BlogWatch
These articles highlight many of the health care related stories appearing in blogs on the internet.Most Doctors Support National Health Insurance Updated - April 8, 2008
by DrSteveB | DailyKos
I have always wanted to do a "Breaking" headline. Well this is from a press release embargoed until just now on an article in the professional peer reviewed journal Annals of Internal Medicine (aka: the green journal; it's generally considered the 3rd most prestigious American medical journal). It reports on a methodogically valid survey of American doctors.Your Doctor Says Universal Coverage Is Good for You - April 2, 2008
By Jonathan Cohn | The New Republic
For most of the twentieth century, no single group represented a bigger obstacle to universal health care than organized medicine. It was state medical societies that blocked the very first efforts in California and New York, back during the late Progressive Era. (Back then, reformers called it "compulsory insurance.") And it was the threat of similar opposition that is widely believed to have dissuaded Franklin Roosevelt from including health insurance as part of the Social Security Act in the 1930s."Why Not Single Payer?" Parts 1-4 - February 28, 2008
Miles Mogulescu | The Huffington Post
Faster than you can say the word "Sicko" and turn around 3 times, the Democrats' promise of health care for all has gone from "Universal Medicare For All" to "Individual Insurance Mandate". In Monday's New York Times, Paul Krugman defends that reversal in an article entitled "Why Not Single Payer?"The real Irony of the Health Care Mandate Arguments - February 19, 2008
by DrSteveB | DailyKos
The real irony of the Obama vs. Hillary (and Krugman and Baker & Hacker et al) argument over individual mandates for purchasing health insurance, is even more fundamental then they are both right and they are both wrong. The argument against individual mandates is both political and practical. They can't really be enforced, and they are political poison.The New Bailout: Individual Health Insurance Mandates and Greater Personal Debt - February 8, 2008
Rose Ann DeMoro | The Huffington Post
Behind the escalating debate on the health care between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on individual mandate -- she's for it, he's against it -- is a critical policy battle that not only cuts across health care reform but also the neo-liberal privatization dreams, the home mortgage crisis, and the recession that is no longer looming, it's here.More Fiscal Trouble Lies Ahead - February 7, 2008
by David Himmelstein, MD | WBUR.org
Last week the news leaked out from the Patrick administration that public spending for the health reform plan in the coming fiscal year will be about $400 million over the original projections. This follows a $146 million cost overrun in the current year. Why are such miscalculations the norm? Are the costs of health reform unknowable? Or did politicians (and the media) listen only to the “experts” who told them what they wanted to hear?The Market Made Me Do It: Health Insurance That Disappears When You Need It - November 13, 2007
Donald Cohen | Huffington Post blog
Health Net, one of California's largest health insurers, saved $35.5 million in medical expenditures for people that needed life-saving care. They did it the easy way -- they just stopped paying, ejecting the sick from their health plans.The Frosts Demonstrate Why We Need Single Payer Health Care - October 12, 2007
Hale "Bonddad" Stewart
Here's the basic problem. The Frosts aren't rich and they have children. That means medical expenses are their biggest problem. Under the Malkin theory, either poor people shouldn't have children because insurance is too expensive, or the poor should go into debt to pay for insurance which under the new bankruptcy laws is tantamount to indentured servitude.The Health Care Crisis in California - October 11, 2007
Jenny Price | The Huffington Post
On December 31, 2006, the health insurance I purchase through a group of freelance artists and writers cost me $4715/year. On January 1, it jumped to $12,268. That's $1.40 per hour. I watch a Dodgers game, and I'm down $3.50 by the 7th inning. I go to sleep, and I've paid another $11.20 for health insurance by the time I wake up."Why Not Single Payer?" A Response to Paul Krugman and the Leading Democratic Presidential Contenders. - October 11, 2007
Miles Mogulescu | The Huffington Post
Faster than you can say the word "Sicko" and turn around 3 times, the Democrats' promise of health care for all has gone from "Universal Medicare For All" to "Individual Insurance Mandate". In Monday's New York Times, Paul Krugman defends that reversal in an article entitled "Why Not Single Payer?"The Garden Hose Health Care Brigade - October 5, 2007
Matthew Holt
Perhaps what's needed is a real down-and-dirty political operative like Otto von Bismarck, President Lyndon Johnson or even - God help us - Dick Cheney who knows how to focus attention on selling healthcare reform the way they sold the idea of invading other countries: As some kind of patriotic duty. If you question that you're some kind of traitor.My Encounter with [insert scary music] ... Socialized Medicine! - September 5, 2007
by Jim Wallis
I realized then that I was about to have my first encounter with SOCIALIZED MEDICINE! Now it's one thing to advocate health care reform in America and even to be politically sympathetic to the idea of a single-payer government-supported system like they have in most of the world's developed and civilized countries (such as Canada, Germany, and Great Britain). But it was another thing to actually go to the emergency room (or ER, but in the U.K. they call it Accident and Emergency) of a hospital in the British National Health Service. After all, I had heard the horror stories--long waits in incompetent, dirty, and substandard medical facilities; bad doctors and faulty diagnoses; and, of course, incredible bureaucracies like everything in "socialist systems." Rush Limbaugh and every other conservative pundit have warned us all in America about the horrific practices of British socialized medicine.The Corporate Crime of Selling Private Health Insurance - March 28, 2007
In most of the world, it is a corporate crime to sell private health insurance.That’s because most countries insure their citizens as a matter of right.Blog postings from the Campaign for America's Future - March 26, 2007
Submitted by Bill Scher
After watching Saturday's presidential candidate forum on health care, and judging the candidates using Roger Hickey's five health care questions, I'm left with key questions for each Oval Office aspirant.Universal Health for Insurance Companies - March 7, 2007
by DrSteveB | Daily Kos
Last week I outlined the generic components of so-called mandated or mandatory plans. This week we will, with the help of Professor Len Rodberg briefly outline some of specific national proposals that have been in the news latelyThe Myth of Value-Based Pricing -- So Far - March 6, 2007
Posting by Donald Light, PhD | Princeton University | Health Affairs blog
At last policymakers and readers are being set straight that the prices of drugs are not related to the immense costs of research and development but to "what the market will bear," as James Robinson put it in his Health Affairs Blog post last fall.Bush's Health Care Plan Deserves One Cheer, but One Cheer Only - January 25, 2007
By Robert B. Reich | Marketplace, January 24, 2007
The President's plan to de-couple health insurance from employment merits only one cheer, though, because it's only the first step. Two cheers for the President or any politician who comes up with a way to get health insurance to lower-income people who can't afford it on their own even with a tax deduction. It's called universal health care. Every advanced nation has it except the United States.The State of Healthcare - January 25, 2007
By Katrina vanden Heuvel | The Nation | BLOG | Posted 01/23/2007
According to the Bush administration, the new health care plan that the President will unveil in the State of the Union address tonight would cover three million people who are currently uninsured. Three million -- out of forty-seven million. After years of dangerous inaction, this is what Bush rolls out to address a grave and growing crisis!