Single-payer health care would be a vast improvement
By Jay D. Brock – OpEd for Washington Post Regarding Ronald A. Klain’s Feb. 7 Thursday Opinion commentary, “How Democrats could squander their advantage on health care”: There seems to be increasing unease about the state of U.S. health insurance. And with good reason: The current system, based on multiple payers, including large numbers of […]
Nearly half of adults with heart disease can’t afford their medical bills
Study by Yale University More than 45% of non-elderly adults with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) report financial hardship due to the associated medical bills, according to a Yale research team. Worse still, about one in five report being unable to pay those medical bills at all, said the researchers. This study appears in the Journal […]
Growing trend for bankruptcy for seniors
Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society By Deborah Thorne, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless & Katherine Porter for PNHP The social safety net for older Americans has been shrinking for the past couple decades. The risks associated with aging, reduced income, and increased healthcare costs, have been off-loaded onto older […]
To Be Crystal Clear: ‘Medicare for All’ Does Not Mean ‘Medicare for Some’
By Diane Archer for Common Dreams As the health care debate heats up, it’s time to be clear about what Medicare for All is and what it is not. Medicare for All does not mean giving people the option to “buy in” to Medicare under our current health insurance system—what might be called Medicare for […]
‘Everybody In, Nobody Out’: What We Know So Far About the Medicare for All Act of 2019
NOTE: HOPE disagrees with two points in this article. First, is the transition period. HR 676 gave a minimum of one year to do implementation planning before the system would begin on Jan. 1. When the system would begin, under HR 676, all people would be in it from day one. Jayapal’s bill has a […]
Profit-Driven Health Care Is Killing The Dreams Of Young People. Young People Are Fighting Back.
By National Nurses United Briana Moss, 30, grew up in Dyersville, Iowa, site of the “field of dreams” (from the 1989 movie). Despite the reputation of her hometown, her own life dreams feel on hold. At age 30, when many young people are getting their careers off the ground, Moss’ life choices are guided by […]
New medical bankruptcy study: Two-thirds of filers cite illness and medical bills as contributors to financial ruin
Researchers found no evidence that the ACA reduced the proportion of bankruptcies driven by medical problems; insurance offered little protection to middle-class Americans. By David U. Himmelstein, M.D, Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H and Clare Fauke for PNHP Medical problems contributed to 66.5% of all bankruptcies, a figure that is virtually unchanged since before the passage […]
Medicare for All fills a room
Attendance thrills backers of single-payer health system By Ashley Sloboda for The Journal Gazette Rachel Rose Reagan didn’t know if anybody in Fort Wayne would attend an event aimed to mobilize supporters of a government-run, single-payer health insurance system. She seemed awed Sunday as she addressed a crowded conference room at the downtown Allen County […]
Top Nancy Pelosi Aide Privately Tells Insurance Executives Not to Worry About Democrats Pushing “Medicare for All”
By Ryan Grim for The Intercept Less than a month after Democrats — many of them running on “Medicare for All” — won back control of the House of Representatives in November, the top health policy aide to then-prospective House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Blue Cross Blue Shield executives and assured them that party […]
A Public Option Isn’t Good Enough
By Libby Watson for Splinter News There is one thing we can be thankful for: Medicare for All is now a mainstream position in the Democratic Party, to the point where most of the leading Democratic candidates for president say they support it. The question remains how real their commitment to that goal is, and […]