More than 4.1 million people lost their jobs in the last year. One year ago the unemployment rate was 4.8%. The other day we learned that job loss accelerated. As the unemployment rate hit 7.6%, no hope could be extended that the trend might reverse.

The relationship between losing a job and, with it, [...]

Today, Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, called on President Barack Obama to nominate Dr. Marcia Angell or Dr. David Satcher to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Angell is a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. Satcher [...]

This afternoon Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, made the following statement:

It’s entirely heartening to fight for a just cause and, with remarkable speed, win.

Yesterday, I and others called for Tom Daschle’s nomination to the position of Health and Human Services secretary to be withdrawn, given his tax problems [...]

Today, Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, sent the following open letter to the president:

Dear President Obama,

The recent revelations of former Sen. Tom Daschle’s direct financial ties to the powerful insurance and pharmaceutical industries fighting health reform are alarming. His nomination to head the Health and Human Services Department [...]

Originally published in the Berkshire Eagle
As Tom Daschle, President-elect Obama’s choice for secretary of health and human services, flies across the country to attend community meetings on health care reform, and the Obama Web site solicits opinions and health care stories from citizens, those of us who support a single-payer national health insurance program hold [...]

“The Doctor’s Door” by Michael Merenda. Work in progress – unfinished and not released. Performed by Mike and Ruthy.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
The Doctor’s Door
by Michael Merenda
In my youth I traveled
Over land and sea
I fell in love with a farmer’s daughter
And she fell in love with me
Before long we’d married
I took [...]

The Los Angeles Times today quotes one of the founders of the Herndon Alliance:
“There is a growing understanding that you have to give people choice and you can’t take away what they have,” said Ron Pollack, head of Families USA, an influential advocacy group for healthcare consumers that is working with a diverse collection of [...]

Thank you, John Holahan and Linda Blumberg, for showing us that a public insurance plan cannot compete within, much less change the character of, the private health insurance market.
by Andy Coates and Kip Sullivan
A short paper by John Holahan and Linda Blumberg asks “Can a Public Insurance Plan Increase Competition and Lower the Costs of [...]

Dear President-elect Obama:
As you prepare to begin your presidency during a period of severe recession, you will be searching to make financially sound decisions for our country. You have promised to reform the health care system, and only one solution will enable you to create an effective system and save money: a single-payer national health [...]

Privatizing health care is not the answer: lessons from the United States
By Marcia Angell, MD
Canadian Medical Association
CMAJ
October 21, 2008
There are strong moves within Canada to make the Canadian health care system more like the US system by partially privatizing it. Those who favour this approach claim that the US system offers more choice and better [...]