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health care reform
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Rich Gardner | 02.26.2010
Well, SOME news sources are worth checking out for political news. Others, not so much. My roommate back in college admitted once that he spent an awful lot of time complaining about things (Usually justifiably, I thought) but felt he really had to make an exception once and to declare that the meal we were eating at a usually not-so-great cafeteria was really first-class. In the same light, I'd really like to commend the front-page piece in the Inky today summing up the health care summit yesterday. It's a solid, substantve piece that lets one know where all the players in the health care game are standing and where they're headed. For the record, Democrats from the President on down appear to have really lost patience with Republican delaying and filibustering and offering "deals" that Democrats simply can't accept, primarily the "deal" of starting from scratch with a blank piece of paper and then building up a brand new health care bill from the ground up. Democrats absolutely refused to start over or to promise not to use the reconciliation process in order to bypass the filibuster.
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Rich Gardner | 01.20.2010
Why did the Democratic Party lose what seemed a sure thing? Simple. President Obama was too far off to the right-wing side of the national debate. He needed to run things closer to the way his base thought about things. Well, Al Franken was sworn in as the Democrats' 60th Senator on the 7th of July 2009 and a bit less than 200 days later, on the 19th of January 2010, Democrats lost the special election held in Massachusetts in which the late Senator Ted Kennedy was replaced. As the fake-news comedian Jon Stewart put it, "the Democrats won't be able to pass health care reform with an 18-vote majority," a majority that George W. Bush NEVER had and remember, he could do whatever the %#@ he wanted to do!!!
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Stephen Lendman | 11.19.2009
lies and deceit about health care reform Media Disseminated Myths about Obamacare - by Stephen Lendman Pro or con, major media spin distorts, exaggerates, and lies to avoid key truths on this critically important issue. After the House passed HR 3962: Affordable Health Care for America Act, a November 11 Nation magazine editorial (likely by editor, publisher, and part-owner Katrina vanden Heuvel) admitted the bill's faults, yet praised it saying: -- "something remarkable happened on November 7 when the House voted 220-215 for legislation that the Congressional Budget Office says will extend insurance coverage to 36 million uncovered Americans....in the House bill there is certainly something to work with, and something to fight for."
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Sudhama Ranganathan | 11.16.2009
Right now members of Congress are weighing their decisions for or against health care reform and what the shape of it will be. When trying to take in the entirety of the topic and public opinion on reform, it's easy to become confused or harbor doubts as to how best to proceed. As much as many find the idea of not standing up for principles without budging as much as an inch inconceivable, often politicians must do exactly that. It isn't necessary to completely allow one's campaign platforms to collapse under the weight of varying polls or loud hollers. But, one must do an amount of compromising to gain popular support to remain in office. When public opinion is all over the place fears can set in. The nervous pangs that sometimes afflict most of us are constant buzzing reminders in the sides of career politicians. They mark the fact that every turn, every vote and every spoken word could spell ruin for their career. However, when conflicting messages swirl about remember it is a time to stop, wait, step back and take a few moments to get bearings and a true read on the landscape.
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Rich Gardner | 11.10.2009
Huzzah! The House of Representative passed a reasonably decent health care bill. Now it's on to the Senate, where simply avoiding a filibuster is the major problem. Major problem with the House's bill, though. Women and their reproductive choice got "thrown under the bus" so that the Democrats could get the bill passed. As Jane Hamsher explains (And yes, her language is a bit raw in this piece, but her anger is clearly justified), NARAL and Planned Parenthood were informed on July 1st that Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) and his merry band of anti-abortionists wanted the health care bill to explicitly exclude coverage for reproductive choice.
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Stephen Lendman | 10.21.2009
plan is to make America Guatemala Obamacare Targets Entitlements - by Stephen Lendman Meeting with the Washington Post's editorial staff on January 16, President-elect Obama pledged to reform entitlements saying the process would begin straightaway by convening a "fiscal responsibility summit" before delivering his first budget to Congress. "What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further," he said. "We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else's."
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Jeff Garis | 10.08.2009
Today we were arrested for blocking the doors to the offices of the CIGNA Insurance Companies world headquarters in Philadelphia. I just got back from the 9th District Police station where the people who were arrested in the action outside CIGNA's headquarters in Philly were taken. As of 1:30 a.m., two people have been charged & released -- Ray Torres and Michael Ladson. When I spoke with the police at the station, they indicated that Marc Stier & Dennis Short were likely to be processed & released at some point soon after 2:00 a.m. Joan Kosloff, the only woman arrested, was transferred to Philadelphia Police Headquarters at 8th & Race Streets to be processed there -- no word on whether or not she's been released as of this time. I spoke with Michael & his mother a few moments ago and was informed that he will be having some kind
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Mumia Abu-Jamal | 09.02.2009
A bill will pass, and Obama will sign it, but it'll mean less, not more health care. It'll mean higher co-pays (really prepays, or deductibles), less services, and more profits for their campaign contributors. There will be celebrations and TV PR people will praise it like American Idol -- but it'll be a sell-out -- pure and simple. Unless -- unless -people really raise hell -- and demand single payer -- and universal health care -- before the door slams shut. Health Care = 'I Don't Care' As the White House and Congress square off on health care, take care, because the deals with the big dogs have been made -- and the people will be -- once again -- left holding an empty bag. That's because in the opening hours of this drama, the central issue -- single payer -- was given away, in an attempt to attract the support of big insurance companies. A pre-pay-off, if you will, to show them that neither their profits nor future growth would be impaired. Truly, this is change that they can believe in, for it means more clients, more funds flooding their tills, and legislative protection for their dwindling pay outs (for sick people.)
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Stephen Lendman | 08.05.2009
real reform Real Health Care Reform - Universal Single-Payer Organizations like Physicians for a National Health Program want Americans to have the same system in place in all other Western countries and elsewhere, including Venezuela, South Korea, Japan, Cuba, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. But not in America - the only industrialized country without it despite spending more than double per capita than the other 30 OECD countries and delivering less for it. In a September 2007 report to Congress, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) compared 2004 US health care spending with other OECD countries: -- America then averaged $6,102 per person, well over double the average $2,560 for OECD countries; 
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