Medicare

Newsletter: After The Crash…

January 9, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, Banks, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Capitalism, carbon free nuclear free, Climate Change, Community Banks, Credit Unions, Debt, Debt-Free Money, Democracy, Economic Democracy, Education, Eric Holder, Federal Reserve, Finance and the Economy, Foreclosures, Guaranteed basic income, Income, Income inequality, Infrastructure, Living Wage, Medicare, Medicare for all, Minimum Wage, Occupy Movement, Plutocracy, Poverty, Public Banking, Student Debt, TPP, Tuition, Unemployment

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The economic agenda described here would create a radical transformation of the economy from a top-down system designed for the wealthiest, to a botton-up system that creates a foundation for an economy that benefits all. Putting in place this economy would move us from a plutocratic economy to a democratized economy where people have economic control over their lives. It is a radical shift – how can it happen? There is only one path – the people must be educated, organized and mobilized to demand it. We need to change the political culture to one where the necessities of the people and protection of the planet are the priorities of the economy. If predictions are correct, the next economic collapse will deeper and more damaging than the 2008 collapse. It will be a tremendous opportunity to demand radical economic change. It is one the movement for economic, racial and environmental justice should be preparing for now.

Fasting, Fracking, Medicare, Money In Politics & The Pope

October 1, 2015 Eleanor Goldfield, www.occupy.com Educate! Fracking, Medicare, Pope, Youth

By Eleanor Goldfield for Occupy - This week, from med students to female priests, fasters to the monopoly man, we've got a helluva lineup. First up, let's talk Medicare and why it shouldn't be so ageist. Next, how could we not mention the Pope? And since I'm such a contrarian, let's talk about the good AND the bad. Then, we've got a fracking low life scum award, money in politics and get ready to get cozy and design some graphics! But first, this is plastic. I bleed.

Future Doctors Rising Up For ‘Medicare For All’

September 26, 2015 Vanessa Van Doren, www.commondreams.org Resist! Medicare, Medicine, Public Health

By Vanessa Van Doren in Common Dreams - For most of us in medicine, helping people live healthy, happy lives is at the heart of why we chose this career. We expound upon this in application essays, talk about it during interviews, and start medical school with this “calling” fresh in our minds. Very early in our medical careers – on the wards and in the classroom – we learn that inequality, preventable illness, and death are an inherent part of our current private, for-profit-oriented health insurance system. We see patients receive preventable amputations due to untreated diabetes. We see people permanently disabled by stroke because they were unable to afford their medications. College funds emptied out to pay for $100,000-a-year cancer treatments. Families bankrupted and lives destroyed. We learn that, although the United States is one of the wealthiest countries on earth, we are also the only developed nation that does not provide health care to all of its citizens.

Medicare Diverting Money From Safety Net Hospitals To The Affluent

September 8, 2015 Physicians for a National Health Program, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Medicare, Public Health

By Physicians for a National Health Program - Medicare’s pay-for-performance incentives, which financially reward or punish hospitals depending on whether they hit specific numerical targets in matters such as curbing inpatient readmissions, are having the unintended side effect of taking dollars away from the nation’s historically cash-strapped safety-net hospitals and boosting the revenue of wealthier hospitals that serve an economically better-off patient base. That’s one of the conclusions of an evidence-based editorial in today’s [Tuesday, Sept. 8] Annals of Internal Medicine. The article, titled “Collateral Damage: Pay-for-Performance Initiatives and Safety-Net Hospitals,” is written by two leading health-system researchers, Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David U. Himmelstein, professors at the City University of New York School of Public Health and lecturers in medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Obamacare Enrollees Highly Dissatisfied With Health Coverage

August 10, 2015 Kate Randall, www.wsws.org Educate! ACA, Health Insurance, Medicare, Obamacare, Single payer health care

