NewsRack: newstrust/Health-Care/Universal-Health-Care

Answers for thoughtful ObamaCare opponents | Sahil Kapur - Guardian: Comment is Free

Sahil Kapur — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The Cato Institute has put forth a list of questions for supporters of the healthcare reform bill. Here are my answers The conservative/libertarian Cato Institute has put forth a list of questions for proponents of the Democratic healthcare reform package. Here they are, along with my answers. 1. What does it say that the American polity has consistently rejected a wholesale government takeover of healthcare for 100 years? It says the issue is very tough politically. It says Washington is unresponsive to the interests of the American people, who overwhelmingly want healthcare reform . It says insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and other health industry special interests (including the AMA until just last year ) are ...

The Abercrombie Fiasco - The Atlantic - Matthew Ygblesias

myglesias — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Brian Beutler reports on the

Universal health care tends to cut the abortion rate - Washington Post: Op-Eds

T.R. Reid — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Countless arguments have been advanced for and against the pending bills to increase health-care coverage. Both sides have valid concerns, which makes the battle tight. But one prominent argument is illogical. The contention that opponents of abortion should oppose the current proposals to expand coverage simply doesn't make sense.

Cuba’s free sex changes mark break from past - MSNBC

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

A small but remarkable transformation is happening in Cuba, a nation known for the rugged revolution of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and a band of ever-macho, bearded rebels, who long punished gays and transsexuals, but is now paying for sex changes. ...

Progressive Media Summit - MyDD

Jerome Armstrong — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

I'm at the progressive media summit today, with the Democratic Senators. I was looking back over the post I made last year at the summit, The Progressive Senate agenda: I recall last year, attending, that the atmosphere was much different. Then, all about stopping Bush; now, a huge agenda of things to do. And promises galore. Ron Wyden, Universal healthcare-- Kennedy's bill. Harry Reid, Immigration Reform this year; EFCA "still a few more votes for cloture" but this summer. Sherod Brown, Universal healthcare, local green electricity. Byron Dorgan, a national "smart grid" for electricity. Jeff Bingaman, Cap and Trade this cycle. Chuck Schumer, local water/sewer upgrades nationally. Tom Udall, serious start to getting off oil. Jon Tester, all ...

Powerful Catholic Quietly Shaping Abortion, Health Bill Debate - NPR: Healthcare

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' point man on abortion, Richard Doerflinger has emerged as a major player in the health care debate, one likely to play a pivotal role in the outcome.

In paying for sex changes, Cuba breaks from past - Boston Globe: Latest

Will Weissert, Associated Press Writer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

In paying for sex changes, Cuba breaks from past

We get health care reform, we get rid of Rush Limbaugh - Daily Kos

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Additional motivation : CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of it? [...] LIMBAUGH: My guess in even in Canada and even in the UK, doctors have opted out. And once they’ve opted, they can’t see anybody Medicare, Medicaid, or what will become the exchanges. They have to have a clientele of private patients that will pay them a retainer and it’ll be a very small practice. I don’t know if that’s been outlawed in the Senate bill. I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now ...

Why Is Barack Obama Writing GOP Talking Points? - Common Dreams: Views

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

by John Nichols

If you want to know where conservatives in Congress get all their ridiculous talking points about how dysfunctional the federal government is, how incapable the public sector is when it comes to doing anything right and, above all, how worthless federal employees are, we've tracked down the source.

It's not Rush Limbaugh.

It's not Michael Steele.

It's Barack Obama.

Replace Rahm with Me ...an open letter from Michael Moore - Crooks Liars

Nicole Belle — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

DOWNLOADS: 72 PLAYS: 132 At 56:55: “ There’s so many great websites now. I mean you could just go down the whole list of them: Crooks and Liars and — If I start going down that list they’re going to get mad at me for forgetting them so I better not do that.” Michael Moore has an offer for President Obama : Dear President Obama, I understand you may be looking to replace Rahm Emanuel as your chief of staff. I would like to humbly offer myself, yours truly, as his replacement. I will come to D.C. and clean up the mess that's been created around you. I will work for $1 a year. I will help the Dems on Capitol Hill find their spines and I will teach them how to nonviolently beat the Republicans to a pulp. And I will ...

Op-Ed Contributor: The Unbearable Lightness of Leading - International Herald Tribune: Editorials

By JOHN KENNEY — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

President Obama’s weight: imagine the scandal.

Michael Moore: President Obama: Replace Rahm With Me - Truthout.com

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Dear President Obama,

I understand you may be looking to replace Rahm Emanuel as your chief of staff.

I would like to humbly offer myself, yours truly, as his replacement.

I will come to D.C. and clean up the mess that's been created around you. I will work for $1 a year. I will help the Dems on Capitol Hill find their spines and I will teach them how to nonviolently beat the Republicans to a pulp.

