Healthcare

Thousands Of UK Doctors Strike Over Lack Of Health Funding

January 13, 2016 Staff, www.america.aljazeera.com Resist! Healthcare, Strike, Unions, United Kingdom (UK)

By Staff of Aljazeera - Thousands of junior doctors walked off the job Tuesday in England in a bitter dispute over pay and working conditions — the first such strike in 40 years. About 50,000 junior doctors — those who are training and have between one and 10 years of experience — were on strike for 24 hours protesting government plans to change pay and work schedules. The strike has forced the cancellation of about 4,000 operations and outpatient procedures. The striking doctors argue patients will be put at risk by the government's policies, while the government says the National Health Service (NHS) needs more flexibility to deliver services on weekends.

Doctor’s Unionize to Avoid Outsourced Management Model

January 10, 2016 Richard Quinn, www.hospitalist.org Resist! Healthcare, Unions

By Richard Quinn for Hospitalist. A group of hospitalists in Oregon have formed what is believed to be the first hospitalist union in the country—but it may not be the last. Hospitalists at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center locations in Springfield and Eugene, Ore., voted to form the union, dubbed Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, to have more say in patient care and working conditions there. Talk of unionizing started afterhospitalists objected to a recommendation by a PeaceHealth consultantthat their group’s employment model be outsourced and run by a national management firm rather than remain hospital-owned. “We really didn’t have much of a say other than all quitting, which we didn’t want to do because we like where we work,” says hospitalist and union spokesperson David Schwartz, MD. “We started talking about unionizing.”

NY State Nurses Strike In Capital Area

January 8, 2016 Staff, www.nysna.org Resist! Healthcare, New York (NY), Nurses, Strike

By Staff of NYSNA - GLOVERSVILLE, NY – 130 RNs from the New York State Nurses Association at Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville will walk off the job for a 1-day unfair labor practice strike on Wednesday January 6th. Last June, Nathan Littauer RNs overwhelmingly voted to give their bargaining team authorization to issue a ten-day notice of a strike, if Nathan Littauer continued its unlawful conduct and if the hospital management refused to negotiate on proposals concerning patient care.

Even Insured Can Face Crushing Medical Debt

January 6, 2016 Margot Sanger-Katz, www.nytimes.com Educate! Debt, health, Healthcare, Single-Payer

By Margot Sanger-Katz for The New York Times - The number of uninsured Americans has fallen by an estimated 15 million since 2013, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act. But a new survey, the first detailed study of Americans struggling with medical bills, shows that insurance often fails as a safety net. Health plans often require hundreds or thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket payments — sums that can create a cascade of financial troubles for the many households living paycheck to paycheck. Carrie Cota learned the hard way that health insurance does not guarantee financial security.

Mumia In Court: Devastating Cross Examination

December 23, 2015 Noelle Hanrahan, www.prisonradio.org/ Resist! Healthcare, Human Rights, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison, Prisoner rights

By Noelle Hanrahan for Prison Radio. It was a day of dueling doctors, admissions, explosive documents, and first hand testimony, which debated the constitutional right to health care while in prison. The question: does Mumia Abu-Jamal receive life saving new anti viral drugs that cure Hepatitis C? or will Judge Robert Mariani's federal court allow the Department of Corrections in Pennsylvania to deny any treatment for chronic Hepatitis C - and maintain (a just revealed protocol) that calls for "denying care" and "monitoring imates" while the virus ravages the body causing irreversible organ damage. In an explosive revelation: Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center, dissected the testimony of DOC defense witness infirmary administrator, Mr. Steinhart - revealing that there is a written Hep C treatment protocol that was developed this year. Overheard in the courtroom, DOC associate defense counsel noted that they did not want this document available publically because it would increase the department's liability in the class action pending for inmate Hep C treatment.

