Health Care For America Now

NEWS

A Lesson on Health Care From Massachusetts - New York Times

In any effort to restructure American health care, two interconnected goals inevitably compete for primacy. One is providing health coverage to the uninsured, counted in 2007 at 46 million, or 15 percent of the population, and almost certainly more now. The other is slowing the relentless and unsustainable growth of health costs, which threaten virtually every family, in imagination if not in fact.

Health report ignores contentious issues - The Hill

A broad coalition of business, healthcare and consumer groups issued a report Friday outlining its consensus views on health reform, though it bypassed the most contentious issues and lost two big labor unions along the way.

Congress Is Buying Time for Health-Care Savings - Wall Street Journal

Congress this week took a big step toward clearing the way for passage of President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to overhaul the health-care system. But questions remain over how to pay for it.

Lemon Capitalism - Slate

In a March 26 press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that health care reform "should have a public option in it for it to really be substantial." This statement puts her more strongly behind creating a new government health insurance program than President Obama, who proposed such a program during the campaign but mostly avoided discussing it and has lately been cagey about how hard he'll fight for it. Five Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Charles Grassley, ranking member of the Senate finance committee, have put Obama on notice that they will oppose any health care reform that includes a public option because, they fear, private health insurers will not be able to compete with a government health insurance program. They're probably right about that. It might be worth losing sleep over if private health insurers were today doing a halfway decent job of keeping costs down and/or providing an acceptable level of coverage to policyholders. But they aren't. Even as Republicans scream their heads off about government bailouts for Wall Street banks and Detroit automakers, they're maneuvering to shore up the severely dysfunctional market for private health insurance.

OPINION

Health insurers pull a fast one in proposed reform - Los Angeles Times

The industry says it will treat all people fairly in return for a government requirement that everyone has to buy their product. But they want to charge different prices for different levels of coverage.

Yes, YOU Pay for the Uninsured - Change.org

This past week has been “Covering the Uninsured” Week. As mentioned before, I do not know why the people in this great country are comfortable with the shame of 47 million uninsured and at least half as many underinsured – one illness or traumatic accident away from bankruptcy. But in this economic climate, we should finally lose our comfort zone, for selfish reasons, if no other. When the uninsured receive emergency care, who foots the bills? Chances are, you do.

Conservatives For Patients Rights: Health Care Reform Is Like Wall Street Culture Of Greed - Think Progress

Conservatives For Patients Rights, the Swift Boat Health Attack Group funded by disgraced Columbia/HCA Healthcare CEO Richard Scott, is out with a new ad attacking Congress for financing health care reform in the budget.

Baucus: We Can Accomplish Health Care Reform ‘Without’ Public Health Plan Option - Think Progress

Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) has argued that you can’t reform the health care system without forcing private insurers to compete with a new public option. “If we only get community rating and guaranteed issue that’s great insurance reform, but that is not health care reform and nobody should mistake it,” Dean explained.

Our Health, and the Health of Insurers - New York Times

As policy makers in Congress and elsewhere debate the nation’s health insurance options, especially for the nearly 50 million uninsured in our country, it appears that the main argument against Medicare-like coverage is that private insurers would be unable to compete with government on costs, and might be driven from the market.