Now that we have a new president espousing health care reform and a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, isn't this a time to be excited and optimistic for long-overdue reform? Much as we would like to say "Of course!", we cannot. The "reform" effort is already way off...

It is now widely recognized that we are in a global recession of historic proportions, raising comparisons with the Great Depression of the 1930s. The failures of deregulated markets, whether in housing, banking or other industries, has become obvious to all. So far the private health insurance industry has not...

In a Letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal just days ago, John Goodman, president of the conservative Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, repeats this classic premise of Milton Friedman's economic views: "Capitalism confers its greatest benefits on people at the bottom of the income ladder. People...

Market theorists have been telling us for years that the competitive marketplace will keep prices under control, as well as fix problems of access and quality of health care. This statement by senior fellows of the Hoover Institution in 2006 reflects market ideology which has framed health care policy for...

Starbucks has been a model among U. S. employers for its social and moral responsibility to its work force since its founding in 1982. Howard Schultz, who founded the company, grew up in Brooklyn, New York in a hard-working family without health insurance, and never forgot the plight of working...

Last week's action by Congress to override President Bush's veto of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (HR 6331) was a landmark step toward reversing the tide of privatization of Medicare over the last three decades. The votes in Congress were a resounding defeat for conservative policies and...

We are told regularly by advocates of the free market that more choice, as granted by the unfettered private marketplace, is the key to greater efficiency and value for consumers, whether in health care or otherwise. AHIP (the American Association of Health Plans) is committed to providing an "abundance of...

Although we pay more and more each year for health insurance (average premium for a family of four now over $12,000), we get less and less for it. Insurers continue to take high profits first, leaving enrollees more vulnerable to high out-of-pocket costs for health care.

A 2007 study of...

Conservatives in government, free market stakeholders, and their lobbyists won a big one last week. Even after the House gave overwhelming bipartisan support to the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (HR. 6331) by a vote of 355-59 (including 129 Republican votes), the Senate fell two votes short of...

Access to health care is a complex matter, ranging from availability of health professionals in one's community to many barriers to care, such as racial/ethnic, geographic, and literacy factors. But as the costs of health care surge ever higher, the financial barrier to care has clearly become the biggest impediment...

The American Association of Health Plans (AHIP) is the national trade group for some 1,300 private health insurers, which collectively provide some kind of coverage for more than 200 million Americans. As the voice of industry, AHIP's web site boldly describes its goals "to provide a unified voice for the...

Most of us have by now heard many indictments of private health insurance, from its inefficiencies and unaffordable costs to its profiteering, cherry picking, and avoiding coverage of those who most need insurance. What's new and may be surprising to many people is this: despite its size and political power,...