A better way – single payer, universal health care

By Jeff Hardwig, M.D. for International Falls Journal When I started my medical training 37 years ago, my only focus was on becoming a competent physician. There was little thought given to the systems of care that support the practice of medicine. My first job after residency was as a Navy psychiatrist where all patients […]
Before Big Pharma Kills Us, Maybe Public Pharma Can Save Us

Drug companies are abandoning antibiotic research to make more money elsewhere. Yet another reason why we need a publicly owned company. By Dana Brown for The American Prospect Drug-resistant “superbugs” are predicted to kill more people per year than cancer by 2050. Already, more than two million Americans annually are infected with bacteria that have evolved to […]
Breast cancer survivors have a bigger problem after treatment: The cost

By Ann Pietrangelo for Healthline Breast cancer treatment is saving lives. But its extreme expense is also causing a different kind of hardship for many survivors, saddling them with lifelong financial burden. A new study finds that many physicians believe they’re adequately addressing patients’ financial concerns before treatment. However, many patients say doctors need […]
The time for single-payer system is now

By Chuck Pezeshki for the Moscow-Pullman Daily News I read in the Daily News (“Old Peking owner retired, but grateful,” Sept. 1) with a fair amount of chagrin about the closing of the Old Peking Restaurant in Moscow. The owner, Vinh “Sam” Huy Tran, is being forced by health reasons to close his operation of […]
Your Turn: A cost-effective alternative for U.S. healthcare

By Ken Lefkowitz for Courier Post If someone paid $1,000 for a service they could purchase elsewhere for $512, you’d think they were quite foolish. Yet, that’s the situation facing healthcare in America today. Our current system for financing healthcare has been ineffective in controlling costs or providing the highest-level quality care. In 2016, the […]
Businesses back single-payer plan

By Ron Green in the Albany Democrat-Herald Many years ago I started and ran a bicycle store, building it over 10 years to seven or eight employees. For the first year or so, my one worker was, like me, a disabled veteran with health care through the VA. I could tell insurance salesmen that our […]