By Kate Randall for WSWS - A new study, however, shows that those enrolled through Obamacare are more dissatisfied with their coverage than any other group of insured Americans. The poll from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, research arm of the consulting firm, finds that only 30 percent of people with insurance through the ACA exchanges are satisfied with their plans, mainly due to cost. By contrast, 58 percent of Medicare enrollees are satisfied, while 42 percent of those with insurance through their employer are satisfied. The most affordable plans offered for sale on the ACA exchanges come with deductibles in excess of $5,000 annually and other out-of-pocket costs. Data from the Deloitte poll shows that enrollment in an Obamacare plan is no guarantee that health care coverage will be affordable or accessible. Researchers surveyed 3,887 people who had purchased health insurance on either the state exchanges or the federal web site, HealthCare.gov. The poll found that only 24 percent of ACA enrollees felt they could get affordable care when they needed it, and an abysmal 16 percent felt fully prepared to handle future health care costs.

Push For Healthcare Justice As Medicare Turns 50

August 5, 2015 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Health Care, Medicare, Public Health

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passage of Medicare, advocates for universal healthcare rallied at the Lincoln Memorial, saying that the private insurance industry is raising costs for millions of Americans while worsening the quality of care. Key speakers included Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, Dr. Robert Zarr, M.D., president of Physicians for a National Health Program, and Dr. Margaret Flowers, co-founder of Popular Resistance. Since privatization of U.S. healthcare accelerated in the 1980s, millions have been left without care. Even under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), over 30 million remain uninsured. And for those with insurance, high medical costs are linked to sixty-two percent of all personal bankruptcies.

Celebrate Medicare’s Anniversary By Improving & Expanding To All

July 31, 2015 Robert Zarr, www.pnhp.org Educate! Health Care, Medicare, Public Health

By Robert Zarr in PNHP - Medicare was originally conceived as a first step toward covering everyone in our society under a national health insurance program. We need to fulfill Medicare’s promise. We need an improved Medicare for All, a national single-payer health care system, to efficiently and equitably cover everyone in the United States. Today the original Medicare program stands like a rock in a troubled sea of waste, inefficiency and profiteering in the rest of our health care system, dominated as it is by big private insurers whose paramount goal is to maximize their bottom lines. Commercial insurers increase their bottom lines by enrolling the healthy, avoiding the sick, denying claims, increasing premiums, and erecting barriers to care like co-pays, high deductibles, bureaucratic thickets, and narrow networks.

Medicare’s 50th Birthday Celebrated Across Nation

July 31, 2015 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Create! Health Care, Medicare, Public Health

By Sarah Lazare in Common Dreams - From California to Florida to Maine, communities in 25 cities across the United States are staging rallies, picnics, and flash mobs this week to celebrate Thursday's 50th anniversary of Medicare—and call for its expansion into a system that provides publicly-funded healthcare for all. "It is urgent that we continue organizing for the right to healthcare by fighting efforts to roll back or privatize Medicare and joining with movements around the country to establish a publicly-financed healthcare system that includes all people," Ellen Schwartz, president of the Vermont Workers' Center, told Common Dreams. The nationwide actions marking President Lyndon B. Johnson's July 30, 1965 signing of the bill that created Medicare were organized by a broad array5 of organizations including Physicians for a National Health Program, Alliance for Retired Americans, National Nurses United (NNU), and Public Citizen.

Celebrate Medicare’s 50th Birthday By Expanding It To All

July 30, 2015 Garrett Adams, www.pnhp.org Educate! Medicare, Physicians, Public Health

By Garrett Adams in PNHP - The nation has a lot to celebrate when Medicare turns 50 on July 30. Medicare has brought care and dignity to millions of seniors, relieving their suffering and extending their lives. Before President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law in Independence, Missouri, in 1965, only about half of those over 65 had health insurance. In the 50 years since then, life expectancy has risen by more than nine years to a little over 79 years. Medicare ended segregation in our country’s hospitals when federal reimbursements for patient care were made contingent on ending discrimination. Within a few months the walls tumbled in the face of sound public policy and financing based on social justice. Today, Medicare covers about 17 percent of our population, over 55 million people, including those other than the elderly whom the private insurance industry has abandoned – the permanently disabled and those on dialysis from kidney failure.

