(2019-08-05). 'KamalaCare' Fails to Address Big Problem: That We Cannot Trust Insurance Companies. commondreams.org Harris' plan overestimates the government's ability to keep for-profit health insurance companies from driving up health care spending and denying people needed care. (Photo: Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-08-05). Johnson accused of misleading voters over £1.8bn NHS cash injection. thecanary.co 
Labour has accused Boris Johnson of misleading voters over a promised £1.8bn cash injection for the National Health Service.The prime minister said his latest high-profile announcement from the Government represented genuine "new money" for the service.However, shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said ministers were now simply releasing funds which had previously been blocked.Downing Street insisted the money was new, with £850m going to 20 hospital upgrades, while £1bn was for capital spending.Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth has accused Mr Johnson of misleading voters over NHS spending (P…
(2019-08-05). Is the Rise in Lyme Disease Due to Weaponized Ticks? therealnews.com 
Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases affects 400,000 Americans each year, and the reported cases are rising. Did the pentagon weaponized ticks and unleash them on an unsuspecting public? We discuss the possibility with science writer Kris Newby…
(2019-08-05). Demonizing Immigrants and Mental Health Conditions Is Not A Solution to Gun Violence. commondreams.org ______________________________…
(2019-08-05). Costa Rican Health Workers Begin Strike Against Privatization. telesurenglish.net Costa Rican health workers started a general strike Monday for 48 hours in demand for strong health services and to defend the Costa Rican Social Security (CCSS). | RELATED: | Costa Rica Celebrates the Month of Afrodescendence | Workers associated with the health sector's Trade Union Front began the stoppage, which will last until early Wednesday as reported by…
(2019-08-05). Rethinking Medicare for All — slightly. nationofchange.org After listening to the second set of Democratic debates, I realized that there exists a substantial divide among the presidential candidates on the question of whether private healthcare plans should be abolished once Medicare for All is provided by the government. I think that the question can be answered by looking at the way the education system is run in Finland. | "If you require all Americans to be insured through the same system, then the wealthy Americans are in the same boat with everyone else. Instead of wasting energy trying to cut services from the government health system (and trying to save money…
(2019-08-05). Take Away My Employer-Based Health Insurance. Please. progressive.org Centrist Democrats like Joe Biden still aim to gin up mass fear over the prospect of leaving behind predatory insurers and the dizzying array of deductibles, co-pays, exclusions, humiliations, and rationing of care that characterizes our current syst…
(2019-08-05). Environmental groups sue BLM for not conducting environmental reviews in New Mexico fracking permits. nationofchange.org Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, the Sierra Club, WildEarth Guardian, and other environmental and indigenous groups have filed a suit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for approving over 250 oil and gas drilling permits in New Mexico without conducting any environmental reviews. | The groups allege that in the 255 permits approved by the BLM between 2016 and now, the bureau "did not conduct any analysis of fracking's impacts on the environment," and therefore completely failed to consider the environmental and public health impacts of fracking. | Rather than conduct environmental review…
(2019-08-05). New Zealand Plans to Decriminalize Abortion. telesurenglish.net New Zealand plans to decriminalize abortion and declare it a health issue, the government in Auckland announced on Monday in the country's first major attempt to reform these laws in more than four decades. | RELATED: | New Zealand Struck by Massive 7.4 Earthquake | According to reports, the legislation aims to reform the abortion laws that were put in place in 1977. Furthermore, the government moves to propose a law that would allow women to have access to abortion until 20 weeks of pregnancy.
