Recently in Health Care Category

President Obama, in essentially a solo performance, took on the entire Republican leadership yesterday for almost 7 hours.  I was able to watch much of it, and coverage of the times that I missed.  What struck me was his depth of knowledge, not only of the pending health care reform bills, but also the insurance and health care delivery industries.  After over a year of posturing, obfuscation, distortion, and obstruction by the Republicans, it was...

Paul Hipp has created a youTube sensation singing the truth about health care...the United States has the highest cost per capita and ranks 37th among the developed nations in health care.  Presented to you without further comment:...

Guest-blogged by Gracie Cavnar.  Original piece appeared on the Houston Chronicle opinion page today, February 21, 2010:First lady Michelle Obama recently announced her sweeping national initiative to combat childhood obesity. For the first time since this epidemic emerged, a comprehensive federal effort will coordinate with nonprofit organizations and the private sector to address the broad spectrum of contributing factors to obesity that together threaten generations of Americans with chronic disease and early death. It's not...

The top 5 health insurance companies have reported earnings for 2009, and shock of shocks, profits surged 56% over 2008.  Combined profits for the 5 companies totaled $12.2 billion even as they reported insuring 2.7 million less people.  That's right, they cut coverage for 2.7 million people and profits surged.  The report, published by Health Care for America NOW, is being attacked by the companies and Republicans who dismiss increased profits as being an anomaly...

Some people never learn:"De facto Republican Centrist Democratic senators have circumvented party leadership to approach Maine GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins about reviving healthcare talks.Democrats such as Sens. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Max Baucus (Mont.) have approached Snowe within the past week to discuss her potential support for various healthcare proposals....Snowe said Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance panel, approached her in the past week to get her general...

In what can only be termed as really bad timing and bad judgment, Governor Rick Perry, sell-out to teabaggers and secessionists to keep his job for life, took a group of right wing bloggers to...wait for it...shoot guns at a range in Austin yesterday.  The event was part of some "online conference" which was apparently a gathering of conservative bloggers, Perry, his hair, and his handgun.  The ill-conceived field trip occurred 24 hours after a...

Up 'til now I haven't been a proponent of the "pass something" idea on health care reform legislation, but I think the time has come. It has become such a convoluted mess and such a distraction that it's time to get it off the table and move on to economic issues. Like taking on Wall Street for instance:"President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to propose new limits on the size and risk taken by...

Returns now have Scott Brown, Republican Teabagger in Massachusetts, as the favorite to win the special election tonight to fill the Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy, Lion of the Senate.  Certainly, Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate, has run an abysmal campaign, squandering a 30 point lead by simply not campaigning and arrogantly assuming she would win.  Brown, pandering to the right wing and independent electorate, especially anti-incumbent Teabaggers, has been actually running ads with...

I hold Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the highest regard because of the good work they do around the world to provide medical care to those in crisis. They are also one of the most effective charity organizations, with administrative costs of only one percent. Please, help them help those who cannot provide for themselves in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. Nearly a third of Haiti's population lives in Port-au-Prince. The...

Okay, it's a pathetic attempt to garner some attention via Bobby Flay's popular show, but the challenge is real nonetheless.When you watch the video below, bear in mind that this is a 16-y-o boy who is willing to give up a big chunk of time on a Saturday and who gets nothing in return except quality time with his mom ;-), the undying gratitude of a committed but overburdened staff at the Arthritis Foundation, and...