Trump’s Under-the-Radar Push to Dismantle Veterans Health Care
New legislation threatens to dismantle the most successful American experiment in government-delivered health care. By Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven for The American Prospect Last June, President Trump signed the VA Mission Act, commonly considered the biggest overhaul of veterans’ health care in a generation. Mission was designed to replace the hastily enacted Veterans Choice […]
Insurance companies are supposed to be heartless. That’s why we need single-payer
Letters to the Editor in the Los Angeles Times To the editor: Michael Kinsley is arguably correct when he writes regarding the denial of coverage for people with preexisting conditions: “The insurance companies are not behaving like heartless monsters. They are behaving like insurance companies.” Well, they may or may not be monsters, but insurance […]
Group backing private Medicare is funded by insurance giants
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Richard Lardner for Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A group gaining influence in Washington as a champion for Medicare beneficiaries is bankrolled by major health insurance companies that are trying to cash in on private coverage offered through the federal health insurance program. The Better Medicare Alliance claims a far-flung network […]
Big Pharma shells out $20B each year to schmooze docs, $6B on drug ads
Persuading doctors and direct-to-consumer ads land 1-2 punch for knockout sales. By Beth Mole for Ars Technica Talk with your doctor… It’s a common refrain at the end of any drug advertisement or disease awareness campaign. Ostensibly, it seems like a responsible suggestion. Talking with your own trusted doctor can help determine if a new […]
VA to shift billions of dollars to private care for veterans
By Jennifer Steinhauer and Dave Philipps for The New York Times, republished on Rise Up Times WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to shift billions of dollars from government-run veterans’ hospitals to private health care providers, setting the stage for the biggest transformation of the veterans’ medical system in a generation. Under […]
Memorial Sloan Kettering Curbs Executives’ Ties to Industry After Conflict-of-Interest Scandals
The cancer center will now bar top officials from sitting on outside boards of for-profit companies, and is conducting a wide-scale review of other policies. By Katie Thomas and Charles Ornstein for ProPublica This article was reported and written in collaboration with The New York Times. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the world’s […]
6 Reasons Why a Medicare Buy-In Won’t Benefit Young People
By Brittany Shannahan for Healthcare is a Human Right Maryland What is the buy-in? The Medicare buy-in is one of many “moderate” alternatives to Medicare for All proposed by centrist House Democrats that offer no solutions for millennials. Led by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY), the legislation would allow people between the ages of 50 and […]
House Democrats plan to hold hearings on Medicare for All
By David Weigel for Washington Post The new Democratic majority in the House will hold the first hearings on Medicare-for-All legislation, a longtime goal of the party’s left, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi lent her support for the process. “It’s a huge step forward to have the speaker’s support,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who will […]
Should Institutional Providers Be Incentivized by Profit under Medicare for All?
By Lambert Strether for Naked Capitalism I’ve avoided writing about hospitals and other institutions, because my focus has always been on the patient, and whether they get, or don’t get, health care under our horrid mixed system of Medicaid, private insurance, and Medicare (subject to a neoliberal infestation though it may be). However, as Medicare […]
CBO Will Score All Health Reform Plans as Nationalization
By Jon Walker for People’s Policy Project Opponents of Medicare for All say that the cost will scare people away, but the truth is that, because of the way the CBO scores health care policy, any significant effort to reform health care in a progressive way is going to suffer from the exact same “big […]