(2019-08-05). Europe Says 'No Safe Level' of Brain-Damaging Pesticide Trump EPA Refused to Ban. globalresearch.ca European food safety regulators have found there is no safe level of exposure for a brain-damaging pesticide President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency recently refused to ban. | The European Food Safety Authority said today that chlorpyrifos, widely used on fruits and …
(2019-08-05). Car Explosion Kills 19 at Cancer Institute in Central Cairo. telesurenglish.net At least nineteen people were killed and 30 more were wounded in an explosion resulting from a car crash in central Cairo, Egypt's health ministry said early on Monday. | RELATED: | 'The Saudi Way': Egypt Expatriates Minister Vows to 'Slice up' Critics Living Abroad | According to Egyptian-based media, the powerful explosion near the medical facility was caused by the detonation of an oxygen cylinder that was inside of a car that collided with another vehicle i…
(2019-08-05). Demonizing Immigrants and Mental Health Conditions is Not a Solution to Gun Violence. indybay.org Responding to President Donald Trump's speech following a spate of mass shootings over the weekend, Ernest Coverson, Amnesty International USA's End Gun Violence campaign manager said: "Gun violence reform cannot come at the expense of the human rights of any community. When President Trump links background checks for guns with immigration reform, he is once again demonizing immigrants and communities of color. The Trump administration will stop at nothing to shut down the border and limit safety to those who most need it. It is outrageous to denounce bigotry in one breath and terrorize the community that was tar…
(2019-08-05). RNs of National Nurses United Say Racism, Xenophobia Combined With Lax Gun Control Laws At Root of Mass Shooting Epidemic. indybay.org August 04, 2019 – The 150,000 registered nurses of National Nurses United (NNU) are sickened and angered as we bear witness to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; and Gilroy, Calif. Horrifically, these three mass shootings have claimed the lives of at least 32 people, and left dozens of others injured. NNU represent nurses in all three locations.
(2019-08-05). The fascist attack in Gilroy and the US epidemic of mass shootings. indybay.org [August 3: This article is republished here the same day yet another white supremacist has killed at least 20 people in El Paso, Texas, less than a week after the racist attack at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy.]…
(2019-08-05). Study calls for closure of over half all health clinics in Germany. wsws.org With the argument that only the closure of clinics can achieve more staffing, better equipment and higher quality, the report calls for the closure of 800 of Germany's 1,400 hospitals.
(2019-08-05). 'We can deliver medicines' says Hancock as Labour asks if the £1.8bn NHS cash is actually new. thecanary.co 
The Government has guaranteed "full plans" are in place to deliver an unhindered supply of medicines in the event of a no-deal Brexit. | Health Secretary Matt Hancock also said a £1.8bn 'boost' for the NHS has nothing to do with preparing for a possible general election. Meanwhile, Labour questioned whether it was actually "new money". | Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain, Hancock said: "I guarantee that we now have all plans in place to make sure that the NHS will be prepared whatever the Brexit scenario." | He added: "There are 12,000 medicines that are generally prescribed, licensed to be prescribed…
(2019-08-04). On Medicare's 54th Birthday, Another Year Closer To Winning Medicare For All. dissidentvoice.org 
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare Act. Within a year, and without the aid of computers, the United States provided more than 19 million seniors with health coverage. Before the law existed, over half of the elderly in the United States did not have health insurance. Medicare, which now includes people with disabilities, …
(2019-08-04). Author discusses 'monstrous' prospects for NHS after no-deal Brexit. thecanary.co This is part 2 of a 2 part interview with political analyst Tim Coles. Part 1 focuses on the historical context and harsh reality of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). | In his new book Privatized Planet: Free Trade as a Weapon Against Democracy, Healthca…
(2019-08-03). Protest against police violence at Inland Port sit in. fightbacknews.org Salt Lake City, UT — "Protect and serve, that's a lie! Speaking up is not a crime!" chanted protesters, outside the SLCPD Public Health and Safety Building, July 23. More than 60 people had gathered for a Utah Against Police Brutality (UAPB) rally held in response to the excessive police violence used against the peaceful protesters occupying the Chamber of Commerce in downtown SLC on July 9, in response to the proposed Inland Port development. | At the Inland Port protest, police responded to protesters with violence, pushing and shoving community members, including those in the designated ADA section, inj…
