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Health Care for All NC (North Carolina)
Website: HealthCareforAllNC.org
E-mail: Pres@HealthCareforAllNC.org
Health Care Justice (Charlotte, NC)
Website: pnhphcjnc.org
E-mail: HCJusticeNC@gmail.com
Health Care for All WNC (Asheville, NC)
Facebook: Facebook.com/HealthCareforAllWNC
E-mail: hcfawnc@gmail.com
Local Unions Endorsing HR676
- North Carolina State AFL-CIO
- Local 8498, United Steelworkers (USW)
North Carolina State News
By George Bohmfalk, M.D. | The Charlotte Observer, July 26, 2018
Monday is the 53rd birthday of Medicare, the program that added several years to seniors’ lives and elevated millions out of poverty. Many physicians, including my father, fought it tooth and nail, only to find that their incomes grew as their patients’ health improved.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | The Charlotte Observer, June 1, 2018
On Monday, The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will hold rallies in Raleigh and other state capitals focusing on health care and ecological devastation. You might wonder how poverty relates to health. Profoundly.
By Marsha Fretwell, M.D. | Citizen Times (Asheville, N.C.), March 30, 2018
In contrast to Gov. Roy Cooper’s and the Mission Administrative Physicians’ gallant effort to put a positive spin on the possible conversion of our Mission Health from a non-profit status to for-profit status under the management of HCA Healthcare of Nashville, I would like to present strong opposition to the proposal.
By Jonathan Michels | Winston-Salem (N.C.), Feb. 20, 2018
For more than 100 years, Americans have searched for a cure for health care inequality. Instead, we've been prescribed placebos: watered-down poverty programs and party politics.
By Sammy Feldblum | Mountain Xpress (Asheville, N.C.), Feb. 13, 2018
Dr. Marsha Fretwell addressed a crowd of 25 in blunt terms Monday in Flat Rock: “We need to get for-profit health insurance out of the marketplace.”
By Marsha Fretwell, M.D. | Citizen Times (Asheville, N.C.), December 7, 2017
Over the last several months, we have been reading, almost daily, about the payment negotiation conflict between Mission Hospital and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. Now we are asked to feel gratitude and relief that this conflict is resolved and we are allowed to go back to “status quo.”
By Marsha Fretwell, M.D. | The Charlotte Observer, September 26, 2017
When I retired at 70 years old as a practicing geriatrician in Wilmington and said farewell to my medical colleagues, I slowly began to realize that I might be “The Last Happy Doctor” in town.
By John H. Clark | The Charlotte Observer, August 1, 2017
The 52nd anniversary of Medicare was Sunday and the program is more relevant than ever no matter your age. If you’re younger than 50 or even 40, you may benefit from a brief description of Medicare.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | Charlotte Post, May 11, 2017
Have you—or anyone you know—skipped needed health care because of cost? Since this is true of one in three Americans, you probably answered yes. Do you think this is unfair?
By Ellen Kaczmarek, M.D. | Citizen-Times (Asheville, N.C.), April 2, 2017
Competition! Americans thrive on it -- it is virtually part of our national DNA. From sports to businesses (think free market economy and capitalism) to elections, competition is what we all understand. Being No. 1 is the goal we have been taught to seek. Yet, we are totally complacent about being No. 37, according to the World Health Organization, in the world.
By Karen Garloch | The Charlotte Observer, March 7, 2017
Many people scoffed recently when President Donald Trump, while addressing plans to replace the Affordable Care Act, made this unwitting understatement: “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”
By Herbert L. White | The Charlotte (N.C.) Post, March 5, 2017
Is single-payer health insurance inevitable? American lawmakers are consumed about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. One path that has been regularly touted as a solution is the single-payer model, which advocates say will assure every citizen has access to equal and quality health care.
By Jonathan Michels | Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, March 3, 2017
Ten years ago, I began transporting sick patients at Forsyth Medical Center. Transporters are some of the hardest working and least recognized workers in the hospital. My job was to transfer patients as smoothly and comfortably as possible onto a clean gurney and transport them to the radiology department.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | Consumer Reports, Letters, March 2017
Other developed nations have some form of a single-payer system, which provides universal access, lower cost, better outcomes, and more choice than ours.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe | The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, Dec. 15, 2016
Repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is a well-known priority of President-elect Trump and Republicans in Congress, bolstered by Trump voters. But, while “yes or no” polling about the possible repeal of the ACA tells us something about Republicans’ antipathy to the law, more detailed polling questions reveal a complex picture.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, May 5, 2016
Are you or someone you know forgoing medical care for financial reasons, having trouble with medical bills, being forced to change providers due to network problems, or reeling from arbitrary increases in premiums or deductibles? If so, you know the ACA has drawbacks.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
One of the biggest casualties of the marketization of medicine has been the doctor-patient relationship. When I started my practice, the patient and I were the only ones in the exam room. Now, the room also contains an insurance company, an administrator and a coding specialist. Though invisible, they all have something to say about what the doctor does.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
July 30, 2015, is the 50th anniversary of the day President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare bill and handed former President Harry Truman, a longtime advocate of a national health care program, the first Medicare card. It marks a good time to reflect on the progress made and possibilities remaining, as the original Medicare proponents envisioned that the program would, in time, expand to cover everyone.
