If you think we’re not paying for people who don’t have health insurance, think again.
A new study by Families USA shows a family with health insurance paid $1017 in extra premiums in 2008 to cover the costs of people who can’t afford care; individuals paid $368.
Families USA calls it the hidden health tax.
The hidden health tax [...]
Congress is considering raising the tax on alcohol to help fund health care. The beer tax would go from 33 cents to 81 cents a six pack. Wine would go from 21 cents per bottle to 70 cents per bottle. Tax on a fifth of liquor would go from $2.14 to $2.54.
Considering federal cigarette taxes [...]
U.S. Rep. James Inhofe said the other day, in defense of keeping the prison at Guantanamo Bay open, that any prisoner over age 55 could get a colonoscopy, admitting that the prisoners there get better health care tham most Americans.
In defense of Gitmo, Inhofe has admitted that our health care system is in shambles.
I get [...]
I went to a meeting of the Health Access Coalition today in Raleigh. The coalition is a group of organizations seeking to get health care for all Americans.
We’re a diverse group with diverse opinions. There were some single-payer-system advocates who were truly angry about the idea being rejected out of hand by Congress. They were passionate [...]
Just days after a so-called “watershed moment ” (President Obama’s words, not mine), the people who promised to cut costs by 1.5 percent a year for the next 10 years, thus saving the country $2 trillion, have backed off.
“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding that has caused a lot of consternation among our members,” Richard [...]
Several people have told me they’re afraid of health care rationing if the government gets involved in fixing the system.
In fact, rationing is one of the words Frank Luntz has said will work to derail meaningful reform.
“You’re not going to get what you want,” he told conservatives, “but you can kill what they’re trying to [...]
The health care industry has sait it can cut costs 1.5 percent a year for 10 years, thus saving $2 trillion.
My question is: Why couldn’t they do it before they were threatened with reform?
The answer, I assume, is that they didn’t think they had to.
Now they’re afraid their profits will fall by a lot more [...]
Pollster Frank Luntz has published a memo to Republicans telling them what language to use in killing efforts at federal health care reform.
He advises people to ask, “Do you want bureaucrats to make decisions on your health care?”
My answer to that is another question: Who do you think is making the decisions now?
Answer: Some insurance [...]
“My niece, who worked all of her adult life and was very independent, became ill at her last job under which she had no insurance. (Sound familiar?) She delayed seeking health care, and when she finally agreed to some help she was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer (called GIST) with a 17 cm tumor, and [...]
I got a call from a panicky woman the other day, not knowing what to do about her mother, who is 53 years old, very ill and has lost her health care.
Once I calmed her down a little, I got the story. Her mother finally got Social Security Disability three years after she stopped working because [...]