The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform by John Geyman, MD, Common Courage Press. "You think the battle for real health care reform is over? John Geyman says 'Not on your life!' And, by the way, your life is what's at stake. This former Republican country doctor and long-time respected scholar, editor and advocate for reform that puts the patient, not the industry, first has issued an informed, convincing and passionate account of why the battle has just begun, and how we, the people, can win." - Bill Moyers ... Hijacked

Labor Campaign for Single Payer, August 9, 2010

On August 14, we will celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Social Security. Widely recognized as the most successful social program in US history, Social Security has lifted millions of senior citizens out of poverty. From orphaned children to disabled Americans, its supplemental programs provide an essential safety net to millions more. Together with Medicare, it exemplifies the social insurance model: providing coverage as a birthright to rich and poor alike with a single standard for all.

Analysts say Medicaid-heavy health plans also will be especially attractive to private equity firms and others. Emily Berry, American Medical News, August 9, 2010. As a newly reformed health system takes shape, private equity firms are eyeing investments in health plans. "Private equity funds are out to make money, to invest money, and they've got money they want to put to work now," said Chip Clark, partner in the provider care sector in Ernst & Young's North America Transaction Advisory Services practice. The practice, among other services, advises corporate clients on merger and acquisition strategies. ... Health

Johnathon S. Ross, MD, Toledo Blade, August 8, 2010 Medicare, which just turned 45, is a uniquely American program that should have been the model for health reform: no overwhelming bills, no denial of services, no limitations on what hospital patients can use or what doctor they can see. But instead of expanding and improving Medicare, Congress has added a third floor to a house with a crumbling foundation - our private, for-profit, insurance-based system of financing health care. ... Medicare

How States Are Keeping the Movement Alive. Michael Corcoran, Truthout, August 2, 2010 The grassroots single-payer movement in Vermont reflects the growing belief that the fight to make health care a human right must come from the states. But will the passage of federal reform get in the way? When Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March, many thought the long and tedious stretch of legislative wrangling and endless debates about health care reform had come to an end and the prospects for further meaningful reform would be shelved for years or decades. ... Single

Joan Brunwasser, OpEdNews, August 2, 2010 The new health law tinkers around the edges of our failed healthcare system. As long as we have private insurance in the mix, we will continue to see millions of people uninsured, tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and bankruptcies, poor health outcomes, more bureaucracy, corporate greed and the world's most expensive health care system get more expensive. Healthcare NOW seeks ... health justice based on the merits of single-payer financing which will ensure that everyone can access the health care they need without rationing by ability to pay. ... Healthcare

Robert Pear, New York Times, August 2, 2010 Washington - In late March, after passage of the landmark health care legislation, the Obama administration sent a sternly worded notice to insurance companies, saying they must cover children, regardless of any pre-existing conditions. Insurers acceded to the demand, and the White House declared victory. But it came at a price. Four months later some insurers said they would stop writing new coverage for children in the individual insurance market. If parents could buy “child only” policies at any time for any reason, they might wait until their children got sick, insurers said. The White House backpedaled last week ... Covering

Julie Weed, New York Times, August 1, 2010 Two years ago, the supply system at Seattle Children's hospital was so unreliable that Susanne Matthews, a nurse in the intensive-care unit, would stockpile stuff - catheters in the closet, surgical dressings in patients' dresser drawers and clamps in the nurse's office. And she wasn't the only one. "Nurses get very anxious when we can't get our hands on the tools we need for our patients," Matthews says, "so we grabbed them when we saw them, and stashed them away." This, in turn, made the shortages more acute. ... Factory

Janet Lavelle, San Diego Union-Tribune, August 1, 2010 Get sick and head to the emergency room. That’s what an increasing number of people have been doing as the region grows, more workers are losing their jobs and health insurance in the weak economy, and an aging population confronts unfamiliar medical challenges. Hospital officials around the county have scrambled to keep up with the influx, which they say has been growing by 5 percent to 10 percent each year. Scripps Mercy’s story fits the trend. Before drastic changes were made earlier this year to improve the situation, crowding in its emergency department created distressing wait times. ... Hospitals

AAP, August 1, 2010 Nurses have slammed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's plan to make more aged-care beds available, saying it will result in a crisis in the sector. The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) says a policy which pledges to make more beds available must also include measures aimed at boosting nurse numbers. Mr Abbott has promised a $935 million package that would free up 3000 beds for high-care aged-care patients. The program would begin immediately if Mr Abbott was elected, with funding of $90 million for incentive payments to nursing home operators. ... Nurses

Donna Smith, CommonDreams, July 27, 2010 Since the health insurance reform bill passed this past spring, you’d think we suddenly stopped having American patients die and suffer unimaginable horror at the hands of the corporate owned and operated healthcare business system in the United States. No one tells the stories. The reality is that patients were props, and they just aren’t needed as props any more. An estimated 45,000 preventable deaths occurring in these United States annually due to the lack of access to appropriate healthcare marches on. That does not account for those dead from other preventable causes like medical error. 45,000 every year. ... Who

Alex Nussbaum, Bloomberg, July 23, 2010 UnitedHealth Group Inc. and insurers in Florida and Oklahoma stopped offering children-only health coverage because of the potential added costs of sick youngsters under the new US health-care law, state officials said today. UnitedHealth’s Golden Rule subsidiary won’t sell new policies that cover only children, foreclosing an option for parents seeking cheaper care, Kevin McCarty, Florida’s insurance commissioner, said at a meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in Washington, DC. Tyler Mason, a UnitedHealth spokesman, disputed the statement in a telephone interview ... Health

Restricts involvement with health care industry. Liz Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, July 21, 2010 Harvard Medical School will prohibit its 11,000 faculty from giving promotional talks for drug and medical device makers and accepting personal gifts, travel, or meals, under a new policy intended partly to guard against companies’ use of Harvard’s prestige to market their products. The conflict-of-interest rules also place stricter limits on the income faculty can earn from companies for consulting, joining boards, and other work; require public reporting of payments of at least $5,000 on a medical school website; and promise more robust internal reporting ... Harvard

Ruth Hertzman-Miller MD, MPH, Malgorzata Dawiskiba, MD & Cassie Frank, MD, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, Massachusetts, New England Journal of Medicine, August 5, 2010

A lower nurse-to-patient ratio results in significantly fewer patient deaths and less professional burnout. Suzanne Gordon, Boston Globe, August 5, 2010 For over a decade now, nurses in Massachusetts and other states have been warning that both the state and federal government need to pass laws to regulate hospital nursing workloads in order to protect patients and the public. For RNs everywhere, the model is the one-of-a-kind ratios law, originally passed in California in 1999 and finally implemented, over the objections of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, six years ago. ... Critical