Trump’s Under-the-Radar Push to Dismantle Veterans Health Care
New legislation threatens to dismantle the most successful American experiment in government-delivered health care. By Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven for The American Prospect Last June, President Trump signed the VA Mission Act, commonly considered the biggest overhaul of veterans’ health care in a generation. Mission was designed to replace the hastily enacted Veterans Choice […]
Insurance companies are supposed to be heartless. That’s why we need single-payer
Letters to the Editor in the Los Angeles Times To the editor: Michael Kinsley is arguably correct when he writes regarding the denial of coverage for people with preexisting conditions: “The insurance companies are not behaving like heartless monsters. They are behaving like insurance companies.” Well, they may or may not be monsters, but insurance […]
Group backing private Medicare is funded by insurance giants
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Richard Lardner for Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A group gaining influence in Washington as a champion for Medicare beneficiaries is bankrolled by major health insurance companies that are trying to cash in on private coverage offered through the federal health insurance program. The Better Medicare Alliance claims a far-flung network […]
Big Pharma shells out $20B each year to schmooze docs, $6B on drug ads
Persuading doctors and direct-to-consumer ads land 1-2 punch for knockout sales. By Beth Mole for Ars Technica Talk with your doctor… It’s a common refrain at the end of any drug advertisement or disease awareness campaign. Ostensibly, it seems like a responsible suggestion. Talking with your own trusted doctor can help determine if a new […]
VA to shift billions of dollars to private care for veterans
By Jennifer Steinhauer and Dave Philipps for The New York Times, republished on Rise Up Times WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to shift billions of dollars from government-run veterans’ hospitals to private health care providers, setting the stage for the biggest transformation of the veterans’ medical system in a generation. Under […]
Memorial Sloan Kettering Curbs Executives’ Ties to Industry After Conflict-of-Interest Scandals
The cancer center will now bar top officials from sitting on outside boards of for-profit companies, and is conducting a wide-scale review of other policies. By Katie Thomas and Charles Ornstein for ProPublica This article was reported and written in collaboration with The New York Times. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the world’s […]