The "Free" Flu Shot Comes at a Startlingly High Cost
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-11-21
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…
truthout.org/articles/the-free-flu-shot-…
A Violent Epidemic Is Taking American Lives
Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan | commondreams.org | 2019-11-21
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… …
commondreams.org/views/2019/11/21/violen…
Michael Moore: 'I'm the Mainstream Now of the Democratic Party'
Staff | truthdig.com | 2019-11-21
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…
truthdig.com/articles/michael-moore-i-am…
House Passes Bipartisan Bill to Prevent Workplace Violence for Health Care and Social Services Workers
commondreams.org | 2019-11-21
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commondreams.org/newswire/2019/11/21/hou…
Health Care and "Head Taxes": an Unhealthy Combination
Bob Lord | counterpunch.org | 2019-11-21
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…
counterpunch.org/2019/11/21/health-care-…
Medicare for All: Medicine for a For-Profit System Addicted to Itself
Donna Smith | commondreams.org | 2019-11-21
"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… …
commondreams.org/views/2019/11/21/medica…
Congress Just Temporarily Extended the Government's Spying Powers
Neema Singh Guliani | aclu.org | 2019-11-21
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…
aclu.org/news/national-security/congress…
Abdul El-Sayed Endorses Bernie Sanders as Best 2020 Candidate to Defeat Trump and 'Build the After-Trump'
Jake Johnson, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2019-11-21
"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… …
commondreams.org/news/2019/11/21/abdul-e…
Towards a Democratic Socialist Foreign Policy
Timothy M. Gill | counterpunch.org | 2019-11-20
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…
counterpunch.org/2019/11/20/towards-a-de…
Make Dental Care a Health Care Benefit
Jess Pernsteiner | progressive.org | 2019-11-20
Dental care is not a luxury–it is essential for overall health.
progressive.org/op-eds/make-dental-care-…
Buenos Aires Subway Workers on Strike Over Asbestos Presence
telesurenglish.net | 2019-11-20
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…
telesurenglish.net/news/Buenos-Aires-Sub…
Elizabeth Warren backpedals on "Medicare for All"
wsws.org | 2019-11-20
Less than three weeks after presenting her "Medicare for All" proposal, Warren is backtracking on virtually all of its components.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/20/warr…
Watch a GP demolish Boris Johnson's NHS lies in 64 seconds
Kerry-anne Mendoza | thecanary.co | 2019-11-20
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…
thecanary.co/trending/2019/11/20/watch-a-gp-demolish-boris-johnsons-nhs-lies-in-64-seconds/
All out for relaunching of the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-11-19
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…
www.fightbacknews.org/2019/11/19/all-out…
The Furor Over Medicare for All Ignores a Key Question
Katrina vanden Heuvel | thenation.com | 2019-11-19
The Furor Over Medicare for All Ignores a Key Question…
thenation.com/article/the-furor-over-med…
Lab Rats for Corporate Profit: Pesticide Industry's Poisoned Platter
Colin Todhunter | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-11-18
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 …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/11/lab-rats-for-…
The Killing Fields of American Health Care
David Penner | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-11-18
Hell is empty. And all the devils are here. — The Tempest (I.ii.) American health care is being crushed under the iron heel of a cabal of ruthless and merciless robber barons. Indeed, this primitive and backward system continues to be a source of horrendous suffering, as the health insurance companies, hospital executives, and pharmaceutical …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/11/the-killing-f…
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
United Nations | un.org | 2019-11-18
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.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/11/1…
If You Care About Medicare for All or a Green New Deal, Here's the Senate Primary That Matters
Ryan Grim | theintercept.com | 2019-11-18
Coons, a devotee of bipartisanship, is being challenged by Jess Scarane, who was inspired by progressive Kerri Harris's 2018 Senate campaign.
theintercept.com/2019/11/18/chris-coons-…
CAP's Topher Spiro Is Trying to Deceive Journalists By Lying
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-17
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/17/caps…
Warren's Head Tax Is Not More Popular Than A Payroll Tax
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-17
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/17/warr…
Warren's Medicare Head Tax Would Be About $9,500
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-03
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/03/warr…
What Is a Middle Class Tax Hike? Am I Losing My Mind?
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-02
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/01/what…
Warren's Perpetual Medicare Head Tax Is Unworkable and Bad
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-01
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/01/warr…
New Poll Finds Voters Strongly Oppose Employer Insurance
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-10-24
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/10/24/new-…