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 […]

‘I’m Drowning’: Your Stories of Buying Healthcare for 2019

By Libby Watson for Splinter News Last week, we asked you to send in details of the insurance plans you purchased on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. We received more than 70 messages, mostly all with the same theme: This shit is too expensive, and it sucks. Although some people felt their plans were pretty […]

Insured, But Indebted: Couple Works 5 Jobs To Pay Off Medical Bills

By Jonel Aleccia for NPR Robert and Tiffany Cano of San Tan Valley, Ariz., have a new marriage, a new house and a 10-month-old son, Brody, who is delighted by his ability to blow raspberries. They also have a stack of medical bills that threatens to undermine it all. In the months since their sturdy, […]

25 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better than Obamacare

By Ralph Nader on his blog Dear America: Costly complexity is baked into Obamacare. No health insurance system is without problems but Canadian-style single-payer— full Medicare for all— is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal. In the early 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson enrolled 20 million elderly Americans into Medicare in six months. There were no websites. […]

The Cost of Employer Insurance Is a Growing Burden for Middle-Income Families

NOTE: This study is helpful because it shows what an increasing burden the current healthcare system is for families. Sadly, the policy recommendations leave out the elephant in the room. The problem with our healthcare system is the profit motive of health insurers, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and others. We can’t address the healthcare crisis until […]

Three ways to cut — and improve — Medicare

By Ed Weisbart for STAT News The Republicans are right. We should cut Medicare. And I know how: Keep Medicare’s funding for actual health care but eliminate bureaucratic waste, profits, and the expensive and preposterous ban on negotiating drug prices. In other words, get rid of Part C and Part D and absorb the extra […]

Taking the Fight to the Insurance Industry

NOTE: While this protest was focused on a state bill, the tactics are similar to what we will need to use to pressure members of Congress to pass a strong National Improved Medicare for All single payer healthcare system. By Sofia Arias for SocialistWorker.org Forty single-payer health care activists braved freezing temperatures and an impending […]

Why Medicare-for-All is looking better and better after the midterms

By Jeff Spross for The Week Medicaid had a big election night. Four states, all of them pretty red, had Medicaid expansion on the ballot. Three of those referendums won on Tuesday. In another two states that had refused the expansion, Democrats took the governorships. As Vox‘s Sarah Kliff noted, this could all result in […]

Medicare for All policy has become politics’ sticking point

A survey found 225 Democratic candidates in the House running explicitly on the single-payer healthcare policy By Jessica Glenza in The Guardian Pramila Jayapal is a first-term congresswoman from one of the most progressive districts in Washington state. As such, it might seem easy to dismiss the political action committee she started in September, called […]