"Path to Prosperity?" For many senior citizens, VP pick Ryan's plan would be path to the poorhouse
Wendell Potter, Huffington Post
August 11, 2012
Ryan's budget plan would replace Medicare with a system of vouchers for seniors to buy private insurance (coincidentally, also called "Medicare"). But the vouchers will be inadequate to cover rising health insurance costs, leaving seniors with far less money.
Health law's flaws will spur drive for single-payer reform
David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, Common Dreams
July 20, 2012
The Affordable Care Act leaves 26 million still uninsured. Lacking cost controls, it will tempt Americans to purchase less adequate insurance, and medical bankruptcies will increase. Unfortunately, these problems won't be apparent until 2014.
Here's why Governor Corbett should expand Medicaid in Pennsylvania
Susan Friedberg Kalson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 20, 2012
Tens of thousands of uninsured low-income Pennsylvanians would benefit from Medicaid expansion. It would also save money, since uninsured citizens eventually create an economic burden for us all.
Five Obamacare myths
Bill Keller, New York Times
July 15, 2012
Keller argues against five false claims about the Affordable Care Act, such as the charge that it is a job killer and the argument that health care is best left to the states.
Worried about profits, insurers launch propaganda campaign to scare consumers away from important Obamacare provisions
Wendell Potter, Center for Public Integrity
July 9, 2012
Insurance companies are trying to convince young people that they are paying artificially high health insurance premiums in order to support the health care needs of older people.
The ACA and a Single-Payer System
Wendell Potter, Huffington Post
August 11, 2012
Ryan's budget plan would replace Medicare with a system of vouchers for seniors to buy private insurance (coincidentally, also called "Medicare"). But the vouchers will be inadequate to cover rising health insurance costs, leaving seniors with far less money.
Health law's flaws will spur drive for single-payer reform
David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, Common Dreams
July 20, 2012
The Affordable Care Act leaves 26 million still uninsured. Lacking cost controls, it will tempt Americans to purchase less adequate insurance, and medical bankruptcies will increase. Unfortunately, these problems won't be apparent until 2014.
Here's why Governor Corbett should expand Medicaid in Pennsylvania
Susan Friedberg Kalson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 20, 2012
Tens of thousands of uninsured low-income Pennsylvanians would benefit from Medicaid expansion. It would also save money, since uninsured citizens eventually create an economic burden for us all.
Five Obamacare myths
Bill Keller, New York Times
July 15, 2012
Keller argues against five false claims about the Affordable Care Act, such as the charge that it is a job killer and the argument that health care is best left to the states.
Worried about profits, insurers launch propaganda campaign to scare consumers away from important Obamacare provisions
Wendell Potter, Center for Public Integrity
July 9, 2012
Insurance companies are trying to convince young people that they are paying artificially high health insurance premiums in order to support the health care needs of older people.
The ACA and a Single-Payer System
J. David Gaines, M.D.
New Haven, Conn.
Regarding Daniel Henninger's "The President That Time Forgot" (Wonder Land, June 28): Although the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act, the unfortunate reality is that the law, despite its modest benefits, is not a remedy for our health-care crisis. It will not achieve universal coverage, as it leaves at least 26 million individuals uninsured. It will not make health care affordable to Americans with insurance because of high co-pays and gaps in coverage that leave patients vulnerable to financial ruin in the event of serious illness, and it will not control costs. Read More...
New Haven, Conn.
Regarding Daniel Henninger's "The President That Time Forgot" (Wonder Land, June 28): Although the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act, the unfortunate reality is that the law, despite its modest benefits, is not a remedy for our health-care crisis. It will not achieve universal coverage, as it leaves at least 26 million individuals uninsured. It will not make health care affordable to Americans with insurance because of high co-pays and gaps in coverage that leave patients vulnerable to financial ruin in the event of serious illness, and it will not control costs. Read More...
The bomb buried in Obamacare explodes today--Hallelujah!
December 2, 2011 (reprinted July 3, 2012)
A little-known provision of the Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to spend 80% or more of the premiums they collect on actual medical care. This will cut deeply into their profits.
The Republican turn against universal health insurance
Ezra Klein, Washington Post
June 30, 2012
During the Bush administration, Democrats and Republicans argued over how best to achieve the goal of universal health care, with most Republicans favoring the individual mandate. Now only the Democrats favor the goal of universal coverage.
Putting health care on the right track
Donald M. Berwick, Washington Post
June 21, 2012
Dr. Berwick argues that "Obamacare" will improve our health care system and make it sustainable by rewarding preventive medicine, stopping insurance companies abuses, and eliminating the "hidden tax" we pay for health care for the uninsured.
