Skip to content

Health Care

French Parliament Moves To Tackle Medical Deserts

After years of political struggle, French parliamentarians made significant progress in tackling the country’s problem of medical deserts by backing a motion to regulate where physicians can establish their practices. Led by Socialist MP Guillaume Garot, the proposal received cross-party support – from right-wing Republicans to the left France Unbowed (La France Insoumise, LFI) – and was opposed only by part of the Macronist camp and the far-right National Rally. The motion proposes that regional health agencies be granted the authority to approve physicians – both general practitioners and specialists – wishing to set up practice in a given area.

Columbia University Medical Staff Protests Cuts In Health Care

Members of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) in New York City held a solidarity gathering on March 27 to protest proposed cuts of grants to universities and colleges in the area of health care by the Trump administration. The main demands were: “Protect our patients! Protect our research! Protect our teaching! Protect our students!” The motivation for this protest reads in part: “Several CUIMC researchers will share their stories about their terminated grants, and we hope to build a community who want to raise our voices against the assaults on higher education and especially on health research from the federal government.”

Backlash To Transgender Health Care Isn’t New

In the past century, there have been three waves of opposition to transgender health care. In 1933, when the Nazis rose to power, they cracked down on transgender medical research and clinical practice in Europe. In 1979, a research report critical of transgender medicine led to the closure of the most well-respected clinics in the United States. And since 2021, when Arkansas became the first U.S. state among now at least 21 other states banning gender-affirming care for minors, we have been living in a third wave. In my work as a scholar of transgender history, I study the long history of gender-affirming care in the U.S., which has been practiced since at least the 1940s.

How Medicaid Cuts Could Devastate Tribal Health Systems

As Congress mulls potentially massive cuts to federal Medicaid funding, health centers that serve Native American communities, such as the Oneida Community Health Center near Green Bay, Wisconsin, are bracing for catastrophe. That’s because more than 40% of the about 15,000 patients the center serves are enrolled in Medicaid. Cuts to the program would be detrimental to those patients and the facility, said Debra Danforth, the director of the Oneida Comprehensive Health Division and a citizen of the Oneida Nation. “It would be a tremendous hit,” she said.

Fighting The Trans Care Scare

Less than 48 hours after NYU ­Langone canceled gender-affirming care appointments for two trans children, over one thousand protesters, including doctors, parents, students and teachers, showed up at the Upper East Side hospital for an action organized by the Democratic Socialists of America. Five days later, several thousand people gathered in Union Square for a “Rise Up for Trans Youth” rally organized by Transformative Schools, Act Up NY and the Gender Liberation Movement.  Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter reminding health care providers of their obligation to comply with state anti-discrimination laws, “regardless of the availability of federal funding.” 

Critics Of Veterans Administration Cuts Say, ‘This Is Life And Death Stuff’

Earlier this month, Vietnam War veteran Paul Cox went to a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center in St. Louis to visit a sick friend. When he left the hospital, he encountered a woman handing out flyers in its parking lot. “VA workers are being fired,” her leaflet said. “This can hurt your care. This is an assault on the VA. Call or email your Senators and Representatives as soon as you can.” Cox, a leading Veterans for Peace (VFP) member and supporter of its Save Our VA (SOVA) committee, has distributed similar appeals on many occasions, often to support VA caregivers.

Nicaragua Ranks Highest In Gender Equity In The Americas

If you asked 100 people in the U.S. or the U.K. to name the country leading gender equity in the Americas, it’s unlikely anyone would correctly answer Nicaragua. This lack of awareness reflects the success of a decades-long imperialist campaign to discredit and undermine Nicaragua’s remarkable achievements since the 1979 revolution. The U.S has continuously attempted to destroy the Sandinista revolution, from the contra wars, through active support for the 16 years of neo-liberal government, to the 2018 attempted coup, and the current punitive economic sanctions.

