Medicare for all

Can Now Really Be The Best Time To Be Alive?

December 29, 2019 George Lakey and Yotam Marom, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Activism, Climate Change, Medicare for all, wealth inequality

Whenever I muster the courage to stop and think about it, I feel pretty unlucky to be alive at this time. I wake up with the sense that we might have a chance to overcome the many political, economic and social crises we’re facing. But climate change makes the stakes completely existential, and puts a time limit on what we can do about it. I live with a quiet dread, a constant sadness at the loss people around the world are already facing, a nagging fear of what’s to come and a sort of ashamed hopelessness about what we can do to stop it. I don’t think I’m alone in that. It seems that other folks in my peer group, people in our 30s, feel similarly. Younger generations — kids in high school now — are reportedly showing deeper signs of depression.

‘All I Want For Christmas Is A Chance To Live’

December 24, 2019 The Backbone Campaign, Popular Resistance. Create! Corporatism, Health Insurance, Healthcare, Medicare for all

CareFirst has denied cancer patient and Annapolis resident Phil Ateto access to life saving drugs. The Chicago-based medical insurance company is superseding the wishes of Phil’s oncology team. To expose that CareFirst’s choice to put profits first is condemning him to die. On Monday night December 23rd, Phil Ateto went to their Baltimore office to shine a spotlight on their greed and urge them to reverse their “death panel” decision. Phil is a renown artful activist with a group called Backbone Campaign that uses creative means such as light projection to support progressive causes around the country. Phil has tirelessly fought for economic and environmental justice, opposed racism and endless wars that squander lives and resources, and he’s long advocated for universal human rights.

Insurance Companies Are Spending Millions On Attack Ads Against Medicare For All

December 7, 2019 By Alan Macleod, Mintpressnews.com Educate! Health Care, Insurance, Medicare for all, Reform

The privatized, for-profit healthcare industry is close to panicking over the prospect of a nationalized system along the lines of other advanced countries. Healthcare corporations are spending millions of dollars on astroturfed attack ads against Medicare for All. The Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future, for example, a coalition of hospitals and insurance companies, has spent $1 million on a television campaign against changes to the current healthcare system they profit from.

Dying Too Young

December 5, 2019 David F. Ruccio, Anticap.wordpress.com Educate! Health Care, Medicare for all, Reform

If there ever was an argument in support of Medicare for All it’s this: despite spending more on health care than any other country, the United States has seen increasing mortality and falling life expectancy for people ages 25 to 64, who should be in the prime of their lives. A new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association paints a bleak picture: overall life expectancy in the United States, which had increased for most of the past 60 years, has actually fallen for three consecutive years. But this is not just a recent trend. U.S. life expectancy began to lose pace with other countries in the 1980s, and...

Southern Workers Unite Around Medicare For All

November 24, 2019 Jonathan Michels, In These Times. Create! Black Working Class, Health Care, Medicare for all, Workers

Charlotte, N.C.—A line of cars rolls up to the government center of the largest city in a state tied with neighbor South Carolina for least unionized in the country. Members of the Southern Workers Assembly (SWA) emerge from the cars and join a picket line of Charlotte city workers. They hoist a banner declaring “The City Works Because We Do” and chant “What do we want? Medicare for All! When do we want it? Now!” SWA is a coalition of worker committees and labor unions, including National Nurses United (NNU), the International Longshoremen’s Association, and United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. Members from across the South converged September 21 to kick off a campaign for the immediate passage of Medicare for All, known in the House as H.R. 1384.

CBO Health Panel Packed With Experts Tied To Anti-Medicare For All Groups

October 27, 2019 Donald Shaw, Sludge. Educate! Congress, Medical Industrial Complex, Medicare for all

One of the key steps in the federal legislative process occurs when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), an agency in the legislative branch that studies the budgetary and economic impacts of proposed laws, scores a bill. The scores can provide ammunition for advocates on either side of an issue—if the CBO’s cost estimate comes back lower than expected, for example, it can be a boon for a bill’s supporters, while a higher-than-expected score can be a major asset for opponents. The CBO is supposed to be independent and nonpartisan so it can be neutral on the merits of policies and focus exclusively on the numbers. But on the issue of health care, the agency solicits input from individuals with financial ties to companies and groups fighting to stop the left’s most prominent health care proposal.

A Biased Algorithm Is Delaying Health Care For Black People

October 27, 2019 Jessica Hamzelou, New Scientist. Educate! health, Health Care, Medicare for all, Racism

United States - Black people in the US may be missing out on healthcare because a widely used algorithm is racially biased. The proportion of black people referred for extra care would more than double if the bias were removed, according to new research. Algorithms are fast becoming a key part of healthcare. Such technologies are used to screen somewhere between 100 and 200 million people in the US, says Ziad Obermeyer at the University of California, Berkeley. One example is an algorithm that is used to predict the future health of individuals based on their past health records. Once the algorithm is fed data about a person’s diagnoses, prescriptions and procedures, it spits out a number that predicts the cost of the person’s future healthcare.

