By Jennifer Katzenberg After listening to Dr. Rob Stone’s talk at the satellite “Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive” in Chicago’s Grant Park this past Saturday, I was impressed by his ability to succinctly explain the problems with the current state of health care and health reform in this country. Stone began by saying, “I [...]

On Nov. 2, you will be able to vote for “single-payer” health care if you live in the 2nd or 4th districts of Berkshire County. This referendum is non-binding, but will send a strong message to our legislators and governor.

Alice A. Chenault, M.D. When I was handed the microphone at a recent town hall meeting, I asked Sen. Jeff Sessions if medical treatment should be the right of every U.S. citizen. The crowd roared “No!” The senator agreed. This got me thinking about what we mean by “rights.” One lady called out, “We only [...]

By Benjamin Day Hello Single Payer Supporters – We have exciting news! For the first time ever the Massachusetts Medical Society has asked doctors what they think about health reform in its annual “Physician Workforce Survey” of 1,000 practicing physicians in the state. The results released today? Doctors picked single payer health reform over a [...]

Once again, Texas has the distinction of having the highest rate of people lacking health insurance in the nation – 26.1 percent. According to the Census Bureau’s new report, more than 1 out of every 4 Texans is uninsured, compared to the national average of 1 out of every 6 people.

By Claudia Chaufan While “consumer-driven fire department” sounds decidedly weird, for some reason some have been brainwashed to believe that “consumer-driven health care” makes sense. But it does not. It makes no more sense to let people’s house burn down because they cannot pay their fire-department fees — maybe they chose the wrong “plan”? or [...]

By Drs. Margaret Flowers and Andy Coates Photo courtesy of Dr. Walter Tsou These words, taken from a speech by Dr. King, were the refrain of a speech today by the actor Wendell Pierce. He was the one of few speakers at the One Nation rally who began to express what we and our colleagues [...]

By Benjamin Day Most of you will have missed a short article tucked away in yesterday’s Boston Globe, which – when put in context – speaks volumes about our health care system. Robert Weisman reports that Harvard Pilgrim – Charlie Baker’s former health insurance company – will be canceling all of its Medicare Advantage plans [...]

So today California Healthline reported the “good news” about health reform U.S. style, joining in the celebratory mood with the New York Times, which announced that “For Many, Health Care Relief Begins Today.”

“Employers pushed costs for health on workers,” The New York Times revealed this month, citing a survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit research group. Although the cost of an average insurance policy rose 3 percent, the worker’s share of the cost of a family policy jumped 14 percent. Workers are absorbing more of the costs of health insurance premiums as well as facing higher deductibles, thus paying a larger share of their overall health care costs.