Happy 50th Medicare!

July 25, 2015 Paul Y. Song, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Health Care, Medicare

By Paul Y. Song in The Huffington Post - When I graduated from medical school almost 25 years ago, I was asked by then U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop, to raise my right hand and recite the Hippocratic Oath. In it, I recall "I will abstain from that system which is deleterious and mischievous to my patients." Unfortunately, in the years since, I have seen far too many of my patients fall victim to a system that is very deleterious, mischievous, and just plan immoral. While the affordable care act (ACA) was a start and has definitely helped a lot of people, it should be noted that in the run up to the ACA, there were more than 3300 registered healthcare lobbyists spending $1.2 million a day. In total, more than the entire cost of the Bush-Kerry election was spent lobbying Congress, and that is why much of the ACA looks like it was written by the private insurance industry. As a result, it firmly entrenches a for-profit industry that only makes money by denying people care in charge of our healthcare decisions and system.

Medicare Birthday Events Across The Country

July 26, 2014 Healthcare Now, www.healthcare-now.org Organize! health, Healthcare, Medicare, Organizing

July 30th, 2014 – Medicare Turns 49! Medicare is the Solution… Not the Problem! Events listed here and updated daily! Medicare is a the nation’s most popular social program. It has been working to provide those 65 and over, those with disabilities and certain medical conditions, with access to comprehensive healthcare without fear of bankruptcy. We need you to join us and stand up for the right to healthcare! Let’s improve and expand Medicare to everyone living in the US. Here’s what you can do: 1) Organize a public event in your community in July! Check out the organizer’s tool kit (.pdf) from last year for examples of what you can do to celebrate the anniversary of Medicare in your community. For those who organize public events, we will send signs and booklets that explain Medicare for all. Be sure to let our organizing team know you are pulling together an event. Email ben@healthcare-now.org.

The People Are With Us

May 4, 2014 Josh Sager, www.theprogressivecynic.com Educate! Abortion Rights, Climate Change, Democracy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Immigration, Inequality, LGBTQ, Marijuana, Medicare, Minimum Wage, Single payer health care, Social Security, Taxes, Wars and Militarism, Women's Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

It is a persistent belief among many in the political and media establishments that the United States is a “center-right nation” which finds progressives to be far too liberal for mainstream positions of power. If you look purely at electoral outcomes, those who assert this appear to have a fairly strong point. The last several decades of federal politics have been dominated by center-right policies and truly left wing politicians have been largely marginalized (ex. Bernie Sanders). Even Clinton and Obama—the last two Democratic presidents who, theoretically, should be leftists—are corporate-friendly moderates who have triangulated during negotiations with Republicans to pass center-right policy compromises (ex. Obama’s Heritage Foundation inspired ACAor the Clinton Defense of Marriage Act compromise). While electoral results support the idea of a center-right USA, looking beyond electoral politics—which involve a mixture of policy choices, party politics, fundraising, and propaganda—and focusing purely upon raw policy preferences, leaves us with an entirely different picture -- the people are progressive and leaning left on almost all critical issues.

Rural Kentucky City Endorses Single Payer Health Care

February 20, 2014 Kay Tillow, www.my.firedoglake.com Organize! Health Care, Medicare

This little Appalachian community that made national news a year ago by passing a Fairness Ordinance did it again tonight. It voted to endorse Single Payer Healthcare, HR 676, joining 54 other American cities, including Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore. The struggling coal town of 334 people unanimously endorsed Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, HR 676, national single payer legislation sponsored by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI). Vicco—established by the Virginia Iron Coal and Coke Company—is now the fourth Kentucky local government to favor Single Payer Healthcare. The others are Metro Louisville, Boyle County, and the City of Morehead. In 2007, the Kentucky House legislators also endorsed the bill.

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