2019-12-09: News Headlines

Eoin Higgins, staff writer (2019-12-09). Setting Gallup Record, Quarter of Americans Say They or Family Member Delayed Medical Care Over Cost in Last Year. commondreams.org "This is the 'choice based' system Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg want to preserve." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

IMEMC News & Agencies (2019-12-09). Hunger-striker in Serious Condition. imemc.org Ahmad Zahran, a Palestinian administrative detainee held in Israeli jails who has been on hunger strike for 78 consecutive days, in protest against his incarceration without charge or trial, is in serious health condition and has been admitted to an Israeli hospital, today, said the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS). Zahran, …

WSWS (2019-12-09). Samoa: Anger grows over escalating measles toll. wsws.org The deadly Samoan measles epidemic is worsening amid a global resurgence of the disease.

commondreams (2019-12-09). Medicare for All in the Spotlight at Tuesday Hearing; Public Citizen Experts Available to Explain Why It Is the Only Viable Health Care System. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Julian Rose (2019-12-09). Polish Minister of Health Proposes Carcinogenic 5G Emission Levels as National Norm. counterpunch.org Hundreds of letters are pouring into the office of Polish Minister of Health, Lukaz Szumowski, from Polish citizens and people all over the world, responding to Mr Szumowski's proposition to exponentially raise the officially recognized limit for cell phone emissions. Under the proposed change, new emission levels will be aligned with the introduction of 5G More

Staff (2019-12-09). From Health Insurance Spin Doctor to Truth Teller. truthout.org "I was getting people to make decisions based on misleading information that could have life or death consequences." | That's Wendell Potter, the former head of public relations for CIGNA. As the executive spin doctor for one of the biggest health insurance companies in the country, he was responsible for concocting tales that enabled CIGNA to deny coverage, discredit critics, and otherwise cast the corporate health insurance machine in a positive light. That was until the numbers in his spreadsheets became actual people…

Martin Fleck (2019-12-09). On Human Rights Day, Let's Abolish Nuclear Weapons. progressive.org A nuclear war would create one of the worst humanitarian crises imaginable, one for which no nation would have an adequate emergency or health response.

Great Game India (2019-12-09). Winston Churchill and "the Indian Holocaust": The Bengal Famine of 1943. globalresearch.ca A new study by Indian and American researchers confirm how Winston Churchill caused the Bengal Famine and starved over 3 million Indians to death. Glorified as the "Saviour of the World" in the west and dubbed the "Butcher of Bengal" …

news.un (2019-12-09). Inequality threatening human development, new global UN report warns. news.un.org Despite global progress in tackling poverty, hunger and disease, a "new generation of inequalities" indicates that many societies are not working as they should, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) argues in its latest report released on Monday.

Ian S. Thompson (2019-12-09). Three Ways the "Fairness for All Act" Doesn't Protect LGBTQ People from Discrimination. aclu.org On Friday, Congressman Chris Stewart (R-Utah) and | several of his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives introduced | the so-called "Fairness for All Act." The bill is being described by its | supporters as a compromise that protects both LGBTQ people and religious | liberty. | In reality, the bill facilitates the Trump | administration's ongoing efforts to give a greenlight to those who would turn | LGBTQ people away from jobs, health care, housing, even taxpayer-funded | programs, simply because of who they are. The bill also weakens some | longstanding protections in federal and state laws…

Jon Queally, staff writer (2019-12-09). 'An Abomination': Sanders Decries Reality in Which GoFundMe Has a 'Six Cancer Fundraising Tips' Webpage. commondreams.org Not upset with with the crowdfunding service for providing resources to those in desperate need, 2020 presidential candidate lashed out against a system that creates the need for such campaigns in the first place. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

The Canary (2019-12-08). Labour says more than 4,600 deaths are linked to 'Tory cutbacks' in the NHS. thecanary.co Over 4,600 deaths between October 2018 and November 2019 can be linked to patient safety incidents in the NHS, Labour has said.Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said patient safety data submitted to the NHS's National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) showed 4,668 deaths were down to unintended or unexpected incidents which led to harm.He added that the data illustrates how under-funding of the NHS, lack of investment and staffing pressures under the Conservatives have impacted on patient safety.Ashworth said: These figures are heartbreaking and our thoughts are with the families who have lost a loved one in…

news.un (2019-12-05). UN team aids Samoa response to deadly measles epidemic. news.un.org UN teams are on the ground in Samoa as the country combats a deadly measles epidemic. So far, there have been more than 4,200 cases and 62 deaths, mainly babies, prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency on 15 November and launch a mass vaccination campaign five days later.

