Health Care

This Little-Known Appeal Could Force Insurers To Pay For Lifesaving Care

October 8, 2025 Duaa Eldeib, ProPublica. Resist! health, Health Care, Insurance, Insurance Companies

When a health insurance company refuses to pay for treatment, most people begrudgingly accept the decision. Few patients appeal; some don’t trust the insurer to reverse its own decision. But a little-known process that requires insurers and plans to seek an independent opinion outside their walls can force insurers to pay for what can be lifesaving treatment. External reviews are one of the industry’s best-kept secrets, and only a tiny fraction of those eligible actually use them. ProPublica recently reported the story of a North Carolina couple, Teressa Sutton-Schulman and her husband, who we identified in the story by his middle initial, L, to protect his privacy.

Healthcare Takes Center Stage In Shutdown

October 5, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Educate! Democrats, Government Shutdown, Health Care, Medicaid

The US government shut down at midnight on October 1 after Congress failed to approve new spending bills, forcing federal agencies nationwide to halt or scale back operations. At the heart of the shutdown is a standoff between Republican and Democratic Party politicians over healthcare. Over the summer, Republican lawmakers passed Donald Trump’s sweeping “Big Beautiful Bill” that makes deep cuts to public healthcare. Democrats argue that the Republican budget plan would weaken programs like Medicaid, the nation’s largest public health insurance program which covers over 70 million people. Democratic Party lawmakers demanded that protections for these programs be locked into a short-term spending bill, and when Republicans failed to deliver, lawmakers were unable to pass a funding bill to avoid a shutdown.

Journalists And Healthcare Workers Sail To Challenge Israel’s Siege

October 3, 2025 Freedom Flotilla and Ikram Kouachi, Anadolu Agency. Resist! Gaza, Genocide, Health Care, Israel, Media, Palestine

A boat carrying dozens of international journalists and medical professionals from 25 countries has set sail for Gaza as part of the latest mission organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) to break Israel‘s illegal siege. The vessel, Conscience, bombed by Israel off the coast of Malta in May 2025, has returned to serve as a vehicle for medics and media determined to reach their colleagues in besieged Gaza. For nearly two years, Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza, creating one of the most severe and sustained press blackouts in modern history. During this time, Israeli forces have targeted Palestinian journalists, killing over 270 and imprisoning countless more since October 2023.

Federal Workers Support Shutdown Fight

October 2, 2025 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. Resist! Congress, Federal Workers, Government Shutdown, Health Care, Trump Administration

A coalition of unions in the federal sector signed on to an extraordinary Federal Unionists Network letter September 29 urging the Democrats to fight Trump administration cuts, even at the price of a government shutdown. It was titled “No Bad Budget in Our Name,” and signers represent tens of thousands of federal workers. Now that the shutdown has started, FUN is organizing a response among federal unionists, stating: “This is much more than a fight between branches of government or political parties. This government shutdown is a showdown between the public and the billionaires.” “[They’re] using a shutdown as a threat to pressure Congress to pass a budget that impacts our most vulnerable, including seniors, rural communities, hungry children and cuts out access to healthcare for millions of Americans,” said FUN Co-Executive Director Alyssa Taft.

Labor Signs On To Save Medicare

September 30, 2025 Rose Roach, Labor Notes. Strategize! Health Care, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Worker Rights and Jobs

In 1965, President Johnson signed Medicare into law, establishing the right to quality healthcare for millions of retired Americans. The labor movement was essential in passing this landmark legislation. It took decades of organizing—with labor working side by side with the Civil Rights and other social movements—to win one of the most robust public health programs in U.S. history. Now, Medicare is under attack: Profiteering corporations are promoting Medicare Advantage plans as an alternative to Medicare. But Medicare Advantage is not Medicare, it is a privatization scheme that funnels tax dollars through insurance companies to move enrollees into private insurance plans, undermining Medicare.

Over A Billion People In The World Suffer From Mental Health Ailments

September 26, 2025 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! domestic violence, Health Care, mental health, Poverty

I first heard the word ‘depression’ when I was about sixteen. My mother took me to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru, India, to be seen by a professional for what I had just considered to be nightmares and difficult afternoons. I was lucky. Today, only 9% of people in the world receive treatment for depression. The doctor spoke to me for a long time, and I spent several days at NIMHANS being treated by this and other doctors. It was clear to me that my problems largely stemmed from a traumatic incident that took place a few years earlier, when I was raped in my school. My parents held me through the process, giving me the courage to get through the aftermath and shielding me from what they thought would be the absolute humiliation of a public display of the violence.

About The Lincoln Declaration

September 26, 2025 Suzanne Gordon, Substack. Resist! Federal Workers, Health Care, Veterans, Veterans Administration

Early on the morning of Wednesday September 25th, a group of courageous physicians and other healthcare workers who have devoted their careers to the care of the nation’s veterans sent a letter of concern and protest to the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the VA’s Inspector General and key members of Congress like those who serve on the Senate and House Committees for Veterans Affairs. The letter, which was signed by over 170 VA staff – some who put their names down and some who signed anonymously – was titled “The Lincoln Declaration: a Letter of Concern about the Future of Veterans’ Healthcare.” It’s title was taken– as is the VA’s mission –from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address when, towards the end of the Civil War he promised that the nation would “care for those who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.”

