Articles of Interest Archives

By Claudia Fegan, M.D. | Hyde Park Herald (Chicago)
Many residents of Hyde Park work for large employers, the University of Chicago being just one example among several. In the wake of the new health law, what benefit changes can workers at these large companies expect to see?

Charles Pack | Letter, The New York Times
It is hard for me to understand why the governors, along with corporate chief executives, aren’t lobbying Congress and President Obama for single-payer health insurance. It would take the burden of providing health insurance off state and corporate budgets and provide the broadest and least expensive health care solution.

By Robert Reich | The Business Insider
The Republican-led house vote to repeal the new health care law is purely symbolic. But there’s one provision of the law that Republicans are likely to try to defund, and they may have the public with them on this. It’s the so-called “individual mandate” – the requirement that everyone purchase health insurance, or pay a fine. According to a recent poll, 60 percent of the public opposes it. They just don’t like the idea of government telling them they have to buy something.

By Matt Miller | The Washington Post
"Good afternoon, I'm Brian Williams reporting from Washington, where it looks like October 26, 2017, will be a day that truly goes down in history. In a few moments, at a table not far from where I now stand, President Hillary Clinton will sign into law the universal health-care legislation - "Medicare for All," as she calls it - that completes a journey Mrs. Clinton began nearly 25 years ago. Back then, as first lady, her attempt to reform the health-care system proved a fiasco that cost Democrats their hold on power. Who would have thought then - or later, when President Barack Obama's big health reform was overturned by the Supreme Court in a controversial 5 to 4 ruling in 2012 - that today's bipartisan bill would be the result? For some perspective on the twists and turns of history, we're joined by NBC's David Gregory. David, health reform seemed dead in the water in 2012. How did we get from that Supreme Court ruling to today?"

By Stephan Burklin | MaineWatchdog.org
A resolve requiring the Legislature to update a single-payer feasibility study is headed for the Insurance and Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

By Greg Sargent | The Washington Post
We will never know whether the founding generation would have agreed with this concept or not. They didn't agree on much even among themselves. But in Rothman's view, they are already on record supporting government run health care, financed by mandatory taxation. So there!

The following statement was prepared for the NY Metro chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program and Single Payer New York by Leonard Rodberg, Ph.D, research director of the NY Metro chapter of PNHP, in response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s call for “Redesigning the Medicaid Program.”

By Anne Galloway | VTDigger.com
Physicians were in attendance at the Statehouse on Thursday. They came dressed in lab coats and scrubs, and stethoscopes dangling around their necks. The ailment they came to cure was the medical system itself: In a rare “house call” to the Capitol, they issued a prescription for Vermont’s byzantine system of insurance and government programs – they called for a single payer health care system.

Editorial | The Capital Times (Madison, Wis.)
Americans are divided over the question of how best to reform a dysfunctional health care system. But the new Republican majority in the House entertains no doubt about what must be done: The for-profit insurance industry must be restored to its “proper” place as the decider of who gets care -- and how much they will have to pay.

By Wendell Potter | The Huffington Post
If you want to know how things really get done in Washington — or don’t get done, depending on the desires of America’s corporate executives — all you have to do is read a couple of paragraphs in a Jan. 23 Philadelphia Inquirer story.

By Kevin O’Connor | Times Argus (Barre-Montpelier, Vt.)
Middlebury’s Dr. Jack Mayer knows that most patients want health care reform to cut rising prices. But he, along with a growing group of Vermont medical providers, hopes to point a scalpel at piles of related paperwork.

By Russell Mokhiber | Single Payer Action

William McQuaid | Letters | Seattle Times
Single-payer insurance systems have been proven to cost half as much as we spend. These single-payer insurance systems also cover everyone, eliminating bankruptcies. Our own government statistics prove single-payer insurance systems are the best at controlling costs. All of Locke's numbers pale in comparison with the $400 billion we would save each year by simply eliminating the health-insurance middleman.

By NEAL P. GOSWAMI | Bennington Banner
Vermont's congressional delegation joined Gov. Peter Shumlin Tuesday to announce legislation that would allow states to seek federal health care waivers in 2014, and the flexibility to craft their own state-level health care plans.

By Terry Doran | VTDigger.com
When we talk about health care reform, what are we really talking about?

By RICHARD C. DILLIHUNT, M.D. | The Portland (Maine) Press Herald
Health care costs are devastating the U.S. middle class in ways not seen in countries that have universal care.

By E. FULLER TORREY | The Wall Street Journal
The solution to this situation is obvious—make sure individuals with serious mental illnesses are receiving treatment. The mistake was not in emptying the nation's hospitals but rather in ignoring the treatment needs of the patients being released. Many such patients will take medication voluntarily if it is made available to them. Others are unaware they are sick and should be required by law to receive assisted outpatient treatment, including medication and counseling, as is the case in New York under Kendra's Law. If they do not comply with the court-ordered treatment plan, they can and should be involuntarily admitted to a hospital. Arizona has such a provision in its laws, but it is almost never used.