By the numbers: 'Medicare for all' could fund prosperous future
Gerald Friedman, Dollars and Sense
April 3, 2012
Friedman's Medicare for all proposal contains specifics about how much money single payer would save, where it would be spent, and its effects on income redistribution. Good reading.
If Obamacare is overturned, will that lead to single payer?
Ezra Klein
March 29, 2012
Klein is more pessimistic that Reich about the possibility of passing a single payer health care bill, should be Affordable Care Act be struck down.
Health care jujitsu
Robert Reich
March 26, 2012
Reich suggests that if the Supreme Court rules the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, President Obama could successfully propose single payer legislation.
Hurray for health reform
Paul Krugman, New York Times
March 19, 2012
Krugman says opponents of the Affordable Care Act are spreading disinformation about its cost and about some of its provisions.
David Cole, The Nation
March 26, 2012
If Americans are to be covered by private insurance, universal coverage is impossible without an individual mandate. Cole finds justification for the mandate in three sections of the Constitution: the necessary and proper clause, the commerce clause, and the government's power to tax.
How to cover everyone: Vermont's single payer success
Amy Gluckman, Yes! Magazine
March 7, 2012
An unusual combination of liberal politicians and indifferent corporations allowed Vermont's plan to pass. The corporations have six years to try to repeal it.
Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France
Ezra Klein, Washington Post
March 6, 2012
The answer: "The prices are higher." Doctors, hospitals, and health insurance, pharmaceutical and medical device corporations all extract higher profits in this country than elsewhere in the world.
The real cure for "Obamacare:" Medicare for all
Rose Ann DeMoro, Common Dreams
February 29, 2012
Ms. DeMoro is the Executive Director of National Nurses United, the country's largest nurses' union.
Health care myths and realities
Wendell Potter
February 27, 2012
High-deductable health insurance, a type of junk health insurance, is fine as long as you don't get sick.
How America got into birth control mess
Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC
February 8, 2012
Lawrence O'Donnell, in this video, describe how relying on employers to provide health care, rather than having a single payer system, leads to negative consequences such as the current refusal of Catholic employers to provide contraceptive services to their employees.
The battle for Vermont's health
Wendell Potter
February 6, 2012
Vermont will launch the nation's first single payer health care system in 2017. But insurance companies and employers are doing their best to sow doubts about its feasibility.
The health care racket
Ralph Nader
February 2, 2012
America spends much more on health care than other industrialized countries, but without better health outcomes. While Ralph Nader mentions several causes, he emphasizes overcharges resulting from corporate fraud.
Paying for cancer treatment for children in America with a car wash, bake sale and fish fry
Wendell Potter
January 31, 2012
Wendell Potter tells the story of a 13-year-old whose family doesn't have health insurance.
The end of health insurance companies
Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Jeffrey R. Liebman, New York Times
January 30, 2012
The New York Times' health policy specialist predicts that health insurance companies will be replaced by "accountable care organizations," in which hospitals and insurance companies merge and provide better coordinated treatment. Accountable to whom?
Free market medicine: A personal account
Michael Parenti
January 27, 2012
Political scientist Michael Parenti, a Medicare patient, describes his recent encounter with the corporate medical system.
Lots of people can't fire their insurance companies
Aaron Carroll, The Incidental Economist
January 10, 2012
Governor Mitt Romney's statement, "I like being able to fire people," was a comment about health insurance. I shows how poor his understanding of the health insurance system in this country is.
Health reform is working
Michael Morrill
January 5, 2012
Michael Morrill, Executive Director of Keystone Progress and former Green Party candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, argues that the Affordable Care has important benefits and was supported by Republicans before it was adopted by President Obama. (For a single payer perspective on the Affordable Care Act, click on "Affordable Care Act" on our home page.)
What do health insurers have to hide?
Keith Lerner
December 28, 2011
Health insurance rates have risen steeply, and so have insurance company profits. Lerner argues that insurance company financial data should be publicly available, so that it can be determined whether these rate increases are justified.
For Medicare, we must cut costs, not shift them
By Ezekial J. Emanuel, New York Times
December 19, 2011
Emanuel's main concern about the Ryan/Wyden plan to provide premium supports for Medicare is that it will not cut costs, but merely shift them from government onto senior citizens.
Who is essential? Insurers or consumers?
By Wendell Potter
December 12, 2011
Wendell Potter describes the behind-the-scenes battle over which health benefits insurance companies will be required to cover under the Affordable Care Act. Insurers are lobbying to make the coverage minimal. Consumer groups are pushing back, but don't have enough money to influence politicians. (A single payer health care system could eliminate insurance company pressure to limit medical coverage by eliminating insurance companies from the health care system.)