The False Promises Of VA Privatization

September 25, 2025 Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early, Barn Raiser. Educate! Health Care, Privatization, Rural, Veterans Administration

James Jones is a 54-year-old disabled Army veteran. After four years of active duty—some of it in the Gulf War—and four years in the reserves, Jones says he has a “multitude” of health care problems. Ask him to list his health care needs and he sighs and reels off a long list. “Oh my, I have a multitude of stuff. There’s PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], a right arm injury, my right shoulder, chronic rhinitis from toxic exposure during the Gulf War, dental. It all adds up,” he says, laughing, “to a 100% disability rating in VA math.” That’s why he depends on the services provided by the health care system—the nation’s largest—run by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Jones is also one of the hundreds of thousands of disabled veterans who work for the federal government, in his case the National Park Service. Plus, he’s one of the 25% of vets who live in a rural area like Wakauga County, North Carolina.

For-Profit Corporations Are Buying Up More Psychiatric Hospitals

September 25, 2025 Eli Cahan, Pro Publica. Educate! Capitalism, Health Care, mental health, Privatization

As the share of U.S. adults receiving mental health care treatment steadily grows, for-profit companies are playing an increasingly important role. More than 40% of inpatient mental health beds were operated by for-profit entities as of 2021, according to unpublished data from Morgan Shields, an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis who studies quality in behavioral health care. That’s up from about 13% in 2010. (The number of mental health beds held relatively constant during that time.) Experts tie this growth to provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which made mental health care an essential health benefit that all insurance plans are required to cover.

Ten States Challenge CDC, Issue Own Vaccine Guidelines

September 23, 2025 Jesus Mesa, Gabe Whisnant, and Caroline Lewis, Portside. Resist! CDC, Health Care, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vaccines

Four Democratic-led Western states on Wednesday issued their own guidelines for seasonal vaccines, a direct rebuke of federal health policies under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The West Coast Health Alliance — made up of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii — recommended flu shots for everyone 6 months and older, broad use of COVID-19 vaccines and targeted R.S.V. vaccinations for infants, older adults and those at higher risk. The recommendations closely track guidance from major medical groups but depart from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which, under Kennedy, has scaled back COVID vaccine advice for pregnant women and young children. State health officials said their goal is to protect residents and reduce hospital strain this winter.

All Eyes On Gaza! All Hands On Deck!

September 18, 2025 Gerry Condon, Popular Resistance. Resist! Detention, Health Care, ICE, Veterans for Peace

The activist organization Veterans For Peace, with chapters in over 100 U.S. cities and several international chapters, is calling for urgent action to end the US/Israeli genocide in Gaza, to defend the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, and to free a disabled veteran kidnapped by ICE. Israel’s deliberate and systematic genocide in Gaza continues is taking a critical turn to even greater death and destruction, with Israel’s full onslaught of Gaza City and the displacement (again) of millions. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been martyred. Children are starving to death while the whole world watches in horror. Why won’t the United Nations or the countries of the world put a stop to the daily bombing and cruel starvation?

Doctors May Have To Strike If Kennedy Doesn’t Resign

September 15, 2025 Richard L. Kravitz, STAT. Strategize! CDC, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Doctors, Health Care, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Strikes

On behalf of the misleadingly named Make America Healthy Again movement, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched an undisciplined assault on biomedical science and public health: defunding research at the National Institutes of Health, canceling mRNA vaccine studies, purging dedicated government scientists, gutting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and potentially the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and trying to force millions off Medicaid. Kennedy’s recent actions have, in less than a year, substantially degraded the nation’s health security. The brouhaha between Kennedy and (now former) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez is just the latest scene in this unfolding horror flick.

Chicago Hospital’s Closure: A Canary In The Coal Mine For Corporatized Health

September 10, 2025 Anna Romina Guevarra and Gayatri Reddy, Truthout. Educate! Chicago, Corporatism, Health Care, Hospital closures

Predictably, Weiss Memorial Hospital, which has served the diverse and vulnerable populations of the northside Chicago neighborhood of Uptown for decades, closed its doors on August 8, 2025. Weiss Memorial Hospital was the first (and only) community safety-net hospital (a hospital whose stated mission is to serve low-income communities) in this neighborhood. The hospital closed despite impassioned pleas by several residents such as Phong Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee and war veteran who has lived in Uptown and used Weiss Memorial for 50 years. As he told WBEZ, “I am over 80 years old this year. Not just my generation, but generations following myself still rely on this hospital for critical services; [Weiss is] a hospital that allows us to stay in the area and maintain the quality of life that we deserve.”

Medicare Pilot Hands Denials To Private Algorithms

August 31, 2025 Alexis Sterling, Nation of Change. Educate! Artificial Intelligence, Health Care, Medicare, Trump Administration, Worker Rights and Jobs

The Trump administration is launching a pilot program in six states that will allow artificial intelligence to help decide whether elderly Americans can receive certain medical procedures under traditional Medicare. The move has been likened by critics to the creation of “AI death panels,” with experts and advocates warning it risks importing the most unpopular practices of private insurance into the federal health program. The pilot, officially named the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model, is scheduled to begin in January and last six years. It will run in Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington. Under the program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will hire private companies to use A.I. tools to make “prior authorization” decisions—determinations about whether Medicare will pay for particular procedures.

How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies

August 21, 2025 Brandon Roberts, Annie Waldman and Pratheek Rebala, Scheer Post. Educate! Austerity, Health Care, Public Health, Regulations, Trump Administration

When the Trump administration announced massive cuts to federal health agencies earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was getting rid of excess administrators who were larding the government with bureaucratic bloat. But a groundbreaking data analysis by ProPublica shows the administration has cut deeper than it has acknowledged. Though Kennedy said he would add scientists to the workforce, agencies have lost thousands of them, along with colleagues who those scientists depended on to dispatch checks, fix computers and order lab supplies, enabling them to do their jobs. Done in the name of government efficiency, these reductions have left departments stretching to perform their basic functions, ProPublica found, according to interviews with more than three dozen former and current federal employees.

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