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National Improved Medicare for All

New Program Is Secretly Privatizing Medicare

A new program is placing Medicare recipients into private health insurance plans without their knowledge or consent in a final effort to fully privatize our national Medicare system. Known as "Direct Contract Entities (DCEs)," this program is putting more of our healthcare system into the hands of private equity to generate enormous profits at the expense of our health. Clearing the FOG speaks about this with Kay Tillow, a long time health care, civil rights and union activist. Tillow explains what these entities are, why they threaten the future of our entire healthcare system and how they block our ability to achieve a national, universal and publicly-financed healthcare system such as national improved Medicare for All. She describes the fight to stop DCEs and win single payer health care.

July 24: National Marches For Medicare For All

We are a coalition of groups that are coming together to march for Medicare for All. Who is in that coalition depends on which city you are talking about. There is no one single group behind this. The list seems to grow every day. Some people are even politically homeless and simply focused on doing what they can to move #M4A forward. We are nonpartisan, but some local parties have joined in the fight! We are proud to say that this type of coming together hasn't happened in recent memory, if ever. Our movement was founded from a place of compassion and love. We came together out of frustration with the lack of action from the powers that be. Many of us have our own personal stories as to why we are in this fight. All of us know that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.

A View On Health Care From 2028

I just had my third heart attack. Let me tell you about my previous two. The first was 16 years ago in 2012. After wasting 15-20 minutes with an ER admitting clerk demanding my “insurance information” before I was allowed access to care, a triage nurse hustled me 'backstage'. I was diagnosed with a “minor” MI stopped by doses of nitroglycerin. The following day the artery that had closed up was stented. The day after that I was kicked loose to the street. The 'retail' cost for my two day stay in the hospital and the procedure was around $250,000. My insurance “negotiated” that down to $22,000, co-pay was $2,200 plus $300 per month for prescription drugs over the next year.

Deception 2020: Our SickCare System

In this third installment of the Deception 2020 Series, we dig into our so-called healthcare system – what would more appropriately be called our sickcare system. Yeah, the US has the ability to offer top notch care and medical support – but out of some 330 million people, how many have access to it? Then, we’re joined by Dr. Margaret Flowers for some more insight into this grossly unequal system, where the candidates stand and who those candidates even get to be!

Let’s Talk About Racism And Health

The current uprising across the nation is a take-off moment for systemic racism in the United States. A take-off moment

Doctors Demand Hospital Industry Stop Funding Dark Money Lobby Group

A progressive organization of 23,000 physicians from across the U.S. demanded Thursday that the American Hospital Association (AHA) divest completely from a dark-money lobbying group that has spent millions combating Medicare for All and instead devote those financial resources to the fight against Covid-19 and to better support for patients and healthcare workers. Dr. Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), said in a statement that "the Covid-19 pandemic has stretched hospitals' resources to the limit, and the AHA should not waste precious member hospitals' funds lobbying against universal health coverage" as a member of the Partnership for America's Health Care Future (PFAHCF).

Study Shows Medicare For All Could Save $600 Billion Annually

Insurers and healthcare providers in the United States spent a staggering $812 billion on paperwork and other administrative burdens in 2017 alone, bureaucratic costs that could be dramatically reduced by switching to a single-payer system like Medicare for All. That's according to a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, which found that administrative costs amounted to 34.2 percent of total U.S. national health expenditures in 2017—twice the amount Canada spent on healthcare administration that same year. The study's authors noted that U.S. healthcare providers impose "a hidden surcharge" on patients "to cover their costly administrative burden." U.S. insurers and providers spent $2,497 per person on healthcare administration in 2017 while Canada spent just $551 per capita, the study found.

We Are The Majority; We Must Turn That Into Power

Over the last decade, a national consensus has developed for a progressive left agenda on the economy, social services and ending wars but the movement has not built the power to make that a reality. The next decade will be ripe with opportunities for transformational change due to a combination of expanding popular movements as well as escalating crisis situations. Positive change will only occur if these movements evolve into an organized popular movement that truly represents the people's interests against the elites. The movement must protect the planet at this critical time of climate crisis against the profiteering of the planet-plundering capitalist class. We must stand against continued militarism, bloated and wasteful weapons spending, military conflict and regime change imperialism.