Ms. Farmer’s Law Protects Trans Women

On his first day in office, President Trump 2.0 signed Executive Order 14168: “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” EO 14168 sets in motion an attack on trans people throughout the country — then, using trans people as a springboard, an attack on incarcerated people as a whole. Within weeks of Inauguration Day, Trump’s Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) announced plans for implementing EO 14168. FBOP officials told the less-than-two-dozen trans women housed in women’s facilities that they would be summarily transferred to men’s prisons.

Call To Action May 31, 2025: Demand Health Not Profit!

Following the shooting in December of United Health Care CEO, Brian Thompson, the response from Americans was not your typical “sending thoughts and prayers.” The rage, frustration, and disgust directed at the “victim” surprised many. Quickly enough, it became clear why people were responding with anger and not condolences. Many recognized that the victims included people who have been wronged by a cruel, expensive, failed broken health care system. Brian Thompson symbolized an ugly, rapacious industry. It was hard to mourn its death.

Unionizing United Healthcare

There were 122 National Labor Relations Board representation elections run in February 2025, and ten involved units of 250 or more eligible voters. Those ten elections, however, involved 74 percent of all eligible voters that month. The highest-profile election was the loss at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Garner, North Carolina, which my colleague Jonathan Rosenblum covers well here. Jonathan and I offer some more in-depth thoughts on what recent news in the world of Amazon organizing means in a recent article in these pages, but in brief: it’s going to be very difficult to make much headway with this company with traditional site-by-site organizing methods.

Caribbean Leaders Oppose US Policy Targeting Cuban Medical Missions

Caribbean leaders are pushing back against a new U.S. policy that aims to crack down on Cuban medical missions, saying that the work of hundreds of Cuban medical staff across the region is essential. Hugh Todd, Guyana’s foreign minister, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that foreign ministers from a 15-member Caribbean trade bloc known as Caricom recently met with U.S. Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone in Washington, D.C. after the U.S. threatened to restrict the visas of those involved with Cuban missions, which U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called “forced labor.”

Fabricated Panic Over Antisemitism In The US Medical Community

In 2024, I was disinvited from presenting a lecture on the health and human rights consequences of the Israeli assault on Gaza, by unnamed administrators at Harvard University, who (I was told) accused me of being an antisemite. At Geisel, the medical school affiliated with Dartmouth, I was also invited and then met with an “indefinite postponement” for a similar presentation. It is clear these have not been isolated events. Two recent pieces provide an illustration of the current ideological battle taking place with in the U.S. healthcare community.

Lessons On Trans Liberation From The US South

In a recent exchange between President Donald Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills, she publicly declined to comply with Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletic participation. The governor’s act of defiance made headlines as electeds, advocates and organizers grapple with how they might respond to the president’s anti-trans agenda. This practice of defiance and dedication to trans lives is nothing new to reformers in the U.S. South who have a message to national organizers: the fight may look different but the endgame remains the same. We have to protect our trans neighbors fearlessly and without exception.

Who’s Fighting Back (And Not) Against Cuts in Veteran’s Administration

Among the Republican voters experiencing buyer’s remorse are more than a few military veterans who chose Trump over Harris by a margin of 65 to 34%, according to some exit polls. Their shock and dismay surfaced in DC this month during the legislative conference of the reliably conservative and hawkish Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), which has 1.4 million members. In the run-up to that annual event, VFW national commander Al Lipphardt, urged his members to “march forth” and “engage with lawmakers” to “stop the bleeding” at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

People vs Profits: China And US Health Care Systems Compared

China's health care system has recently come to public consciousness in the US with “TikTok Refugees” on Red Note comparing healthcare in the two countries. In today's China report, we will explore health care under China's health system and contrast it with that of the US's privatized system. Our understanding of China — and U.S.-China relations — has become a defining feature of all global politics. The China Report is a new show produced in collaboration with Pivot to Peace where every week, journalist Amanda Yee and political analyst KJ Noh will be helping you through all the propaganda with an independent view of the country we are taught to hate, but know so little about.
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.