Joe Biden, 2006: “I do not view abortion as a choice and a right. I think it’s always a tragedy”
Biden said he was 'odd man out' with Democrats on abortion in 2006
House agrees to fund September 11th Victims Compensation Fund until 2090, one day after Jon Stewart's emotional plea
Bill would extend fund expiration to 2090, no specific amount, whatever funds needed.
Judge recuses himself from health insurance cancer-denial case because he considers the company "immoral" and "barbaric"
US District Judge Robert N Scola recused himself from a class action suit against Unitedhealthcare that alleges that Unitedhealthcare denied them promising proton beam cancer treatments by falsely claiming that they were "experimental." Read the rest
Here's how to help women in Alabama get an abortion
Here's how to help women who need and/or want an abortion in Alabama.
Alabama senate passes bill to ban abortion even in rape and incest cases
“Alabama is one signature away from enacting a near-total ban on abortions.”
Texas lawmakers want Death Penalty for women who get abortions
They're pro-life, you see.
Trump Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Varma tweets obscene Halloween joke
It's not funny. Read the rest
HACKED: U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); 75K individuals affected
The United States Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said Friday it was responding to a data breach that exposed the files of about 75,000 people. Read the rest
There's an EpiPen shortage. Parents of kids with serious allergies prepare for back-to-school without the life saving medication.
The EpiPen is a widely used medical device that delivers emergency medication to prevent someone with a severe allergic reaction from going into anaphylactic shock. There's a shortage of EpiPens across the United States. Parents of kids with serious allergies are worried about sending their kids back to school without one. Read the rest
60 Congressional Democrats form a Medicare For All caucus
When Bernie Sanders made a bid for the Democratic presidential candidacy in 2016 with a pledge of "Medicare For All," the party establishment (coffers fattened with money from the health insurance industry) claimed that the policy was a nonstarter that would never find popular support. Read the rest
Blue Cross employees are instructed to donate to the boss's daughter, a "Democrat" who opposes single-payer
Gretchen Whitmer wants to be the Democratic governor of Michigan, and she has distinguished herself from her opponents Abdul El-Sayed, and Shri Thanedar by opposing single-payer healthcare and endorsing the broken, expensive, murderous private system, a subject she has deep expertise in thanks to being raised by Richard Whitmer, who built the family fortune during his 18-year tenure as president of Blue Cross of Michigan. Read the rest
Million-dollar lotto winner finally can afford a doctor visit, discovers he has terminal cancer and promptly dies
Donald Savastano was a self-employed carpenter eking out a marginal living without retirement savings or health insurance; when he won the $1 million jackpot in New York's "Merry Millionaire" lotto, he could finally afford to see a doctor to check out his long-term sense of unwellness. Read the rest
Incentives matter: America's for-profit medical industry thrives on massive wastage, unnecessary procedures, overbilling and overtreating
The first time I interacted with the US medical system was when I was a student at Michigan State University with a comprehensive travel insurance package my bank sold me before I left Canada: the cafeteria food gave me my first case of acid reflux and after it had persisted for several days, I went to the walk-in clinic on campus. Read the rest
America's private health-care is rationed, but socialized medicine is luxury medicine
To hear America's fearmongering private health-care shills describe it, socialized medicine is a kind of Soviet death march, where rationed care and long waits are imposed on all and sundry; but if that state of affairs sounds familiar, it's because of how neatly it describes America's dysfunctional private care system, where you need to change doctors every time you change employers, where your care is denied and your prescriptions are deemed unnecessary by faceless insurance-company bureaucrats, and where three quarters of your family doctor's overheads are dedicated to filling in insurance forms in triplicate and chasing payment in a kind of LARP of Terry Gilliam's Brazil or a Stalinist hospital in deepest Siberia. Read the rest
Here are the three most common dishonest arguments used to derail universal healthcare proposals
The US is the only developed country in the world without universal healthcare. Americans pay more for their healthcare than anyone else, and get significantly worse outcomes than people in every other developed nation. The majority of Americans support universal healthcare. And yet, we are told that universal healthcare is impossible in America. Read the rest
The copay assumes the 99% treat healthcare like spiteful buffet gorgers
The basis for the health-insurance copay is that the 99% need to be disincentivized from "abusing" their health-care and going to the doctor for frivolous ailments (if this was really a thing, we'd have sliding-scale copays that charged rich people astounding sums to see the doctor, to ensure that everyone's incentives were properly aligned). Read the rest
Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and 15+ key Democratic Senators back Medicare for All
It's "single payer" and not "universal health care" and there some potential structural pitfalls in this incarnation, but Sanders, Warren and the two dozen progressive and health activist groups who've backed this proposal are planting a flag and declaring that healthcare is not something that markets can provide -- it's the duty and right of civilized states to protect the health of the people who live in their borders. Read the rest
