(2019-11-21). The "Free" Flu Shot Comes at a Startlingly High Cost. truthout.org In the Byzantine world of health care pricing, most people wouldn't expect that the ubiquitous flu shot could be a prime example of how the system's lack of transparency can lead to disparate costs. | The Affordable Care Act requires health insurers to cover all federally recommended vaccines at no charge to patients, including flu immunizations. Although people with insurance pay nothing when they get their shot, many don't realize that their insurers foot the bill — and that those companies will recoup their c…
(2019-11-21). A Violent Epidemic Is Taking American Lives. commondreams.org From Oct 1, 2018, through Sept. 30, 2019, they documented 331 murders of trans and gender-diverse people around the world. (Photo: kthtrnr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-11-21). Health Care and "Head Taxes": an Unhealthy Combination. counterpunch.org The divide in the health care policy debate couldn't be any clearer. On one side: the Medicare for All proponents. On the other: the Obamacare with a Public Option proponents Americans see the divide. But are we seeing the fundamental issues at play here? I don't think so. We've been largely ignoring the huge historic More
(2019-11-21). House Passes Bipartisan Bill to Prevent Workplace Violence for Health Care and Social Services Workers. commondreams.org ______________________________…
(2019-11-21). Medicare for All: Medicine for a For-Profit System Addicted to Itself. commondreams.org "What came as a huge shock following my recent birthday was not the financial relief—though that is lovely," writes Smith. "The more significant and potentially cost-saving result for all of us lucky enough to have Medicare coverage is the mental and emotional relief I have felt in such a short time. It's as if someone lifted a ton of weights off of my back and set my sails into a prevailing wind." (Photo illustration: David McNew/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-11-21). Congress Just Temporarily Extended the Government's Spying Powers. aclu.org In a bill passed today and now headed to the president's desk for signature, Congress temporarily extended the NSA's spying powers that time and again have been used to violate our rights. Disturbingly, this three-month extension was snuck into a broader funding bill, forcing members of Congress to choose between extending this program and causing a government shutdown. The extension is an unnecessary lifeline to spying programs that are plagued with compliance violations, have no proven intelligence value, and violate our rights. | Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, one of the spying | powers extended, th…
(2019-11-21). Abdul El-Sayed Endorses Bernie Sanders as Best 2020 Candidate to Defeat Trump and 'Build the After-Trump'. commondreams.org "I think every time—whether it comes to healthcare, whether it comes to housing, whether it comes to a job that pays a living wage—Bernie Sanders is the answer." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-11-21). Michael Moore: 'I'm the Mainstream Now of the Democratic Party'. truthdig.com 
During a panel discussion Wednesday night following the 2020 Democratic presidential debate in Atlanta, filmmaker Michael Moore pushed back against MSNBC pundits for suggesting that a "moderate" candidate would be more likely to defeat President Donald Trump and said the majority of U.S. voters favor progressive solutions to the nation's most pressing issues, from healthcare to the climate crisis. | "I am the center. I am the mainstream now of the Democratic Party. The majority of Americans agree with me and Bernie on all the issues," Moore, who has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president, said to the panel, w…
(2019-11-20). Towards a Democratic Socialist Foreign Policy. counterpunch.org Over the past few years, democratic socialists have rightfully spent a considerable amount of time honing their arguments on domestic policies, such as healthcare, education, and criminal justice reform. Bernie Sanders' Our Revolution and Bhaskar Sunkara's recently released The Socialist Manifesto are two good examples of this focus on the domestic. On the foreign policy More
(2019-11-20). Make Dental Care a Health Care Benefit. progressive.org Dental care is not a luxury—it is essential for overall health.
(2019-11-20). Buenos Aires Subway Workers on Strike Over Asbestos Presence. telesurenglish.net Subway workers in Buenos Aires interrupted services on Wednesday in several lines to denounce the health hazards they face at work due to the presence of carcinogenic materials. | RELATED: | Argentinian Cumbia Song Goes Viral To Rally Against Macri | The Union of Subway Workers (AGTSyP) stated that due to a lack of response from the government and the company to their demands due to the presence of asbestos, which has affected several employees, they decided to stage a strike on Wed…
(2019-11-20). Elizabeth Warren backpedals on "Medicare for All" wsws.org Less than three weeks after presenting her "Medicare for All" proposal, Warren is backtracking on virtually all of its components.
