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 […]
American health care system costs four times more than Canada’s single-payer system
Average Americans pay $2,497 a year for insurance overhead and admin costs, while Canadians pay just $551 By Igor Derysh for Salon The cost of administering health care in the United States costs four times as much as it does in Canada, which has had a single-payer system for nearly 60 years, according to a new […]
In Historic Shift, Second Largest Physicians Group in US Has New Prescription: It’s Medicare for All
“Major changes are needed,” declares the 159,000-member American College of Physicians, “to a system that costs too much, leaves too many behind, and delivers too little.” By Jon Queally for Common Dreams The fight for Medicare for All received a two-handed boost from tens of thousands of doctors on Monday when the American College of […]
Medicare for All ‘Is What Patients Need’: New Harvard Study Shows Even Those With Private Insurance Can’t Afford Care
“When so many people can’t get the care they need even when they have insurance coverage, it says that insurance is not doing what it is supposed to do: ensure that healthcare is affordable when you need it.” By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams The for-profit U.S. healthcare system is so broken that a growing […]
What Medicare for All Really Looks Like
The Canadian system, also called Medicare, guarantees coverage to every resident north of the U.S. border. By Caitlin Kelly for The American Prospect He spends long days navigating Toronto’s miserable traffic, finding whatever’s needed for his work as a freelance production designer for film and commercials. It’s demanding physical labor, with injury a daily possibility. […]
Economists ‘Surprised Americans Aren’t Revolting’ Over $8,000 Tax They Pay Each Year Due to For-Profit Healthcare System
The payments made to the U.S. healthcare system are “like a tribute to a foreign power, but we’re doing it to ourselves.” By Julia Conley for Common Dreams Highlighting the thousands of dollars American households are forced to pay in healthcare costs that people in other wealthy countries save thanks to universal healthcare plans, two […]
How can U.S. healthcare save more than $600B? Switch to a single-payer system, study suggests
By Joanne Finnegan for FierceHealthcare U.S. healthcare could save more than $600 billion in administrative costs by adopting a single-payer system like neighboring Canada, a new study suggests. The U.S.’s current multi-payer system cost the country $812 billion in administrative costs in 2017—four times more than Canada, which has a single-payer system—mostly due to the […]
Physicians advocate for single payer system
By Spencer Schultz for The Brown Daily Herald The United States’ health care system is broken and the only solution is a single payer plan, argued local leaders of Physicians for a National Health Program at an event Tuesday night. James Cowan, an internal medicine specialist, and J. Mark Ryan MD ’84, clinical assistant professor […]
Warnings of ‘Stealth Privatization’ Effort as Trump Signs Executive Order Expanding Medicare Advantage Plans
“Today’s executive order is yet another giveaway to the corporations that run Medicare Advantage plans.” By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams President Donald Trump on Thursday delivered a speech bashing Medicare for All with right-wing talking points and signed an executive order aimed at steering more elderly Americans into the arms of the private insurance […]
Why the Private Health Insurance Industry Faces an Existential Crisis
A former health insurance executive says the moment the insurance industry fears most has arrived. By Wendell Potter for the Independent Media Institute I have told a lot of stories about my time near the top of the health insurance industry. This is not one I’ve ever shared, until now. Shortly before I left Cigna, […]