Mr. Trump, If You Love Medicare, Improve It and Expand It to All
By Dr. Carol Paris, Health Over Profit for Everyone. Above photo: Dr. Carol Paris being escorted out of a Trump Rally in Tennessee. Well, now I’ve heard everything: Donald Trump wants to keep “the government” away from Medicare and protect seniors from attempts to improve it. Huh? Mr. President, take it from me—a newly-minted senior […]
Medicare-for-All Foes Pack Serious Lobbying Power; Congress Must Choose Between People and Industry
By Craig Sandler, Public Citizen. Three-Fourths of Health Care Lobbyists in 2017 Worked on Behalf of Big Pharma, Insurance and Hospital Industries, a New Study Finds WASHINGTON, D.C. – While a majority of the public, and an increasing number of politicians, support a Medicare-for-All health care system, any serious proposal will face major hurdles due […]
Dr. Margaret Flowers in Kentucky: Educating on health policy, inspiring activism to win single payer
By Kay Tillow for KY Healthcare On October 4 and 5, 2018, nationally-known single payer activist, Margaret Flowers, MD, spoke at a whirlwind of events in Kentucky, educating physicians and medical students and inspiring activists. Dr. Flowers, a Baltimore pediatrician, now works full time advocating for a National Improved Medicare for All system as set […]
A US-inspired reorganisation is about to hit England’s NHS – ‘help us stop it’
NHS plans due to take effect next spring could make general healthcare as difficult to access as mental healthcare already is – and lock future governments into long contracts with private firms, warn campaigners. By Jenny Shepherd for Open Democracy Members of the public, NHS campaign groups and trade unions are acting to stop NHS […]
As lawyers argue Medicaid expansion case, uninsured Mainers forgo health care
Thousands of low-income residents who don’t have health insurance are skimping on medications or passing up on treatment as they wait for access to Medicaid coverage that voters approved 11 months ago. By Joe Lawlor for Press Herald Eric Spahn knows he should be taking better care of his deteriorating health, but without insurance and […]
Doctor: National health care is a ‘moral imperative’
By Jenny Gray for Fulton Sun This week, Dr. Robert Blake, emeritus professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Missouri, remembered a patient who died, but possibly could have lived a longer life. “He was a farmer and had high blood pressure,” Blake said. The farmer had an insurance policy with a […]
Guest commentary: Single-payer health care likely less disruptive, better for economy
By Dr. George Bohmfalk for The Aspen Times Many people fear that moving abruptly to a single-payer system, as in expanding and improving Medicare to cover everyone, would be disruptive and might wreck the economy. I believe that the only areas that may face any disruption would be the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. There is […]
Medicare for All should be free of profit takers
By Kay Tillow. It’s the best of times and the worst of times for the advocates of national single payer health care in the United States. So good because the vast majority in the US have embraced the concept of improving Medicare and expanding it to the entire population. So bad because corrupting influences threaten […]
How to Pay for Medicare for All? Supporters Say That’s the Wrong Question. Here’s Why.
By Yuval Rosenberg for The Fiscal Times Any Democrat proposing a transition to a Medicare-for-all system can expect to be pressed on a pivotal question: How do you plan to pay for it? The price tag: Various estimates have pegged the cost of a Medicare-for-all system at around $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion a year. […]
Ex-UN chief Ban Ki-moon says US healthcare system is ‘morally wrong’
Exclusive: Former UN secretary general accuses ‘powerful’ health interests in the US of blocking universal healthcare By Jessica Glenza for The Guardian The former United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has denounced the United States’ healthcare system as politically and morally wrong, and urged American leaders to enact publicly financed healthcare as a “human right”. […]