Poll: Medicare doesn’t have to be cut

By the AP – WASHINGTON (AP) – They’re not buying it. Most Americans say they don’t believe Medicare has to be cut to balance the federal budget, and ditto for Social Security, a new poll shows. The Associated Press-GfK poll suggests that arguments for overhauling the massive benefit programs to pare government debt have failed…

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Why Medicare Isn’t the Problem, It’s the Solution

By Robert Reich for RobertReich.com – I hope when he tells America how he aims to tame future budget deficits the president doesn’t accept conventional Washington wisdom that the biggest problem in the federal budget is Medicare (and its poor cousin Medicaid). Medicare isn’t the problem. It’s the solution. The real problem is the soaring…

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Ryan Turns Knife on Medicare, Medicaid

By Margaret Flowers – Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee, unveiled two proposals this week which if enacted would constitute a mortal threat to our nation’s health – particularly to the health of our seniors and our most vulnerable populations. The first proposal, Senate Joint Resolution 10,…

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The Obama Health Plan Has Serious Threats to Medicare

By Michael Lyon, SF Gray Panthers – Obama’s Health Plan is fatally flawed because it uses insurance companies to deliver healthcare, but the Health Plan also directly threatens Medicare. People talk about “the healthcare crisis,” but actually there are two healthcare crises. For us, the healthcare crisis is 51 million uninsured, stripping workers’ health plans,…

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The De-Privatization of Medicare

From MassCare – Most of you will have missed a short article tucked away in today’s Boston Globe, which – when put in context – speaks volumes about our health care system. Robert Weisman reports that Harvard Pilgrim will be canceling all of its Medicare Advantage plans in Massachusetts and two other states, and will…

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On Grayson’s “Public Option Act” or “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act”

PNHP’s Response to Grayson’s Public Option Act Congressman Alan Grayson Press Release March 9, 2010 Congressman Alan Grayson, D-Fla., today introduced a bill (H.R. 4789) which would give the option to buy into Medicare to every citizen of the United States. The “Public Option Act,” also known as the “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act,”…

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Notes from “Medicare for All: Still the One”

If you missed last night’s national conference call, “Medicare for All: Still the One,” you can listen to it here. Also, please find a transcript of Kip Sullivan’s remarks below. We had about 250 people on this call, and we’d like to thank all of you for participating, and donating. This call’s success means that…

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Repubs, Dems, Blue Dogs and Tea Partiers: Everybody Loves Medicare

By Donna Smith – President Obama keeps torturing himself and the 111th Congress by trying to come up with new ways to work together and a single healthcare reform effort that all could embrace politically, morally and fiscally. He need not struggle so hard, as the leaders in each of the groups clamoring for leadership…

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Medicare-for-all doctors arrested outside Obama-GOP meeting

‘There is a better health plan, Mr. President’ Rising to President Obama’s challenge in his State of the Union address that others come up with a better approach to health care reform than his own, two Maryland physicians who advocate for a single-payer program stood on the sidewalk this morning outside the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace…

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A Death Every 12 Minutes: The Price of Not Having Medicare for All

By John Geyman for Huffington Post – Americans are dying at a faster rate — 1 every 12 minutes, 5 an hour, 120 a day, 45,000 a year — not from war or natural disaster, but from lack of health insurance. That’s the stunning finding of a study published today in the American Journal of…

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