Local doctor describes how single-payer health care system would work
By Patrick Neustatter For The Free Lance-Star The other day, I went on a crusade. I was, however, just a tag-along. The crusader was retired Fredericksburg family physician Jay Brock, who went to tell members of the Lake of the Woods Democrat Club why they should support single-payer, “Medicare for all” health care. “If you […]
“It’s Very Unethical”: Audio Shows Hospital Kept Vegetative Patient on Life Support to Boost Survival Rates
By Caroline Chen for Pro Publica On a Thursday morning this past April, 61-year-old Darryl Young was lying unconscious in the eighth-floor intensive care unit of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. After suffering from congestive heart failure for years, Young, a Navy veteran and former truck driver with three children, had received a heart transplant […]
Warnings of ‘Stealth Privatization’ Effort as Trump Signs Executive Order Expanding Medicare Advantage Plans
“Today’s executive order is yet another giveaway to the corporations that run Medicare Advantage plans.” By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams President Donald Trump on Thursday delivered a speech bashing Medicare for All with right-wing talking points and signed an executive order aimed at steering more elderly Americans into the arms of the private insurance […]
How Employees & Employers Get Bled by Health Insurance
Something is seriously wrong with this system. By Wolf Richter for Wolf Street The annual cost of the average health insurance family plan through employers — employer and employee contributions combined – rose another 4.9% in 2019, to $20,576. This is up 255% from 20 years ago, having soared five times faster than the Consumer […]
Why the Private Health Insurance Industry Faces an Existential Crisis
A former health insurance executive says the moment the insurance industry fears most has arrived. By Wendell Potter for the Independent Media Institute I have told a lot of stories about my time near the top of the health insurance industry. This is not one I’ve ever shared, until now. Shortly before I left Cigna, […]
Another reason to support Medicare for all
By David Greenberg for Greenfield Recorder Patients get ‘surprise’ bills when their health insurance company refuses to pay for out-of-network treatments. This often happens when patients have little choice over where they receive care, such as an emergency room visit. Watching the national debate over surprise medical billing makes it abundantly clear how committed health […]
Negin Owliaei: No one should have to bargain for health care
By Negin Owliaei for Lenconnect.com Nearly 50,000 members of the United Auto Workers began striking earlier this month, demanding that General Motors pay them their fair share of the billions in profits the company raked in last year. The first response from General Motors was shocking. The automaker, which accepted billions in government bailouts during […]
Health Insurance Costs Surpass $20,000 Per Year, Hitting a Record
Ever-rising premiums have pushed some to drop coverage By John Tozzi for Bloomberg The cost of family health coverage in the U.S. now tops $20,000, an annual survey of employers found, a record high that has pushed an increasing number of American workers into plans that cover less or cost more, or force them out of the insurance […]
Progressives Say GM’s Decision to Cut Off Employee Health Insurance ‘Yet Another Reason Why We Need Medicare for All’
Under a single-payer system, said one Medicare for All advocate, employers would no longer have “tons of leverage because workers are desperate to keep their benefit.” By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams General Motors’ decision Tuesday to stop paying healthcare premiums for nearly 50,000 of the company’s striking workers offered a powerful case for why […]
How Greedy Hospitals Fleece the Poor
The most vulnerable Americans are being dunned into destitution through surprise fees and fraudulent practices. By Libby Watson for The New Republic The pundit class collapsed back in its chair last week, exhausted and spent, from a furious wonk-off session over Bernie Sanders’s rhetoric on medical bankruptcies. The Washington Post’s in-house political fact-checking apparatus assigned a […]