(2019-08-02). Ex-Health Insurance Exec: Industry Is Using Decades-Old Scare Tactics to Fight Medicare for All. democracynow.org 
The Democratic presidential candidates remain deeply divided on how to expand healthcare to the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured or underinsured. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have both pushed for abolishing private health insurance and establishing a Medicare for All system. Their rivals have pushed a number of different, more incremental approaches. During the first night of the latest debates, Sanders pointed out that the country has taken sweeping action before to expand health coverage to millions of Americans, referring to the 50th anniversary of the creation of Medicare and Me…
(2019-08-02). CNN's Attempted Hit Job on Sanders and Warren. counterpunch.org 
I was unable to watch all the CNN Democratic presidential candidates' debate last Tuesday night, but every time I looked in it was stuck on one of the three following themes: #1. Conservative CNN "moderators" and absurdly marginal corporate Democrat pseudo-candidates like John Hickenlooper and John Delaney attacking the mildly social-democratish neo-New Deal progressive Bernie More
(2019-08-02). 2nd Dem Debate Pt 2: To Impeach, or Not to Impeach? That Is the Question. (4/4). therealnews.com 
While Democrats struggle with the question of impeachment, the healthcare debate is getting mired in minutiae and some voters are calling for a working class party. With Kimberly Moffitt, Jacqueline Luqman, and Marc Steiner as host…
(2019-08-02). The Environmental Crimes of the Trump Administration. counterpunch.org 
The word environment usually refers to what is around us: air, water, house, trees, grass, town. However, with the broadening of human understanding about the effects of pollution and industry on human health and wildlife, environment received the philosophical and legal definition of human responsibility of protecting both human health and the health of the More
(2019-08-02). Over 100 Killed in Another Mediterannean Shipwreck as Europe Watches. therealnews.com 
Frédéric Penard discusses the efforts of small NGOs to rescue refugees crossing the Mediterranean, against the efforts of European governments to block the entry of people fleeing war and famine…
(2019-08-02). Security Council gravely concerned by Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, demands immediate end to violence hampering response. un.org The UN Security Council on Friday expressed grave concern about the current Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and stressed the urgency of broad cooperation in the response, as "the disease could spread rapidly, including to neighbouring countries, possibly having serious humanitarian consequences and impacting regional stability."
(2019-08-02). Venezuela: Chavista militants killed as rural violence continues. greenleft.org.au 
Six activists from the grassroots Revolutionary Bolivar and Zamora Current ( CRBZ) were assassinated in Barinas State on July 27. | The victims, one of whom was pregnant, were part of the Hugo Chavez Popular Defence Brigades organised by the CRBZ in Barinas, Tachira, and other states regularly plagued by landowner violence against campesinos. | No information is yet known about the assailants, but the CRBZ claimed in their statement that they had "military…
(2019-08-02). Roaming Charges: Measure for Half-Measure. counterpunch.org 
If you haven't been paying attention to the Democratic Party for the last 40 years and just now tuned into the presidential debates, you might be shocked at how hostile it is to even debating the modest and sensible ideas proposed by Sanders & Warren. With each mention of "single payer," "free college," or "green new deal," the Party writhes wildly like Linda Blair's possessed body being sprinkled with Holy Water. More
(2019-08-02). Killer heat in the United States: Climate Choices and The Future of Dangerously Hot Days. mronline.org 
Extreme heat is poised to rise steeply in frequency and severity over the coming decades, bringing unprecedented health risks for people and communities across the country. | Source
(2019-08-01). Cornel West: Corporate Media's Superficial Coverage Helped Create "Fascist Frankenstein Trump" democracynow.org 
On Tuesday night, Senator Bernie Sanders openly criticized CNN's handling of the debates. He told CNN's Jake Tapper, "Your question is a Republican talking point. And by the way, the healthcare industry will be advertising tonight on this program." We speak with Cornel West and Dolores Huerta about the media coverage and the structure of the debate.