Newsletter: Movement Mobilizes To Stop The TPP

November 22, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Climate Change, Corporatism, Environment, Farmworkers, Food and Agriculture, GMOs, Healthcare, Jobs, TPP, Trade, Trade Deal, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. Now that the TPP is public, opposition is rising as we see the TPPis actually worse than expected. In an interview with Jaisal Noor of The Real News, Margaret Flowers explains how the TPP was a victory for the corporations on issue after issue, including reducing wages and worker rights, undermining environmental protection, making healthcare more expensive, undermining Internet freedom and more. Kevin Zeese in a conversation with Chris Hedges talks about how the TPP is the greatest corporate power grab in US history and how people have to rise up to stop the race to the bottom that will affect every aspect of our lives. A few days after the text was released, we highlighted ten shocking realities of the TPP. The final text showed that critics were right about what it would contain. In fact, the TPP is a step backward on many important issues.

Stop Obama From Putting Big Pharma In Charge Of FDA

October 18, 2015 CREDO, www.credoaction.com Petitions and Online Actions Big Pharma, FDA, Healthcare

By CREDO Action - Petition to the U.S. Senate: "Oppose the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf as head of the Food and Drug Administration. At a time of rising prescription drug prices and safety risks we need a champion for American families, not an insider so closely tied to the pharmaceutical industry." Americans pay the highest prices for prescription drugs of anywhere in the world – and the cost is going up, 12% on average in the last year and in some cases nearly 1,000%. We need an FDA chief with the guts to stand up to the pharmaceutical companies. But instead, President Obama has nominated Robert Califf, a doctor described as “the ultimate industry insider.” Sen. Bernie Sanders recently made waves by announcing he would oppose Califf’s nomination, and we need to demand the rest of the Senate follow his lead.

Newsletter: Rigged Trade Negotiations Struggle

October 4, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Canada, Climate Change, Democracy, Environment, European Union (EU), Food and Agriculture, Healthcare, Jobs, Privatization, TTIP, TTP

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. For those concerned about corporate power vs. democracy; jobs, the environment, healthcare, food, water, energy, regulation of banks and more – all eyes were on Atlanta this week where 12 nations were negotiating the massive trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The Atlanta meetings come after more than five years of secret negotiations, secret to the public, media and elected representatives but not to transnational corporations. No matter how Atlanta turns out, we are winning and can finish the job. Our goal: end corporate rigged trade and force governments to re-make trade with a goal of putting people and planet first and doing so by negotiating agreements with transparency so the people can participate.

The LA Special: Peter Joseph, Matt Sedillo & Lil Haydn

August 8, 2015 Eleanor Goldfied, www.occupy.com Resistance Report Healthcare, Poetry

By Eleanor Goldfied for Occupy.com - Yep, we have one helluva all star creative activist lineup for you this week! Starting off, we’ve got Peter Joseph, creator of the Zeitgeist Trilogy talking about his new project, the movement and his artistic and technological expression. Next up, Revolutionary Poet Matt Sedillo performs his piece “Here is a Nation” then talks to us about poetry, activism and some interesting hecklers. Lili Haydn doesn’t play notes, she plays emotions. We catch a performance of hers at the Healthcare for All event in downtown LA and talk to her about finding hope in dark issues and musical activism.

The Fight Over Obamacare Was A Giant Political Charade

July 5, 2015 Sonali Kolhatkar, www.truthdig.com Educate! ACA, Health Insurance, Healthcare, Obamacare

By Sonali Kolhatkar for Truthdig. The constant attacks on the ACA, including this last attempt, were less ideological than political, and in the end, the Supreme Court ruling was an affirmation of the supremacy of capitalism over human needs. It is true that 6.4 million Americans currently receiving subsidies for insurance would have lost their coverage had the court not voted to preserve the ACA. The vote was 6-3, with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts joining swing voter Anthony Kennedy and the four liberal stalwarts (Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer). The fact that Roberts voted for it, and wrote the majority opinion, speaks volumes about what the ruling really means. According to him, “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them.” That single sentence clearly lays out the problem with what the right has sardonically named “Obamacare.” In voting to preserve the health care reform law, the court sought to “improve health insurance markets,” not access to health care.

