Medicare for all would save billions in waste
By James Garb for Cape Cod Times Medicare celebrates its 53rd birthday this month. One of the two most popular government programs, along with Social Security, Medicare now enrolls 10,000 new Americans every day. Cutting across party affiliation, more than three-quarters of all Americans consider Medicare to be a “very important” program. Today universal health […]
New Medicare for All Caucus in Congress
By Michael Corcoran for Truthout When Medicare was created 53 years ago this month, it was over the objections of Ronald Reagan. On behalf of the American Medical Association, Reagan warned that should Medicare become law, it would lead to “a mechanism for national health insurance capable of indefinite expansion in every direction until it […]
How Big Medicine Can Ruin Medicare for All
A single-payer system will degenerate into corporate welfare unless we take on health care monopolies. By Phillip Longman for Washington Monthly Many of us still remember the moment during the debate over the Affordable Care Act when a powerful Democratic senator not only blocked supporters of single-payer health care from testifying before his committee, but […]
Pelosi: ‘Medicare for All’ should be ‘evaluated’ if Dems win House
NOTE: It is a good sign that Nancy Pelosi’s rhetoric is changing. It shows that the political winds are blowing toward single payer. Pelosi is likely to face a challenge for the House Speaker position if the Democrats take the majority in the House this fall. Our tasks are to keep building momentum for National […]
Is this the year the AMA finally joins the single-payer movement?
By Jonathan Michels, Robertha Barnes, and Sydney Russell Leed for STAT News Fifty years ago this month, at the 1968 meeting of the American Medical Association, a fourth-year medical student named Peter Schnall seized the microphone and scolded several hundred of the most prestigious, highly educated white men in America. “Organized medicine has never felt […]
Amid Grassroots Push, Medicare for All Winning Big in Democratic Primaries
By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams “Being able to go to the doctor for any reason and not worry about paying for it? That sounds pretty good. We should do that.” With Medicare for All reaching record levels of support among both members of Congress and the American public—where support for single-payer is spreading “like […]
Andrew J. Cohen: The VA is working just fine, thank you very much
By Andrew J. Cohen for The Spokesman-Review “A government-run, single-payer, bureaucratic health-care system that doesn’t work.” That’s how Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., described the Department of Veterans Affairs last month on “Meet the Press.” Johnson’s remarks are typical of Republicans in Congress, who have made no secret of their intention to privatize the department. President […]
The Disappearing Doctor: How Mega-Mergers Are Changing the Business of Medical Care
Big corporations — giant retailers and health insurance companies — are teaming up to become your doctor. By Reed Abelson and Julie Creswell for The New York Times Is the doctor in? In this new medical age of urgent care centers and retail clinics, that’s not a simple question. Nor does it have a simple […]
Ten Million Americans Could Bring H.R. 676 into Reality Land—Relief for Anxiety, Dread and Fear
By Ralph Nader for Counterpunch Polls show that over 125 million adults in our country already favor full Medicare for all, with free choice of doctor and hospital without stifling networks. I say ‘already’ because, as of yet, there is no major national campaign underway showing that an ‘everybody in, nobody out’ system of health […]
Whistleblowers Sue City’s Top Health Insurance Providers
By Brigid Bergin for WNYC Three whistleblowers representing New York City employees and retirees are suing the city’s top health insurance providers for defrauding taxpayers of more than a billion dollars. The lawsuit unsealed in New York Supreme Court last month alleges that GHI, along with parent company EmblemHealth and their partner, Empire Blue Cross […]