By JOHNATHON ROSS | The Blade (Toledo, Ohio)
The American health care system is severely dysfunctional. We spend about twice as much per person on health care as other wealthy democracies, yet our medical outcomes are mediocre by comparison. Some 45,000 Americans a year die because they lack health insurance. Thousands more needlessly suffer and die from preventable causes. Others go bankrupt because of medical bills.

Simeon Kimmel | Letters | The Boston Globe
I applaud The Globe for showcasing Vermont’s single-payer “laboratory’’ in its Jan. 2 editorial “Vermont: Creating a singular health system.’’ As a third-year medical student at Cambridge Health Alliance, I’ve found that it doesn’t take long to see that the current system is insufficient.

By ROBERT B. REICH | The Wall Street Journal
Republicans in the House, now in the majority, say they'll vote to repeal the health-care law on Jan. 12. It will largely be a symbolic vote: Even in the unlikely event that 60 senators agree, Republicans don't have the votes to override President Obama's certain veto.

By National Nurses Movement | DailyKos
If the Obama health care bill is just a "government takeover," why are healthcare industry CEOs being rewarded with so much money?

Anne Scheetz, MD, FACP, Chicago | Chicago Tribune
We need to get rid of insurance companies, not negotiate with them. Under a single-payer health care system, Improved and Expanded Medicare for All, everyone would have access to mental health care, as well as to all other necessary care.

Globe Editorial | The Boston Globe
While Massachusetts grapples with its own health costs, the nation’s eyes will be on Vermont as it tries to do ObamaCare one better and switch to a single-payer health insurance system.

By Dr. Quentin Young | The Huffington Post
Perhaps unwittingly, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson of Richmond, Va., has enhanced the prospects for single-payer health reform. He did so Monday by ruling the individual mandate provision of the Obama administration's health law to be unconstitutional.

By Anne Galloway | Vtdigger.com
On Monday, Gov.-elect Peter Shumlin chose the members of the “dream team” who will lead his signature effort to create a single-payer health care system in Vermont.

By Josh Goodman Stateline.org
Congress never really considered a single-payer health plan run by the government. Vermont is planning for one. This isn’t some liberal fantasy. Vermont lawmakers are serious. To understand how serious, you only have to look at the resumes of William Hsiao and Jonathan Gruber.

By Rep. Michael Dembrow | BlueOregon.com
I believe that the best solution to the problems that I mentioned will be a “single payer” system. This would be a system like Medicare, but extended to all. Everyone would pay into the system in a progressive manner, and it would relieve the burden on Oregon’s small businesses. Initial projections show that we could create a system that in total would cost no more than we are currently paying as individuals, businesses, and the state—but everyone would be covered, would have access to quality care by the provider of their choice, and the rise in costs could be contained.

By Drew Armstrong | BusinessWeek
When the White House and Democratic lawmakers wrote the health-care overhaul bill, they concocted a sweet coating for the bitter medicine the health industry would have to swallow. In exchange for tighter regulation and numerous new directives, insurers, drugmakers, hospitals, and physicians got some 30 million new paying customers under the individual mandate requiring almost everyone to buy insurance starting in 2014 or pay a fine.

By MARGARET FLOWERS | Capital Times (Madison, Wis.)
When it comes to health insurance coverage, Wisconsin receives a B in comparison to other states, but only because it’s graded on a curve. The state’s 9.5 percent uninsured rate falls considerably below the national average of 16.7, but that’s not much consolation to residents who remain uninsured or who are covered by skimpy policies with big deductibles and co-pays.

David McLanahan | Letters | The Seattle Times
Skyrocketing health-care costs are a major component of our deficit and the new health-care legislation does little to change this trajectory. The best way to decrease the deficit would be to bring our health-care spending under control by enacting an improved and expanded Medicare for all, an equitable system similar to the rest of the industrialized world, where medical costs are half what we spend, with improved quality of care.

By Ezra Klein | The Washington Post
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has long supported state waivers in the health-care bill, and for a very specific reason: He'd like to see Vermont create the first single-payer system in the nation, as he believes it'll demonstrate enough cost and quality advantages that other states will want to follow suit. We spoke by phone last night, and a lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

By Michael Moore | Open Mike Blog
Yesterday, on the TV and radio show "Democracy Now" hosted by Amy Goodman, the former Vice President of CIGNA, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies, revealed that CIGNA met with the other big health insurers to hatch a plan to "push" yours truly "off a cliff."