On Medicare’s 54th Birthday, Another Year Closer To Winning Medicare For All

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare Act. Within a year, and without the aid of computers, the United States provided more than 19 million seniors with health coverage. Before the law existed, over half of the elderly in the United States did not have health insurance. Medicare, which now includes people with disabilities, celebrated its 54th birthday this week. Today, the US is on the verge of another transformation. Thirty million people do not have health insurance and 30,000 people die annually because of that sad fact. The healthcare crisis is also demonstrated by the separate but unequal reality that wealthy people in the US live 15 years longer than poor people. Momentum for National Improved Medicare for All is growing.

Medicare For All In The Democratic Party: Corporate Money vs. The People

The US House of Representatives this week showed it is standing with the political consensus in the Democratic Party. Now, a majority of the House Democrats has signed on to the HR 1384, the Medicare for All Act of 2019. A political consensus has developed in the Democratic Party among its voters, but its leadership continues to try to please those who profit from the current wasteful and expensive insurance-based system that does not meet the needs of people in the United States. Sen. Kamala Harris, who put forward an unacceptable so-called Medicare for all plan, has been trying to hide her donations from the industry. The Intercept exposed how her campaign is receiving funding from pharmaceutical executives while saying it is not taking such funds.

Popular Movements Are The Invisible Hand Of Social Change

The political consensus in the United States is changing rapidly. While the corporate media is focused on the Democratic Party presidential debates and Trump's tweets in response, the issues that have been advanced by the movement for economic, racial and environmental justice as well as peace are becoming central to the political dialogue. There is no reason to rejoice yet, as we still have work to do to win the transformation that people and planet need, but the consensus is moving in our direction. Before we further elaborate on this, we want to remind you that today is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion and the ten-year anniversary of the US-led coup in the Honduras. The Honduran coup has led to severe austerity, violence and repression.

Surge In Lobbying Opposed To Medicare For All

Between the first quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019, lobbying on Medicare for All increased dramatically, almost entirely due to a surge in lobbying activity by organizations that oppose it. This indicates that opponents of Medicare for All are newly scared about its rising prospects. The diverse and powerful array of trade groups, conservative activist organizations, GOP-linked establishment groups and health care industry interests launching an all-out advertising blitz against Medicare for All further reinforces this reality. The number of organizations hiring lobbyists to work on Medicare for All increased from nine in the first quarter of 2018 to 61 in the first quarter of 2019 – a nearly sevenfold increase. The number of individual federal lobbyists working on Medicare for All increased from 29 in the first quarter of 2018 to 270 in the first quarter of 2019 – a ninefold increase.

At AMA’s Annual Meeting, Doctors And Nurses Demand ‘Get Out of the Way’ Of Medicare For All

Nurses, doctors, and medical students on Saturday afternoon gathered outside the Hyatt Regency hotel in Chicago, where the largest professional association for physicians was holding their annual meeting, to demand that the group "do no harm" and stop standing in the way of real, meaningful healthcare reform. National Nurses United (NNU), Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) and Health Over Profit for Everyone (www.HealthOverProfit.org) were among the groups that gathered to call on the American Medical Association (AMA) to support a Medicare for All program, which would replace the for-profit health insurance industry with government-funded healthcare for everyone in the United States.

New CBO Report On Medicare For All, A Serious And Positive Contribution

The Congressional Budget Office issued a report on May 1, 2019 titled "Key Design Components and Considerations for Establishing a Single-Payer Health Care System." This report reviews a range of considerations as regards the design and implementation of a single- payer system as applied to the United States. The CBO report, as with all such analyses, needs to address two fundamental issues with respect to the establishment of a single-payer system for the U.S. These are: 1) Is a single-payer system capable of providing good-quality care to all U.S. residents; and 2) Is a single-payer system capable of significantly reducing overall U.S. health care costs while still delivering universal good-quality care? The report does not provide explicit answers, yes or no, to these questions. But it does present a framework for understanding how the U.S. could, in fact, establish a successful single-payer system.

Pharma & Insurance Gave $43M To 130 House Democrats Not Backing Medicare For All

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) recently rolled out House Democrats’ version of a Medicare for All proposal that would ensure all Americans have guaranteed healthcare. The bill (H.R. 1384) has an impressive 106 co-sponsors, and has been called “the most ambitious Medicare-for-All plan yet” by Vox, which also reported the benefits the House bill contained were even more significant than the companion bill Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) first introduced in his chamber. Grit Post calculated that donors in the insurance and pharmaceutical industries gave a combined $43,740,947 in career campaign donations to the 130 House Democrats who have not yet signed on as co-sponsors to Rep. Jayapal’s bill.
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