New Poll Finds Voters Strongly Oppose Employer Insurance

October 27, 2019 Matt Bruenig, Peoples Policy Project. Educate! Health Care, Health Insurance, Medicare for all

Many centrist pundits have convinced themselves that Medicare for All (M4A) is unpopular because, when you include certain details about M4A in polling questions, support levels drop significantly. But in convincing themselves of this, centrist pundits seem remarkably incurious about whether this same thing occurs for employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) when you include certain details about it in polling questions. Earlier this week, Emerson Polling helped answer this question when it asked voters whether they support employers being allowed to change or eliminate an employee’s health insurance against the employee’s wishes. Only 11 percent of voters said they supported this while 70 percent opposed it.

How The Mainstream Media Tries To Convince You That Medicare For All Is Impossible

October 19, 2019 Celisa Calacal, Independent Media Institute, Economy for All Educate! Health Care, Media, Medicare for all, Propaganda, Reform

Despite numerous polls showing a majority of the public supports a Medicare for All, single-payer health care system, reports from mainstream media paint a different picture. In a New York Times election piece from February on the Democratic candidates’ stances on health care, Alexander Burns explains that Medicare for All “would require so much public funding and would force many people who like their existing health insurance to change plans.” Another New York Times article by Margot Sanger-Katz claims that Medicare for All “would do away with all private health insurance.”

Despite Obstruction By Capitol Police, Progressive Groups Deliver 2.2 Million Petitions To Democrats Still Not Backing Medicare For All

October 17, 2019 By Jake Johnson, Commondreams.org Create! Health Care, Medicare for all, Reform

A diverse coalition of progressive advocacy groups on Tuesday delivered 2.2 million petition signatures to House Democrats demanding that they use their majority to pass Rep. Pramila Jayapal's gold-standard Medicare for All bill. The petition delivery hit a brief snag when members of the coalition—representing nurses, physicians, and consumers across the U.S.—were stopped by a Capitol police officer who said the public is not allowed to "deliver" items to members of Congress. "Does that mean that lobbyists can no longer provide any materials to offices, too?" asked activist Maria Langholz.

The Plot Against Medicare For All

October 11, 2019 By LibWatson, Newrepublic.com Educate! Health Care, Medicare for all, Reform

Last week, at a huge and frightening retirement community in Florida known as The Villages, Donald Trump promised to protect seniors from two of the most menacing monsters lurking under their beds: Immigrants and socialism. You would think it might get boring, blaming everything on foreigners and commies, but its political utility is tried and true. Signing an executive order—which did not mention immigrants at all—before the assembled, Trump promised that he “will never allow these politicians to steal your health care and give it away to illegal aliens.”

Healthcare Reformer Wendell Potter: ‘The System Is Unraveling’

October 7, 2019 Michael Winship, Intrepidreport.com Educate! Health Care, Medicare for all, Reform

With the word “whistleblower” spinning through news cycle after news cycle these last few days, every headline about Trump, Giuliani and Ukraine is a powerful reminder that the whistleblower is a proud tradition in the United States, one that merits our support and protection. Throughout our history, women and men with courage, indignation and integrity have stepped forward to whistleblow and put an end to wrongdoing even if they themselves have heretofore been part of the problem. One of these is healthcare reform advocate Wendell Potter.

Medicare For All Would Cut Poverty By Over 20 Percent

September 14, 2019 Matt Bruenig, People's Policy Project. Educate! Health Care, Medicare for all, New Economy, Poverty, Single-Payer

The Census released its annual income, poverty, and health insurance statistics earlier this week. The summary report shows that 8 million of the nation’s 42.5 million poor people would not be poor if they did not have to pay medical out-of-pocket (MOOP) expenses like deductibles, copays, coinsurance, and self-payments. Medicare for All (M4A) virtually eliminates these kinds of payments, meaning that these 8 million people (18.8 percent of all poor people) would find themselves lifted over the poverty threshold if M4A were enacted. This headcount poverty measure actually understates how significant MOOP expenses are to poverty in this country. According to this same data, in 2018, the total poverty gap stood at $175.8 billion.

Majority Of House Democrats Have Signed On To Medicare For All

August 4, 2019 Jake Johnson, Commondreams. Educate! Congress, Medicare for all, presidential elections

"As the debates continue, I hope that my fellow Democrats will take a good look at our bill and get the facts right," wrote Jayapal. "The Medicare for All movement has overwhelming public support, unprecedented grassroots organization, and a serious plan that is ready to change our healthcare system right now." As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, Jayapal expressed her frustration with fellow Democrats who she said are using the Medicare for All label, which has widespread appeal, to push plans that fall far short of the fundamental goals and principles of Medicare for All. Though she didn't mention Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) by name, Jayapal's criticism appeared to be directed at the California Democrat's healthcare plan, which would preserve a significant role for private insurance. "For-profit industry does not have a role in determining one's right to healthcare," Jayapal tweeted. "Anything less is not Medicare for All." In her Washington Post op-ed, Jayapal also took aim at other half-measures "such as a public option," which "might sound appealing but would still leave more than 10 million people without coverage while keeping in place a costly private-insurance middleman that eats up 25 to 30 percent in administrative waste and profits." "If we want to achieve true universal healthcare while containing costs," Jayapal wrote, "Medicare for All is the only answer."

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources