By Chess Yellot, M.D. | Spirit of Jefferson (Charles Town, W.Va.)
Isn’t it time to have a serious conversation on the question: why aren't we all covered by Medicare, regardless of age?

By James Binder, M.D. | The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette
Our country would be better able to help its citizens prevent and manage chronic illnesses if we adopted a single-payer system. Our current primary care structure is designed to treat acute illnesses. Primary care providers do not have adequate time or the training to effectively treat the increasing burden of chronic conditions in our society, conditions such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, substance use disorders, depression.

By the Editorial Board | The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette
A Republican hospital consultant and university teacher wrote a Sunday Gazette-Mail analysis saying President Obama’s Affordable Care Act has reduced the number of Americans without medical insurance from 18 percent to 13 percent, so far.

By Lynn Moses Yellott | The Journal (Martinsburg, W.Va.)
My husband, family physician Dr. Chess Yellott, and I celebrated Medicare's 48th birthday on Capitol Hill, attending a congressional briefing by Dr. Gerald Friedman, University of Massachusetts professor of economics. Friedman showed how the U.S. could save enough -- $592 billion in the first year alone -- to provide health care for all and eliminate premiums, co-pays, and deductibles by expanding Medicare to everyone. Financing would be entirely tax-based, and 95 percent of us would pay lower taxes for our health care than we now pay in premiums and out of pocket expenses.

By Kay Tillow | Firedoglake
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- They boarded buses and cars before dawn, some the night before, coming from the coalfields of Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and all across West Virginia. By Monday at 10 a.m. over 7,000 had packed into the giant Charleston Civic Center to voice their support for the 23,000 miners and their families who face the loss of their lifetime health benefits in a bankruptcy scam.

By Hedda Haning, M.D. | Daily Mail (Charleston, W.Va.)
What's the matter with our health care?

The Journal (Martinsburg, W.Va.), Nov. 22, 2012
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Members of the Eastern Panhandle Single-Payer Action Network (EPSPAN) provided information to public employees attending the recent Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) hearing in Martinsburg. EPSPAN advocates "improved Medicare for all," a publicly funded health care system that is privately delivered.

By Jack Bernard | Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette
If the highly politicized Supreme Court overturns the individual mandate -- and possibly all of Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act), where do we go from here?

By the Editorial Board | Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette
Some federal courts are ruling that America's breakthrough 2010 medical reform is kaput because government cannot force people to pay for health insurance. If the historic reform eventually is killed, we hope it leads to a better alternative. We hope America finally joins other advanced democracies by adopting a government-run "single-payer" universal health plan covering every citizen.