The Republicans have big plans for health care in this country: to eliminate coverage for millions of Americans while delivering a big tax cut to the rich. Continue reading
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There’s no ‘free market’ solution to health care
A fully privatized system can never adequately provision the nation.
Why healthcare should be managed as a natural monopoly
In industries in which there is inelastic demand, in industries in which people have to buy a product or service regardless of prices charged, free competition does not work in the best interest of customers. Prices charged are not inexorably driven down by competition to an optimum level for all stakeholders, to the lowest prices that fairly compensate all factors of production in the industry, including a rational return for the owners of capital. Continue reading
Ripoff Trumpcare and tax cut schemes
Both Trump plans are schemes to transfer enormous amounts of wealth from ordinary Americans to business and high-net-worth households. Continue reading
Crippled with no recourse: The haircutter & the clerk
Funny how so few of us understand the tremendous gap between ‘Dwindling Medicaid and Crapola Private Health coverage.’ This is NOT the exception, rather the rule, folks! Continue reading
Rotten eggs Jack and Peter DeCoster headed to jail—finally
A couple of rotten eggs finally got their due. Well, sort of. Continue reading
Rx against trauma
We live in traumatic times. The shock waves from wars, terror attacks, and spree shootings reverberate through our society and impact us all. For the direct victims and their family and friends this can be life shattering. Many of them suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a debilitating condition that can last for decades unless properly treated. Continue reading
Political jujitsu: Now’s the time for Medicare for all
As Republicans in Congress move to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Democrats are moving toward Medicare for All—a single-payer plan that builds on Medicare and would cover everyone at far lower cost. Continue reading
Trump, Republicans seek to euthanize 80 million young and old Americans
Democrats will be accessories to the crime
Who, exactly, are the people that the Republicans in the US Congress represent? Or, should we ask, do they have the best interests of their local constituents in mind? Continue reading
California scheming: Single-payer betrayed by the Democrats again
Nothing better illustrates the political bankruptcy of the Democratic Party—for all progressive intents and purposes—than California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon’s announcement on Friday afternoon that he was going to put a “hold” on the single-payer health care bill (SB 562) for the state, effectively killing its passage for at least the year. Continue reading
It’s time for Medicare for All
Mitch McConnell is delaying a vote on the Senate Republican version of Trumpcare because he doesn’t yet have a majority. Continue reading
The secret healthcare bill
The Senate’s bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act is not a healthcare bill. It’s a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, paid for by a dramatic reduction in healthcare funding for approximately 23 million poor, disabled, and working middle class Americans. Continue reading
The secret Republican plan to unravel Medicaid
Bad enough that the Republican Senate bill would repeal much of the Affordable Care Act. Continue reading
Once again, mainstream media does Pharma’s bidding
Taxpayers are stuck paying for the opioid crisis created by Big Pharma to make more money. Late last year, the Senate approved $1 billion of our money for “opioid prevention and treatment programs” as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. Continue reading
Nightmarish Senate version of Trumpcare
Details of both programs are now known. House and Senate versions are thinly veiled schemes to shift the burden of increasingly expensive healthcare onto the backs of millions of Americans unable to afford a fundamental human right. Continue reading
Trump: I will defend Medicaid. Also Trump: I support bill that destroys Medicaid.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters in an off-camera briefing on Friday that President Donald Trump remains “committed” to protecting recipients of Medicaid, a program he repeatedly vowed not to cut during his presidential campaign. Continue reading
GOP wants Medicaid abolished
Republicans want Medicare and Medicaid eliminated, marketplace medicine replacing both programs—obtaining healthcare based on the ability to pay. Continue reading
Why isn’t Big Pharma paying for the harm it caused like Big Tobacco?
Late last year, the Senate approved $1 billion of taxpayer money for “opioid prevention and treatment programs” as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. Yes, taxpayers are stuck paying for the opioid crisis which Big Pharma created for no other reason than to make more money. Continue reading
The deplorable state of healthcare in America
Healthcare in America is the world’s best—based on the ability to pay. Continue reading
Don’t fall for these pharma scare tactics
Long before the Internet and direct-to-consumer advertising, the medical profession tried to reassure people about their health concerns. Remember “take two aspirins and call me in the morning”? Continue reading
Congress wants to cut your health care—and billionaires’ taxes
But health care costs, not corporate taxes, are the real drain on the U.S. economy.
