Maine Voices: Single-payer would give U.S. patients, caregivers more control over health care system
Weaker campaign finance laws have enabled insurers and Big Pharma to create a system that benefits only them. By Joshua Gear for The Press Herald YORK — As a medical student, I remember HMOs being touted as the answer to the spiraling costs of health care and the high number of uninsured Americans. That was […]
$44,000 for an Ambulance, Hour-Long Drives to an ER: The Impossible Cost of Healthcare in Appalachia
Rural hospitals are closing or downgrading at an alarming rate. That could be fatal. By Mason Adams for In These Times When Heather Edwards’ contractions began three months early, in March, she worried about the long drive to the hospital from her home nestled in the Appalachian Mountains in Jonesville, Va., a town of fewer […]
The Medicare for All debate is distorted
By Bob Herman for Axios Don Berwick, a physician and former head of Medicare and Medicaid during the Obama administration, wants the country to have a “rational” debate about “Medicare for All” — but says that will require a more rigorous comparison to the status quo. What he’s saying: This interview has been edited for […]
‘How we will win this fight’: Economist touts single-payer health plan in Louisville visit
By Deborah Yetter for Louisville Courier Journal “Things are getting worse.” That’s the message Harvard-trained economist Gerald Friedman delivered to an audience of University of Louisville medical students Wednesday — speaking in terms of health and life expectancy in the United States. But it doesn’t have to be that way, Friedman said, speaking at one of […]
How to Approach Medicare for All Financing
By Matt Bruenig for People’s Policy Project One of the big impediments to putting out a plan for financing Medicare for All is not so much that it is very difficult to come up with one, but rather that there are so many ways to do it that it is hard for any one particular […]
What Medicare For All Would Cost Women & LGBTQ People, According To Experts
By Jo Yurcaba for Bustle The United States, despite paying the most for health care worldwide, still had 28 million people uninsured in 2017, according to the Census Bureau. Even more are underinsured, and don’t have the savings required to deal with a medical emergency, as evidenced by the number of crowdfunding campaigns that regularly […]
The Urban Institute’s Single Payer Cost Estimate: False Assumptions False Conclusions
By David U. Himmelstein, M.D., and Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H. for PNHP The Urban Institute’s (UI) new analyses of the costs of a single-payer reform, along with other reform options, posits impossibly large increases in the utilization of medical care (ignoring real world experience with coverage expansions in the U.S.), and discounts the vast administrative […]
Stop fearmongering about ‘Medicare for All.’ Most families would pay less for better care.
By Donald M. Berwick for USA Today With costs rising painfully, insurance companies denying care and nearly 30 million people still uninsured, America desperately needs an honest health policy discussion. That’s why it has been so disappointing over the past several weeks to watch multiple candidates parrot right-wing attacks on “Medicare for All,” like claiming that it […]
Buttigieg Denounced for Spouting ‘Pack of Lies’ About Medicare for All While Swimming in Insurance Industry Cash
“Mayor Pete sounds like he’s on the payroll of the Republican National Committee.” By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg—the leading recipient of campaign cash from the healthcare industry among Democratic presidential candidates—went on the offensive against Medicare for All with right-wing talking points during Tuesday night’s debate, bashing the […]
Groupons For Medical Treatment? Welcome To Today’s U.S. Health Care
By Lauren Weber for Kaiser Health News Emory University medical fellow Dr. Nicole Herbst was shocked when she saw three patients who came in with abnormal results from chest CT scans they had bought on Groupon. Yes, Groupon — the online coupon mecca that also sells discounted fitness classes and foosball tables. Similar deals have shown […]