In May, 2009, President Obama held a high-profile event in the White House, convening leaders from the health care industry to a meeting to discuss reform of the U. S. health care system. Participants included representatives from the insurance, drug, medical device, and hospital industries as well as business, labor and organized medicine. This “alliance” [...]

We are told by supporters of health care reform bills in the Democrat-controlled Congress that they will save us money in the long run and contain skyrocketing health care costs. But the CBO has projected that the most comprehensive proposal yet, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R.3200 in the House), will add to [...]

In a reasoned debate, single payer will come out on top
By Laura S. Boylan, MD and Joanne Landy, MPH

One can only feel sorrow and dismay at the bullying and hate-mongering that is taking place at health care forums around the country.
Massive job losses, the devaluation and foreclosures of people’s homes, and precipitous declines in [...]

As the leading proposal out of the gate for health care reform in this session of Congress, the House bill (H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act) during this August recess stage is considered the most robust of the various proposals so far coming out of congressional committees. This act has an overall goal to [...]

By Kip Sullivan, JD
When the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed a bill on July 15 creating an anemic “public option” program, Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and other “public option” proponents were ecstatic. They welcomed the “public option” in the HELP committee bill, proclaiming it “strong” or “robust.”  But the actual provisions in the HELP [...]

Summary:
Panelists from Staten Island Community Groups and PNHP encountered angry jeers from “anti-government” mob in Staten Island Church Healthcare Forum Wed Aug. 12th.  Differences between single payer and current house bill were felt to be irrelevant by the vocal audience members.
Details
This meeting was organized by Staten Island Family Health Care Coalition.  Katie Robbins (Healthcare Now) [...]

Based on comments at a July 1st Federalist Society debate on health reform
Single payer:  freedom, choice and quality

Healthcare is a human right.  It is fundamental and instrumental to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We are paying for a first rate system but getting a mediocre one, getting phenomenally low value on the dollar.  [...]

Prevention and wellness programs frequently can be very beneficial for our physical health and our sense of well being, and when they are, they may well be worth the investment of our time and money.

by Kip Sullivan, JD
Conservatives never base their opposition to single-payer on the ground that it is “politically infeasible.” They oppose single-payer on policy grounds and they say so. The “political feasibility” argument is used exclusively by proponents of universal health insurance who profess to admire single-payer systems but who refuse to support single-payer legislation [...]

A recent post on the National Center for Policy Analysis’s (NCPA) web site by Dr. Scott Atlas of the Hoover Institute and Stanford University expounded on 10 “surprising facts” about our health care system.  After an opening statement that U. S. health care has been denigrated compared to other developed countries around the world, Atlas [...]