Members of the House GOP were in a hurry on May 4 to pass their bill to gut Obamacare. They rushed it through before anyone even had a chance to check its cost or calculate its impact on people’s access to insurance. Continue reading
Trump escalates attack on healthcare, women with rebranded and expanded global gag rule
‘The Global Gag Rule doesn't protect lives; it destroys them.’
President Donald Trump spent part of his first Monday in office following in the footsteps of other Republican presidents by reinstating the Global Gag Rule, officially known as the Mexico City Policy. Continue reading
US beef exports to China will resume. Who remembers why they stopped?
After the first mad cow, things got worse.
US cattlemen and agriculture professionals are ecstatic over China’s willingness to accept US beef imports for the first time in 13 years. Yet few reports articulate why the beef ban occurred in the first place. Continue reading
The moral travesty of Trumpcare
Shame on every one of the 217 Republicans who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, and substitute basically nothing. Continue reading
House passes pay or die Trumpcare
Obamacare was bad enough—a deplorable rationing scheme to enrich insurers, drug companies and large hospital chains. Continue reading
America’s health is in the hands of GOP frat boys
This just in: Health care is not a game. It’s a matter life or death for millions and millions of Americans. But you sure wouldn’t know it from watching Donald Trump and House Republicans celebrate their narrow victory on Thursday. Continue reading
For first time ever, majority of House Dems support ‘Medicare-for-All’ bill
A record-breaking 104 House Democrats are co-sponsoring a Medicare-for-All bill
As President Donald Trump and the GOP attempt once again to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a much crueler bill, House Democrats are pushing in the total opposite direction: as of Thursday, a record 104 have signed on to co-sponsor a Medicare-for-All bill. Continue reading
Chronic pain patients ill served by U.S. medicine
It is estimated that up to 66 percent of U.S. women and 45 percent of U.S. men live with chronic pain from spinal disorders like disc disease, pinched nerves and neck pain, to complex regional pain syndromes, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and headaches. Low back pain alone affects eight out of 10 people worldwide and is the fifth most common reason people visit a doctor. Continue reading
How Big Pharma’s profit machine has evolved
Thanks to drug safety scandals and new methods of marketing, the bloom had fallen off the Pharma reps’ roses.
More than a decade ago, the job of pharmaceutical rep was enviable. Direct-to-consumer advertising pre-sold many drugs so doctors already knew about them. Medical offices welcomed the reps who were usually physically attractive and brought lunch. In fact, reps sometimes had their own reception rooms in medical offices and seemed to see doctors before waiting patients. Continue reading
Trump threatens healthcare for poor in effort to cut healthcare for poor
President Donald Trump appears to be pursuing Republican strategy of sabotaging Affordable Care Act
Displaying deal-making skills that employ vulnerable citizens as bargaining chips, President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut off subsidies that help poor people afford health coverage in order to get Democrats to the negotiating table on repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Continue reading
Big Pharma profits from promoting drugs that cause harm
I recently interviewed Lawrence Golbom, author of ‘Not Safe As Prescribed.’ Continue reading
What U.S. poultry producers do not want you to know about bird flu
A bird flu outbreak exposes the unethical and deceptive practices of poultry producers.
Once again, bird flu is back in the U.S. From 2014 through mid-2015, 48 million chickens and turkeys were killed in the U.S. to prevent the disease’s spread and protect farmers’ profits. Continue reading
Trumpcare has long been with us
Posted on July 20, 2017 by Jack Balkwill
Watching CNN’S New Day health care exchange Tuesday morning I was ready to explode after Alisyn Camerota and Chris Cuomo traded words. Cuomo pointed out that many Republicans now favor simply doing nothing on health care until Obamacare falls apart, with, perhaps, a push from the president. He then remarked that a great many people would suffer. Continue reading →