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 […]
Almost 2 Million More Americans Uninsured in 2018, U.S. Says
By John Tozzi for Bloomberg The number of Americans without health insurance increased by almost 2 million people in 2018, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau Tuesday. The increase in the rate of uninsured, from 7.9% in 2017 to 8.5% last year, is particularly remarkable given the falling unemployment rate during […]
All-day protest draws attention to opioid crisis, ‘Medicare for All’
Liberal group makes rounds in lawmaker offices with personal stories By Chris Marquette for Roll Call On an early morning in May, Freddie Henderson III’s heart stopped from a fentanyl overdose, a story his sister Jasmine shared Wednesday in the office of Republican Sen. Rob Portman, as part of a larger push by progressive activists […]
Faced With Soaring Costs of Private Insurance, Poll Shows 58% of Small Business Owners Support Medicare for All
“Medicare for All is the only solution to our healthcare cost crisis that will offer relief to workers and small businesses alike.” By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams A survey released this week by Public Private Strategies (PPS) found that, faced with soaring costs under the for-profit status quo, 58 percent of U.S. small business […]
The Collapse Of A Hospital Empire — And Towns Left In The Wreckage
By Barbara Feder Ostrov and Lauren Weber for Kaiser Health News SWEET SPRINGS, Mo. — The money was so good in the beginning, and it seemed it might gush forever, right through tiny country hospitals in Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and into the coffers of companies controlled by Jorge A. Perez, his family and business partners. […]
The Dialysis Duopoly Spends Big to Protect Profits in California
A scam to get patients to switch from Medicare to private insurance for dialysis care is being threatened by a bill in the Golden State. DaVita and Fresenius, the dialysis giants, have placed enormous funds into opposing it. By Alexander Sammon for The American Prospect Two companies dominate the American outpatient kidney dialysis market: Denver-based […]
What Medicare For All Would Have Meant A Decade Ago
Imagine if a new generation could experience guaranteed care, with quality not determined by wealth or income, but instead delivered as the human right it should be. By Jarod Facundo for Inequality.org For years my aunt Sylvia knew something was wrong. She told doctors she was experiencing pain, but they shrugged it off as age-related. […]
How slick consulting firms get us on drugs
By Martha Rosenberg for Intrepid Report Ninety-one people a day die from opioids and 1,000 visit ERs in the US, according to the CDC. How did opioid makers get such a deathly grip on the US population? Recently, the New York Times reported that the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company had a big hand […]
Private Equity: The Perps Behind Destructive Hospital Surprise Billing
By Yves Smith for Naked Capitalism I have to confess to having missed how private equity is a central bad actor in the “surprise billing” scam that is being targeted by Federal and state legislation. This abuse takes place when hospital patients, even when using a hospital that is in their insurer’s network, are hit […]
How Value Based Programs Are Undermining Medicare and Single Payer
By Russell Mokhiber, Morgan County USA There is a growing sentiment, bubbling from the ground up, that before we get to Medicare for All, we need to first fix Medicare. Richard Bazarian, an eye surgeon in Portland, Maine, is supportive of the idea. “The senators who tout Medicare for All could prove their commitment by […]