and looking toward the 2012 elections and beyond. Topping NOW’s policy agenda are improved Social Security benefits for women and a “Medicare for All” single-payer health care system…

Should universal care advocates bite their tongues on single-payer?

By Mike Alberti for Remapping Debate – It was not so long ago that a universal, single-payer health insurance program administered and financed by the federal government looked like a viable policy option. Barack Obama supported a single-payer system on the campaign trail in 2008, and, in the early stages of the subsequent battle over…

Support for ‘Medicare-for-all’ Continues in US Congress

By Healthcare-NOW! – Sen. Bernie Sanders [I VT] introduced a revised version of the “American Health Security Act,” a national single-payer “Medicare-for-all” healthcare bill, calling for the right to healthcare for all. The Bill, designated as S 915 is an updated version of S 703, submitted in 2009, and joins Rep. Jim McDermott’s [D WA] companion bill in the…

Vermont Breaks Ground in Health Coverage for Migrant Workers

By Yvonne Yen Liu for New America Media – Vermont, land of rolling green hills dotted with black and white Holsteins and picturesque red barns. White people, everywhere, lots of them. Home of state-sanctioned town hall meetings that are models for participatory democracy. And now, the first state in our republic to enact universal health…

Single-Payer Hopefuls Press Their Cause

By David Gorn for California Healthline – Only in San Francisco can a guy wearing a rainbow rasta wig be a voice of reason. But there he was, among an estimated 400 boisterous protesters, trying to keep the sidewalk clear so pedestrians could pass through the colorful event. Event organizer Don Bechler also was busy…

How Libby, Montana Got Medicare for All

By Kay Tillow – In 2009 when the Washington beltway was tied up with the health care reform tussle, Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the all powerful Senate Finance Committee, said everything was on the table–except for single payer. When doctors, nurses and others rose in his hearing to insist that single payer…

Congress should be working to expand Medicare to cover all necessary care for everyone

By Ray Stever for Times of Trenton – In 1777, the Commonwealth of Vermont became the first sovereign state in the world to abolish slavery. On May 26, 2011, Vermont became the first state in the U.S. to commit itself to establishing a truly universal single-payer health care plan. Thus, Vermont could lead the rest…

Union Nurses Call for Single-Payer System

By Emily P. Walker, MedPage Today – Several hundred members of National Nurses United held a rally here on Tuesday to call for a single-payer healthcare system, an end to tax breaks for big corporations, and workers’ rights. The nurses started their march in front of the White House and walked across the street to…

British fear ‘American-style’ healthcare system

As leaders debate ways to reform healthcare, politicians repeatedly tell a worried public that Britain will not turn the National Health Service into an ‘American-style’ private system. By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times – Two years ago, Britons were outraged when U.S. politicians like Sarah Palin, in the debate over healthcare reform, turned this country’s…