Tag: private insurance

Medicare for All might raise taxes but still save individuals money

By Tami Luhby for CNN The cost of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” national health insurance plan prompted a heated argument between the senator and former Vice President Joe Biden, who supports building on the Affordable Care Act, at Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate. Biden hammered Sanders, saying America can’t afford the roughly $30 trillion […]

Leo Gerard, Single Payer, Highmark and the Corporatist Labor Movement

By Staff Writer for Corporate Crime Reporter If you want to know why the single payer movement is having trouble breaking through in the United States, look no further than Leo Gerard. From 2001 to earlier this year, Gerard was the president of the United Steelworkers of America. Then earlier this month, just a few […]

Public option plans won’t fix American healthcare system

By Daniel Bryant for Bangor Daily News Public option health plans have been much in the news of late. Defined as health care coverage plans offered to individuals by the government and paid for by premiums and tax-funded government subsidies and credits, they are designed as alternatives to single-payer plans, which would replace our present […]

The Dialysis Duopoly Spends Big to Protect Profits in California

A scam to get patients to switch from Medicare to private insurance for dialysis care is being threatened by a bill in the Golden State. DaVita and Fresenius, the dialysis giants, have placed enormous funds into opposing it. By Alexander Sammon for The American Prospect Two companies dominate the American outpatient kidney dialysis market: Denver-based […]

Asheville mayor set to back ‘Medicare for All Act’ proclamation

By Joel Burgess for Citizen Times At the request of a City Council member, Mayor Esther Manheimer is set to sign a “Medicare for All” proclamation supporting a national health insurance system. The proclamation planned for an Aug. 27 council meeting highlights the proposal championed by senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to establish a government-run insurance system […]

Two med students make case for single-payer health care

By Scott Swartz and Bradley Heinz for San Francisco Chronicle The most difficult part of our first year of medical school wasn’t memorizing anatomy or mastering the patient interview, but seeing firsthand how broken our current health care system is. We pay twice as much as other wealthy nations for health care, but receive some […]

Medicare for all: fears and facts

By Drs. James G. Kahn and Elliot Marseille for The Hill Each candidate has their own way to fix what ails health insurance. Everyone claimed “Medicare” at the heart of their strategy. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) urged sweeping reform, while former Vice President Joe Biden and others advocated tinkering at […]

Health insurance companies are useless. Get rid of them

By Michael Hiltzik for Los Angeles Times The most perplexing aspect of our current debate over healthcare and health coverage is the notion that Americans love their health insurance companies. This bizarre idea surfaced most recently in the hand-wringing over proposals to do away with private coverage advocated by some of the candidates for the […]