(2019-11-20). Watch a GP demolish Boris Johnson's NHS lies in 64 seconds. thecanary.co During the first leader's debate of the 2019 general election, Boris Johnson made a string of promises about the NHS. The morning afterwards, a GP has fact-checked them. Spoiler alert: they're all lies. | Promises, promises: | Healthcare is the single biggest issue for voters this election, bar Brexit. During the debate, Jeremy Corbyn and Johnson were asked if the NHS was up for sale. They both categorically denied it. But Joh…
(2019-11-19). All out for relaunching of the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression. fightbacknews.org Fight Back! interviews Frank Chapman on the November 22-24 Chicago conference to refound the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression. | Fight Back!: Could you say a few words about what the conference to relaunch the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression will look like? | Frank Chapman: The most powerful incentive for the relaunching of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is the national epidemic in police crimes and state violence being perpetrated against Black and brown people, LBGTQ and trans people. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than th…
(2019-11-19). The Furor Over Medicare for All Ignores a Key Question. thenation.com The Furor Over Medicare for All Ignores a Key Question…
(2019-11-18). Monday's Daily Brief: Progress and pitfalls in child rights, millions of Afghans acutely food insecure, Middle East nuclear-free zone, social media and child detention. un.org A recap of Monday's stories in brief: Uneven child rights progress; over 10 million Afghans severely food insecure; Middle East nuclear weapons conference gets underway; Social media posts increasing child detention cases; UN and partners commit to universal health.
(2019-11-18). Lab Rats for Corporate Profit: Pesticide Industry's Poisoned Platter. dissidentvoice.org Newly released pesticide usage statistics for 2018 confirm that the British people are being used as lab rats. That's the message environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason has sent to Dave Bench, senior scientist at the UK Chemicals, Health and Safety Executive and director of the agency's EU exit plan. In her open letter to Bench, Mason …
(2019-11-18). If You Care About Medicare for All or a Green New Deal, Here's the Senate Primary That Matters. theintercept.com Coons, a devotee of bipartisanship, is being challenged by Jess Scarane, who was inspired by progressive Kerri Harris's 2018 Senate campaign.
(2019-11-18). Headlines for November 18, 2019. democracynow.org Bolivian Military Massacres 9 People at Indigenous Pro-Morales March, Leak of Secret Iranian Documents Reveals Iranian Influence in Iraq, Former Ambassador Yovanovitch Testifies in Impeachment Hearings, Trump Ally Roger Stone Found Guilty of 7 Charges, Trump Pardons 3 Soldiers Accused or Convicted of War Crimes, Trump's Unplanned Medical Visit Sparks Questions About His Health, Tens of Thousands Mark 1-Month Anniversary of Protests in Lebanon, Police Besiege Student Protesters at Hong Kong University, Fears Mount About Possible Disappearance of Nigerian Journalist Omoyele Sowore, Prince Andrew Grilled on Friendsh…
(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…
(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…
(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…
(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…
(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…
(2019-10-24). New Poll Finds Voters Strongly Oppose Employer Insurance. peoplespolicyproject.org Many centrist pundits have convinced themselves that Medicare for All (M4A) is unpopular because, when you include certain details about M4A in polling questions, support levels drop significantly. But in convincing themselves of this, centrist pundits seem remarkably incurious about whether this same thing occurs for employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) when you include certain details about it in polling questions. | Earlier this week, Emerson Polling helped answer this question when it aske…
(2019-10-16). The Urban Institute Report Did Not Score Medicare for All. peoplespolicyproject.org The Urban Institute and The Commonwealth Fund put out a report today that provided cost estimates for 8 different health care reforms. One of those eight reforms, which is called "Single Payer Enhanced," describes a comprehensive, no-cost-sharing, national health plan similar to Medicare for All (M4A). However, the Urban plan uses hospital reimbursement rates that are 15 percent higher than the rates in the M4A legislation, meaning that its cost estimates are much…
(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 …