Lessons From Vermont

January 31, 2015 A.W. Gaffney, www.jacobinmag.com Strategize! Healthcare, Vermont

Has the tide of health care justice turned — in the wrong direction? Last month, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin announced that he could no longer “responsibly support” a funding plan for his long-awaited “single-payer” plan for the state. It wasn’t long before some on the Right claimed a historic victory. “As crises of faith go,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board gloated, “this is Mikhail Gorbachev circa 1991 territory.” After all, single-payer health care, according to the Journal, is not merely “the polite term for socialized medicine,” but nothing less than “the ultimate goal of the political left.” Now, inapt historical analogies aside, it is fair to concede theJournal’s point that universal health care has long been on the left and progressive agenda, from the “[f]ree medical care, including midwifery and medicines” called for by the 1891 Erfurt Programonward.

Mississippi Wants To Punish 88 Year Old Doctor Who Treats Poor For Free

January 18, 2015 Peter Holley, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Healthcare, Mutual Aid

For the last two years, Landrum has been working without an office, but he’s happy to meet his patients wherever they are. Sometimes, the meetings occur in a home; sometimes they take place in a parking lot. Other patients meet the doctor on the side of a quiet country road — or inside his 2007 Toyota Camry. The location doesn’t matter because Landrum, a World War II veteran who has been in private practice for more than 55 years, believes it’s his duty to help anyone who calls on him. “I’ve always had a heart for the poor,” Landrum told The Washington Post this week, struggling to hold back tears. “I grew up poor, and when the doctor would come to us, and he was happy to see us, I pictured myself doing that some day. I try not to ever turn people away — money or no money – because that’s where the need is.” But his work may soon come to an end.

What Happened To Universal Healthcare In Vermont

January 11, 2015 Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., and David U. Himmelstein, M.D., www.pnhp.org Educate! Healthcare, Single payer health care, Vermont

Gov. Peter Shumlin’s Dec. 17, 2014, announcement that he would not press forward with Vermont’s Green Mountain Care (GMC) reform arose from political calculus rather than fiscal necessity. GMC had veered away from a true single payer design over the past three years, forfeiting some potential cost savings. Yet even the diluted plan on the table before Shumlin’s announcement would probably have lowered total health spending in Vermont, while covering all of the state’s uninsured. It’s a misnomer to label Vermont’s Green Mountain Care plan “single payer.” It was hemmed in by federal restrictions that precluded including 100 percent of Vermonters in one plan, and its designers further compromised on features needed to maximize administrative savings and bargaining clout with drug firms, and improve health planning. But even the watered-down plan that emerged could have covered the uninsured, improved coverage for many who currently face high out-of-pocket costs, and actually reduced total health spending in the state – albeit far less than under a true single payer plan. A true single payer plan would have made covering long-term care affordable, and allowed the elimination of all copayments and deductibles. Vermont’s experience holds important lessons for single payer advocates.

Newsletter: Breaking The Spell Of The Corporate State

January 10, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Climate Change, Climate Justice, Democracy, Extreme Energy, Healthcare, Internet, KXL pipeline, Living Wage, Minimum Wage, Net Neutrality, Racism, TPP, Trade, Vermont, Zapatistas

The democracy crisis grows deeper. Analysis of the mid-term elections shows voting levels lower than the era of Andrew Jackson, when the requirement of owning property to vote was removed. People are rejecting both political parties as 42% of Americans are registered independents compared to 30% Democrats and 25% Republicans. Nozomi Hayase writes people are breaking the spell of the corporate state, recognizing the elites who govern are not smarter than the rest of us, that they fit the characteristics of psychopaths for their endless war, debt-ponzi schemes and that the ongoing financial crisis exposes their agenda of hoarding wealth for themselves. At the same time Hayase writes: “Civil disobedience against the corporate state demands that we disobey their commands and instead begin listening to our hearts that know what is right and wrong.”

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