(2019-08-01). Grocery workers ready to strike in southern CA. fightbacknews.org Los Angeles, CA – Over 40 supporters picketed outside of Ralphs grocery store on Sunset Boulevard, July 31. The store's United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike authorization in June. | Ralphs, Albertsons and Vons grocery employees have been without a contract since March of 2019. In March, the corporations wanted to slash checker pay by 25%, eliminate payouts of unpaid sick days, give no overall wage increases, nor contributions to health care and pension plans, among many other unacceptable contract setbacks. Negotiations for 60,000 workers in Southern California are co…
(2019-08-01). Thanks Miranda Devine, but we will win abortion reform. greenleft.org.au 
Thank you Miranda Devine for your wild overreaction to the bill before NSW parliament to treat abortion as a health issue ("Vote Libs, get Greens", Daily Telegraph, July 31), as it will no doubt lose you and News.com support. | It must also surely rank as top fake news of the week. Far from being "one of the most dangerous radical abortion bills on the planet", the bill is modelled on existing Queensland and Victorian law. | Moreover, your view that Coalition MPs' support for basic health care for women is somehow a Labor-Green plot is equally bizarre. This bill is not about late-term abortions, as you suggest. I…
(2019-07-31). 2nd Democratic Debate, Pt 1: Battle Over Medicare for All and Fixing Immigration (2/3). therealnews.com 
The debate allowed candidates to show how support for Medicare for All and humanity at the U.S. border are key issues in 2020. With guests Kimberly Moffit and Jeet Heer, hosted by Marc Steiner…
(2019-07-31). Sanders & Warren Fight "Republican Talking Point" That Medicare for All Is About Reducing Coverage. democracynow.org 
Ten Democratic presidential candidates took to the stage in Detroit, Michigan, on Tuesday night for the first of a two-night debate hosted by CNN. The debate began with an extended discussion on healthcare, where progressive candidates Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended their platforms of Medicare for All against more moderate candidates who argued this stance is political suicide. We speak with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, former Michigan gubernatorial candidate.
(2019-07-31). "We Don't Want Another President Obama": Activist Urges Democrats to Reframe Immigration Debate. democracynow.org 
Democratic candidates also sparred on immigration policy, from decriminalizing border crossing to providing healthcare to undocumented immigrants. We hear excerpts of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as well as Montana Governor Steve Bullock. Plus we speak to Erika Andiola, chief advocacy officer for RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.
(2019-07-31). FROM THE FIELD: Turning waste into a business in the slums of Yaoundé, Cameroon. un.org The increasing volume and complexity of waste associated with modern economies is posing a serious risk to ecosystems and human health. Every year, an estimated 11.2 billion tons of solid waste are collected worldwide, according to the UN Environment Programme.
(2019-07-30). Four Immigrants Have Died at Stewart ICE Jail in Georgia. Advocates Want It Shut Down. democracynow.org 
A 44-year-old immigrant from Mexico died last week at Stewart Detention Center, one of the largest immigration jails in the United States and one that has been plagued by allegations of neglect and abuse for years. Pedro Arriago-Santoya was the fourth person to die at Stewart in just two years and the seventh person to die while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement since October. An immigration judge had ordered Arriago-Santoya be deported in June. Instead, he was transferred to Stewart on July 10 as his removal proceedings continued. Two weeks later he was pronounced dead at a Georgia hospital.
(2019-07-30). UNICEF must triple budget to combat Ebola outbreak in DR Congo; complex crisis impacting unprecedented number of children. un.org With an unprecedented number of children affected by the Ebola virus outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday said it would need to triple its budget to tackle the complex crisis, which included intensifying the overall public health response and launching measles vaccinations.
(2019-07-30). Venezuela: Six Chavista Militants Killed in Fresh Rural Violence. venezuelanalysis.com Landowner violence continues to plague the Venezuelan countryside.
(2019-07-28). 'We are the vaccine against unilateralism': Non-Aligned Movement gathers in Venezuela to resist dictatorship of dollar. thegrayzone.com The Grayzone reports from the 2019 Non-Aligned Movement, where delegates from over 120 nations offered a crucial endorsement of Venezuelan…
(2019-07-25). Hahnemann University Hospital closure planned: Profit vs. people's lives. liberationnews.org 
At the end of June, American Academic Health System corporation announced that they are closing Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, which they have owned since January 2018.
(2019-07-25). This County Criminalized Students for Bad Grades — Until Now. aclu.org Today, we filed a landmark settlement that will end the relationship between the probation department and school districts in Riverside. | Since 2001, the Riverside County, California probation department has been needlessly funneling young people struggling with grades, behavior, trauma, and mental health into the criminal justice system. | This direct line to the criminal system is the product of a partnership between local school districts and the county probation department called the Youth Accountability Team (YAT). Instead of counselors or other school and community-based supports stepping in to support and…
(2019-06-19). House Casts Historic Vote to Repeal Authorization for Endless War. peaceaction.org Washington, D.C. — June 19, 2019 — In response to the House of Representatives passing H.R. 2740 (Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Legislative Branch, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2020), which includes language to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) eight months after …