President Obama: Replace Rahm With Me - Commondreams.org Views

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

by Michael Moore

Dear President Obama,

I understand you may be looking to replace Rahm Emanuel as your chief of staff.

I would like to humbly offer myself, yours truly, as his replacement.

I will come to D.C. and clean up the mess that's been created around you. I will work for $1 a year. I will help the Dems on Capitol Hill find their spines and I will teach them how to nonviolently beat the Republicans to a pulp.

Volatile new top tax writer has his own baggage - AP Politics

By LAURIE KELLMAN — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Pete Stark is the California Democrat captured on YouTube in a steamy argument about body fluids, politics and lying. He challenged one colleague to a fist fight and called others an assortment of names through the years....

Brown reaches out to young Dems for support - SFGate: Top Stories

cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com (Carla Marinucci) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Brown reaches out to young Dems for support

Brown reaches out to young Dems for support - SFGate: Top Stories

cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com (Carla Marinucci) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Brown reaches out to young Dems for support

Hayek on Health Care - The Atlantic - Matthew Ygblesias

myglesias — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

An offhand Twitter joke and some pushback I got led me to look up what Hayeks’ The Road to Serfdom says about universal health care. Some interesting stuff on Page 125 of the edition that’s in Google books: Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist individuals in providing for those common hazards [...]

NBC News: Oh Canada, We See So Many Upsides in Your Single-Payer Health Care - NewsBusters

Jeff Poor — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Although the Canadian health care system may kind of work for its roughly 33 million people and still have a myriad of downsides, its hard to imagine it could be sustainable in the United States, with 304 million people . But looking at the Canadian system was how NBC News decided to handle its follow-up to the health care summit. On the Feb. 25 broadcast of the "NBC Nightly News," anchor Brian Williams posed the question whether the Canadian system was better. Though the report pointed out some flaws, NBC made nationalized care seem nice. "As Washington grapples with its seemingly irreconcilable differences over health care, here in Canada that question was settled decades ago," Williams said. "Canada has universal ...

What next for Obama's health plan? - BBC: World

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

President Obama's health plan has suffered another setback after cross-party talks ended without a deal. What now for the proposals?

Health care summit underscores divisions - Boston Globe: Page One

Lisa Wangsness and Susan Milligan, Globe Staff — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Health care summit underscores divisions

Is health-care reform popular? - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

It's pretty common for Republicans to say that health-care reform is wildly unpopular. It's not even untrue. But nor is it true, exactly. Rather, it depends on the numbers you look at, and how you interpret those numbers. I want to show you two graphs charting the popularity of health-care reform. The first summarizes the Republican position. It's a chart from Pollster.com tallying surveys asking whether you support or oppose the health-care reform bill. Unpopular, right? The second chart summarizes the Democratic position on this question: It tallies recent responses to polls asking about the component pieces of the health-care bill: Popular! Health-care reform is unpopular. But if you actually tell people what's in the health-care ...

A Sensible Response to Terrorism - The Atlantic - Matthew Ygblesias

myglesias — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

As you probably know, a white guy entranced by an extremely version of Tea Party-style right-populist paranoia deliberately crashed an airplane into an IRS building in Texas yesterday. I’m not especially interested in debating semantics, but I think it’s very clear that if this had been done by a brownish-looking Muslim guy whose suicide note [...]

Will Lack of Insurance Kill You? (Cont'd) - The New Republic - The Treatment Feed

Harold Pollack — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Harold Pollack is a professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and Special Correspondent for The Treatment. Megan McArdle and Ezra Klein (and friends ) are duking it out over the potential impact of universal health insurance coverage on mortality. Jonathan Cohn has already weighed in, but I wanted to add my two cents. It"s useful to divide this controversy into two separate questions. First, does health insurance improve health, and if so, how, and by how much? Second, what else do we need to do? The first question occasions a very old argument. It"s easy to swing widely between cynicism and naïveté. Although every one of us will eventually die, mortality is a rare and ...

More States Move Toward Single-Payer Healthcare - Truthout.com

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

A bill to create single-payer healthcare in California has passed that state's senate for the third time now. Californians just need to persuade a governor to sign it. Single-payer healthcare bills are advancing in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and a growing list of states, including New Mexico, where State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, a long-time supporter of single-payer healthcare, is running for Lieutenant Governor.

Americans Support Health Reform, Reject Policies to Make Health Reform Workable - The Atlantic - Matthew Ygblesias

myglesias — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT

I think Jeff Young led with the wrong poll result in his writeup of a recent survey of public opinion on health reform. That the public thinks congress should “start over” on health care has, I think, basically no real meaning or content. The real issue is further down in the piece: Despite their misgivings about [...]