Gutted Health Care Bill Ignores This Nation's Best Opportunity for Reform

Judy Patrick, 12.21.2009

What does it say about our society when government requires us to purchase health insurance and fines us for not doing so yet provides no support to make this possible?

How to Cut $154 Billion From Medicare Without Hurting Seniors

Mark Miller, 12.17.2009

Syndicated newspaper columnist, blogger at RetirementRevised.com

Many reform critics have frightened senior citizens by claiming that reform will threaten Medicare. In fact, reform will make Medicare much more efficient.

Cartoon: Lieberman Insurance

Jeff Danziger, 12.15.2009

Jeff Danziger is a political cartoonist syndicated by the NYTimes worldwide

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Drive Less, Pay Less: Win-Win for Consumers and Climate

Mindy S. Lubber, 12.16.2009

President, Ceres

As tens of thousands gather in Copenhagen to hammer out innovative strategies for cooling the planet, here's a carbon-cutting idea consumers can rally behind: Car insurance based on the miles you drive.

Fighting Bureaucrats and Other Phony Battles

Bob Franken, 12.14.2009

Appears on MSNBC and is a member of SPJ Washington Hall of Fame

"Do you want a bureaucrat to get between you and your doctor?" It's the mantra of Republicans and other conservatives and it is effective. It is the...

How a Few Private Health Insurers Are on the Way to Controlling Health Care

Robert Reich, 12.11.2009

Former Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley

From the start, opponents of the public option have wanted to portray it as big government preying upon the market, and private insurers as the embodiment of the market. But it's just the reverse.

Senate Deal Lets Health Insurers Rob the Public Purse

Emma Ruby-Sachs, 12.11.2009

Lawyer

The Senate is about to take on the worst deal in history. And at the end of the day, the only winners are the same companies who got us in this mess in the first place.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Health Insurance

David Parker, 12.07.2009

Political consultant; Former writer for the Harvard Lampoon

Every time I look at George's mechanically reproduced signature, I'm reminded that insurance companies are people, too.

The Public Option Sideshow

Zack Cooper, 12.07.2009

Health Economist, London School of Economics

The public option was never a coherent, well-defined policy tool. It's an amorphous concept that stands as a symbol of reform and as a perceived antidote to the greed and callousness of the insurance industry.

The Insurance Industry's Lethal Bottom Line -- and a Solution From Sens. Franken and Rockefeller

Wendell Potter, 12.07.2009

CMD's Senior Fellow on Health Care

The health care reform bill now being debated in the Senate must include a provision that sets a minimum medical loss ratio to keep insurers from gouging consumers and leaving patients without the care they need.

Health Care Reform Irony: Thousands Could Be Denied Low-Cost Coverage

Dr. Garrison Bliss, 12.02.2009

The need to repair our broken health care system doesn't mean that we should deny access to innovative health delivery models such as direct primary care medical homes.

What Are You Thankful for?

Fortune's Stanley Bing, 11.23.2009

Fortune Magazine Columnist

I am thankful that Wall Street is still a festering sump pump of illogic, hubris and greed, and will continue to provide me with plenty to write about for the foreseeable future.

Insurance Company Greed Kills Jobs (rally photos and video)

Jason Rosenbaum, 11.18.2009

Activist living in Washington, DC

Yesterday in Chicago, a message was delivered: Insurance company greed kills jobs, and we're not going to take it anymore. ...

I Am a Scorpion. It Is My Nature.

Aaron E. Carroll, 11.17.2009

Director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, Indiana University School of Medicine

The fable, as it is told, involves a scorpion and a frog.  The scorpion needs to cross a river, so he asks the frog to carry him on his back.&nbs...

How to Live on $0 a Day: Assuaging Rage, One Prick at a Time

Lesley Stern, 11.12.2009

Writer, counselor to the nouveau poor

If you're quivering with rage just thinking about Wall Street, it's time to take action. I've discovered a way to achieve a semblance of inner peace without therapists, tranquilizers or weapons.

Is the House Health Care Bill Better than Nothing?

Marcia Angell, M.D., 11.09.2009

Physician, Author, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Medical School

The House Health bill just throws good money after the bad. And because costs will keep rising, there is now a danger that people will conclude reform is impossible, when in reality, we still haven't really tried.

The Medicare-for-All Moment

Robert Weissman, 11.04.2009

President of Public Citizen

In a Medicare-for-All system, health care is available as a matter of right. No one is denied treatment because they can't pay. No one is mandated to buy coverage.

So What if a Public Option Leads to Single-Payer?

Sahil Kapur, 10.30.2009

Political Reporter at Raw Story

The conservative indictment against a public option is deeply ironic, and when closely examined, consists of two entirely contradictory cases about the nature of government.

H1N1 Vaccine Delays Remind Us Why We Need a Sound Public Option

Kathleen Reardon, 10.29.2009

Professor, USC Marshall School, and author of The Secret Handshake and Childhood Denied

As a professor of both business and preventive medicine for years, I'm appalled at how long it is taking for the H1N1 vaccine to reach at least those at high risk.

Our Health Future: The Business Case for Wyden-Bennett

Charles Kolb, 10.28.2009

The Wyden-Bennett bill in the Senate Finance Committee was the only proposal that gets health care costs under control and avoids a government single-payer system in the long run.

I Am Not a Dog

Ian Pearl, 10.19.2009

I know firsthand that our health care system can provide life-saving care. But I'm living proof that insurance-company "death squads" behind closed doors routinely make life-sustaining benefits vanish.