news.un (2019-12-05). Measles 'misinformation campaigns' through social media, fuel rising toll. news.un.org Measles deaths and infections in 2019 are set to "substantially exceed" last year's toll when more than 142,000 people died from the preventable disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Eds. (2019-12-05). Influenced by corporate America: Adoption of dangerous social policies 'destined to cause death'. mronline.org For the past ten years, I have been identifying and reporting the inevitable preventable harm created by the adoption of neoliberal politics, the planned demolition of the UK welfare state and the influence of Unum Insurance since 1992 with successive British government(s). | Source

Staff (2019-12-05). Sweden Provides Free Higher Education, Universal Healthcare, Free Daycare — Why Can't the U.S.? democracynow.org Medicare for All and tuition-free universities have been at the core of the 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns, creating a stark division between progressive candidates and their centrist counterparts. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have proposed to make Medicare for All and public universities cost-free by taxing massive corporations and the super wealthy, and earlier this year, Sanders introduced legislation that would cancel student loan debt. His plan would be paid for with a new tax on Wall Street, he says. It would also make public universities and community colleges free — a key pil…

news.un (2019-12-04). Malaria: Focus on pregnant women and children, stresses UN health agency report. news.un.org While more pregnant women and children are being protected against malaria than before, more fast-tracking and greater funding are needed to reinvigorate the global response, according to a new United Nations report launched on Wednesday.

Alan Macleod (2019-12-04). Insurance Companies Are Spending Millions on Attack Ads Against Medicare for All. mintpressnews.com Healthcare corporations are spending millions of dollars on astroturfed attack ads against Medicare for All. The Partnership for America's Healthcare Future, for example, a coalition of hospitals and insurance companies, has spent $1 million on a television campaign against changes to the current healthcare system they profit from. | The commercial presents the Partnership as a grassroots organization of concerned citizens, rather than that corporate front group exposed by The Intercept that it is. It features a range of actors of different races, ages and occupations expressing their concern over Medicare for Al…

Sarah Jaffe (2019-12-03). What the U.K. Election Tells Us About Universal Health Care. progressive.org Across the political spectrum, the British are clear: American-style health care is a terrible idea.

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-17). Warren's Head Tax Is Not More Popular Than A Payroll Tax. peoplespolicyproject.org As we know by now, Elizabeth Warren's Medicare head tax proposal is a regressive mess ( I, II, III, IV). Warren's team knows this. The goal of the proposal i…

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-17). CAP's Topher Spiro Is Trying to Deceive Journalists By Lying. peoplespolicyproject.org It's been fun to see how the Center for American Progress (CAP) navigates this year's presidential election. For insider political reasons, they can't support Biden or Sanders. But for a long time, it was unclear who the alternative candidate they could support would be. | When Kamala Harris was rising, CAP's staff was doing overtime boosting her on Twitter and in the press, including boosting Harris's absurd health care proposal. But Harris's collapse put an end to that strategy. Recently Warren has risen as the alternative and so CAP has been working to promote her campaign, which puts CAP in the comical positi…

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-03). Warren's Medicare Head Tax Would Be About $9,500. peoplespolicyproject.org On Friday, I wrote a piece arguing that Elizabeth Warren's use of an employer head tax was not a good way to fund Medicare for All and that instead the more conventional choices of income and payroll taxes would be better. The reason they are better is because income and payroll taxes are based on how much income you receive while a head tax charges the same dollar amount for every worker regardless of their income, making it much more onerous on the lower and middle classes. | This point holds…

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-02). What Is a Middle Class Tax Hike? Am I Losing My Mind? peoplespolicyproject.org I have been swimming in the Medicare for All waters for over a decade now, going back to when I worked on the Ralph Nader presidential campaign that made Medicare for All its number one issue. And during this time, I developed a specific understanding of what we might call the M4A Financing Problem. | The Problem: | The M4A Financing Problem, in simple terms, is that even if you bring in existing federal spending on health care, existing state spending on health care, and a bunch of new rich-people taxes, you still fall short of financing the program. Thus to actually complete the financing, you have to u…

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-01). Warren's Perpetual Medicare Head Tax Is Unworkable and Bad. peoplespolicyproject.org Elizabeth Warren released her Medicare for All financing plan today. The main purpose of the proposal appears to be to find a plan that you can message as "not increasing middle class taxes," which is of course a nonsensical goal insofar, as Warren herself has said, what matters is middle class health care costs, not whether you categorize those costs as premiums, taxes, or out-of-pocket expenses. | Nonetheless, bowing to the stupid media discourse on this, Warren put forward a financing pro…

Paul Kawika Martin (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 …