By Karen Garloch | The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
Dr. Andrew Coates agrees with some critics of the Affordable Care Act. In many ways, he says the federal law “reinforced or worsened some of the most egregious inequalities and injustices in the health system.”
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
Have you weighed in on Luis Lang, the diabetic smoker who put off getting health insurance until he was about to go blind from complications of diabetes, only to find it was too late to enroll in an Affordable Care Act policy and that he wasn’t eligible for Medicaid in South Carolina? Since his story was reported in the Observer, it has unleashed a torrent of comments and has been widely disseminated through social media. Lang has raised more than $25,000 for eye surgery through the original story and his GoFundMe site – and is now an advocate for the ACA.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | The Charlotte Observer
“Skin in the game.” The phrase pops up frequently in health insurance discussions, as it did twice in the recent Charlotte Observer article about high deductible policies (“A Growing Risk: High Deductible Health Plans Can Ruin Finances,” April 9).
By Karen Garloch | Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
As a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program, Dr. Oliver Fein thinks a single-payer health system for the United States would be superior to the Affordable Care Act, which he calls “a great leap sideways.”
By Jonathan B. Kotch, M.D. | The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.)
Early indications are that the Affordable Care Act may be slowing down medical cost increases, but the potential for significant cost savings is nil as long as we tolerate outrageous administrative costs.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law, making 19 million Americans aged 65 and over eligible for health care coverage.
By Karen Garloch | The Charlotte Observer
As a primary care physician, now retired and volunteering at free clinics, Dr. Ed Weisbart sees plenty of evidence that the U.S. health care system isn’t working.
By Paul L. Burnley | Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
The objection to a national health plan by many of our lawmakers is similar to the reaction years ago to the Social Security program. It was seen as a tax-imposed on the public by the government. It was thought to be a struggle between the conservatives and liberal factions of government when, in reality, the only people affected by these programs are the poor, those who are at the bottom of the political spectrum.
By Jack Bernard | Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
After spending 25 years in the health care field, most of it related to making hospitals more efficient and effective, I have become skeptical of many of Washington’s reform efforts, especially by my party, the GOP.
By Jennifer Thomas | Charlotte (N.C.) Business Journal
North Carolina could save as much as $18.7 billion next year on health-care costs if it changed the way it finances health care.
By Karen Garloch | The Charlotte Observer
Dr. Gerald Friedman, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, will be in Charlotte May 23 to make the case for single payer, universal health care in the United States.
By David Swanson | War is a Crime blog
RALEIGH, N.C. -- State Representative Marcus Brandon has introduced a bill for a single-payer system in the 2013 General Assembly session. While Republican lawmakers are content to simply block President Obama's healthcare exchange system, Rep. Brandon offers a real solution to the problems of rising healthcare costs.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
First, some facts. You have undoubtedly heard the claim that Medicare is moribund. As with Mark Twain, reports of its demise have been highly exaggerated.
By Jonathan Kotch, M.D. | The Herald Sun (Durham, N.C.)
The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. Five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if for refusing to buy insurance is a tax that Congress has the power to impose.
By Gustavo S. Montana, M.D. | The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.), Letters
The Accountable Care Act (ACA) has drawn more attention now that the Supreme Court is about to decide its fate.
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D. | The Charlotte Observer
In the exam room, the patient recounted her complicated illness. When she described symptoms related to her surgery, I suggested she see her surgeon.
By Jordan Green | Yes! Weekly (Greensboro, N.C.)
The Cone Health Family Medicine Center on North Church Street in Greensboro might seem an unlikely place for a revolt to stir, but that’s exactly what was happening as Health Care for All North Carolina gathered for its annual meeting on a recent Saturday afternoon.
By Zack Rubin | The Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Dr. Steve Auerbach has shared his vision for a single-payer health system with Occupy movements nationwide, and on Friday he brought it to Chapel Hill.
By David Swanson
North Carolina house candidate Marcus Brandon defeated a 30-year incumbent tonight, by 60% to 40%, to become the Democratic nominee in an overwhelmingly Democratic district in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Dr. Ellen Kaczmarek | Letter to the Editor | Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times
A heartfelt public "thank you" to Dr. Michael Rey for his guest commentary, "ER doctor analyzes health reform debate," (AC-T, Oct. 23). He echoed my sentiments exactly, and as a practicing primary care physician, I strongly second his desire for a universal single-payer health care system.