Category Archives: Health care

Why Are People with Health Insurance Going Bankrupt?

Paul Jay of the Real News Network interviews Dr. Margaret Flowers, a pediatrician from Baltimore who advocates for a national single payer health system, Medicare for all, and Kevin Zeese, co-director of It’s Our Economy, an organization that advocates for democratizing the economy. Originally published at Real News Network.

Both Zeese and Flowers are long-time activists; I remember when Dr. Flowers got herself arrested in Max “Train Wreck” Baucus’s Senate hearing room because he’d scheduled no testimony from single payer advocates; and here they both say some things on health insurance and ObamaCare that are new to me.

Congress Scheming to Avoid Eating its Own Cooking on Obamacare

You cannot make this stuff up.

More Washington Sleaze: Lobbyist Tip Stoked Health Care Stock Jump

Yesterday, we featured an important article by Noam Scheiber on how Obama insiders cash out on their connections once they leave the fold. Today, in the Wall Street Journal, we read of the Congressional version in terms of how a tip by a lobbyist (and former Congressional aide) connected to an investment research firm led to a Congressional decision being leaked to investors before it was announced officially.

David Dayen: The Gradual Privatization of Medicaid

Over the past week, both houses of the Florida legislature have rejected the Medicaid expansion program endorsed by Governor Rick Scott. You may recall the huzzahs from the progressive world when Scott, a self-possessed anti-Obamacare warrior, decided to accept the Medicaid expansion. What didn’t get reported as much is that Scott’s announcement coincided with the go-ahead from the Administration for Florida to fully privatize their Medicaid system.

So what was up with the Legislature’s rejection? Tea Party politics? Some unlikely show of principle against crony capitalism and corporate welfare?

No. They just want a different kind of privatization.

IRS Anticipates Cheapest ObamaCare Family Plan Will be $20,000 in 2016

Aiee! CNS News found this tidbit (hat tip furzy mouse), contained in IRS final regulations published on January 31. Now admittedly these are examples for the purposes of illustrating how to make various calculations under the new regulations, but the assumptions are pretty clear.

Econ4 on Health Care

Econ4, which is a group of heterodox economists, has produced a series of videos for laypeople on major political/economic policy issues. Their latest release is on healthcare, or more accurately, our broken healthcare system.

Welcome to the Future of Your Health Insurance. It Sucks.

There have been numerous reports about the shortcomings of Obamacare which its boosters have either ignored or shouted down. And troublingly, the attitude is often “I got mine” as in “My kids are now covered under my policy” without questioning what the narrow and broader issues are.

Well, I’ll tell you I got mine too. My current policy, which on paper is actually quite good, has a lifetime cap. Under the ACA, it is grandfathered and the cap is removed. And I’m still here to tell you that the future sucks. This deal enriches Big Pharma and the health insurers at the expense of the public at large. And the result of that will be a worsening of the already lousy health care system in the US. And I can give you a feel for what your future is likely to look like. It’s not pretty.

Michael Hudson: My Take on Obama’s Big Win

By Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College,. His latest book is “The Bubble and Beyond.”

The Democrats could not have won so handily without the Citizens United ruling. That is what enabled the Koch Brothers to spend their billions to support right-wing candidates that barked and growled like sheep dogs to give voters little civilized option but to vote for “the lesser evil.”