By Margaret Flowers | The Charlotte Observer
It's been said that a society can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable. If that's the case, what can we say about today's United States?

by Margaret Brinich | The Lakewood (Ohio) Observer
Premiums will continue to rise. More and more Ohioans will be priced out of the health care market. It’s not only a health care crisis, but a major contributor to the economic crisis. Lack of health insurance leads to lack of health care and a less-healthy working population. Ohio needs jobs. If Ohio had a comprehensive health care plan covering all citizens and the costs were known, prospective employers would be encouraged to start up new businesses or move businesses into Ohio. It’s in our economic self-interest.

By Danielle Martin and Irfan Dhalla | The Globe and Mail
In poll after poll, Canadians reaffirm their commitment to a health-care system in which access is based on need rather than wealth. So it stands to reason that opening up medicare to a private second tier would be bad for people who have no choice but to rely on the public system. With a relatively fixed number of health-care providers, wait times in the public system would increase as staff were recruited to the private sector. From Australia to Zimbabwe, this scenario has unfolded repeatedly around the world.

By Wendell Potter | Newsweek
Conservatives who voted for congressional candidates because they pledged to repeal and replace the health-care-reform law are in for a rude awakening. Once those newly elected members of Congress have a little talk with the insurance industry’s lobbyists and executives, they will back off from that pledge. They will go through the motions, of course. They’ll hold hearings and take to the floor of both Houses to rail against the new law, and they’ll probably even introduce a bill to repeal it with much fanfare — but it will all be for show. That’s because health insurers, one of Republican candidates’ biggest and most reliable benefactors — the industry contributed three times as much money to Republicans as to Democrats since January — can’t survive without it.

Healthcare Technology News While healthcare reform came under fire in many parts of the country, a single payer system is very much on the horizon in Vermont.

Speaking in Maine | The Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Audio of lecture by Dr. William Hsiao at Bates College

By Timothy Shaw, M.D., F.A.C.S. | HEALTH REFORM WATCH
Twenty years ago, upon entering private medical practice for the first time it took me about a month to realize that the United States needed “Health Care Reform.” After serving the previous fifteen years in the US Army Medical Corps, I started my first civilian medical job. I was asked to come to a hospital by another surgeon to perform an ear operation on a 3 year old boy at the same time as he would be performing an eye operation. This would save the child from two anesthetics on two different days. Since I had never worked at that hospital, and apparently in order to set me straight from the start, one of the head doctors at this hospital, came up to me in the preoperative holding area, and boldly shoved the child’s chart in my face, pointed to the child’s insurance (Medicaid (Welfare)) and shamelessly told me, “if all you are going to do, is to bring this “****” in here, then we don’t need you to come here.” The poor little guy sitting in the corner with his Mom, was smiling at us with his cute partially toothless grin, and coke-bottle glasses. He didn’t realize what one of his doctors called him because of his health insurance coverage.

Helen Redmond reports that the insurance industry has continued to win concessions from the Obama administration on how its health care law will be enforced.

By Bob Cuddy | The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
These are gloomy days for those who believe President Barack Obama’s health care plan did not go far enough. The prevailing political wisdom is that he overreached, and there is talk of repealing the bill that he did sign should Republicans recapture Congress.

By Susanne King, MD | The Berkshire Eagle
On Nov. 2, you will be able to vote for "single-payer" health care if you live in the 2nd or 4th districts of Berkshire County. This referendum is non-binding, but will send a strong message to our legislators and governor.

By Adele M. Stan | AlterNet/The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute
Win or lose, the Tea Party movement will come away from next week's elections triumphant, having injected into the Republican Party a group of candidates pledged to the dismantling of government and wed to the religious right. Of the movement's dozen favored candidates for U.S. Senate, all are anti-abortion, and five oppose it even in cases of rape and incest. Among their number are Colorado's Ken Buck, who has compared homosexuality to alcoholism, and Nevada's Sharron Angle, who wants to demolish both the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency. Major GOP players, from political strategist Karl Rove to former Bush speechwriter David Frum, have fretted publicly over Tea Party extremism, with Frum complaining of the movement's "paranoid delusions."

By Edward B. Colby | Dedham (Mass.) Transcript
Leo Stolbach says he’s working to advance a single-payer health insurance system for Massachusetts because he sees what’s happening to patients now.

By Saul Friedman | Time Goes By blog
Who would have guessed that one of the most right-wing Republicans in the Senate would predict that the American people, sooner rather than later, will see the passage of single-payer, universal health care such as Medicare for All?

By Evan Tuchinsky | Paradise (Calif.) Post
Last week I took an assignment from another newspaper to cover the Mad As Hell Doctors' appearance in Chico. The advocates for a single-payer system were completing a tour of California, and the capacity crowd at Harlan Adams Theater was the biggest they drew. They found a very receptive audience.