Surprise medical bills, coronavirus and bad insurance: 3 arguments for Medicare for All
By Philip A. Verhoef for USA Today Congress is grappling with the problem of surprise medical bills, but will its Band-Aid approaches make a difference? As a physician, I’m trained to look beyond superficial symptoms to diagnose the underlying ailment. When patients pay thousands of dollars each year for “good” private insurance, how does a health care […]
Looming Coronavirus Threat in US Bolsters Case for Medicare for All and Universal Paid Sick Leave
“Doubters may claim that our nation can’t afford Medicare for All, but it’s increasingly likely that we are about to discover just how costly our current system really is.” By Julia Conley for Common Dreams The global coronavirus outbreak which also threatens the United States—and the widely criticized effort by the Trump administration to address […]
Millions of Americans Donate through Crowdfunding Sites to Help Others Pay for Medical Bills
Approximately 50 million—or 20 percent—of American adults reported donating to a crowdfunding campaign to help raise money for a medical bill or treatment. Via NORC at the University of Chicago One in five Americans reported that they or someone in their household have contributed to a crowdfunding campaign to pay for medical bills or treatments, […]
Protecting Americans from surprise medical costs
By Ed Weisbart for St. Louis Post-Dispatch Breaking news: At the end of 2019, Congress failed to fix a major problem with American health insurance. This would be comically boring if so many lives and so much money were not at stake. Chances are that you are among the majority of Americans who have received […]
‘All I Want For Christmas Is A Chance To Live’
By Popular Resistance HOPE NOTE: Millions of people in the US are going without healthcare because they are uninsured or denied coverage or can’t afford the out of pocket costs. This one is personal for us. We have known and worked with Phil since he joined the campaign to stop the TransPacific Partnership in 2012. […]
Nashville emergency room sues 700 patients over unpaid bills
By Blake Farmer for The Associated Press Nashville General is the city-funded, safety-net hospital. For a patient without insurance, this is supposed to be the best place to go. But its emergency room has been taking more patients to court for unpaid medical bills than any other hospital or practice in town. A WPLN investigation […]
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 […]
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 […]
Americans Actually Do Want Medicare for All
The media and the private insurance lobbyists are doing everything they can to twist the truth about public opinion on a public health system. Don’t listen: when it’s described accurately to them, a majority of Americans want Medicare for All. By Luke Savage for Jacobin America’s public debate on health care has long been riddled […]
I’m an NHS nurse. This is how I’m convincing Americans to fight for free healthcare
The horror stories of I heard during my conversations were shocking. Universal healthcare is a human right – and thankfully millions of US citizens are waking up to the fact By Danielle Tiplady for The Independent As a British nurse, over the last year I have built links with American nurses who are leading the fight to […]