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Record-Journal (Click here for original article)

By Ryan J. Phelan, Record-Journal staff
05/03/2008

MERIDEN - The American people are desperate for a universal health care plan, said U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., during his keynote address at the regional action summit of Latino Voices in Universal Healthcare on Saturday. (more…)

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Chron.com News, search and shopping from the Houston Chronicle

(Click here for the original article.)

April 29, 2008, 11:06PM

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Some people marry for love, some for companionship and others for status or money. Now comes another reason to get hitched: health insurance. (more…)

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metro INTERNATIONAL (Click here for original article.)

Boston April 28, 2008

Supporters call for change to Bay State Chapter 58 law

BOSTON. Marking the second anniversary of Massachusetts’ universal health care bill, advocates for reform take to Boston Common today with the help of former Audioslave guitarist, Tom Morello, to promote ‘Medicare for all’ changes to state policy. (more…)

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The American Prospect May 2008 (Click here for original article.)

The Schwarzenegger plan was a near miss, but well worth the trouble. The stage is set for the next effort.

Anthony Wright | April 21, 2008

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California titled 2007 “The Year of Health Reform.” By early 2008, a comprehensive health-reform plan had been negotiated by a Republican governor and a Democratic assembly speaker. It was supported by a broad coalition of not just prominent community groups and labor unions but also key health providers, insurers, and business leaders. As a longtime consumer advocate active in the debate, I was disappointed that the effort ultimately stalled in California’s Senate. The policy framework would have expanded coverage to the vast majority of the uninsured — ultimately covering over 95 percent of Californians as well as providing financial assistance to millions of insured families now struggling with health-care costs. But this is not the final round in the effort for health reform in California. (more…)

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The American Prospect May 2008 (Click here for original article.)

Once again, a new administration and Congress will try to bring us universal health insurance. This time, despite urgent cost pressures, will they do it right?

Ezra Klein | April 21, 2008

If health insurance were cheap, we could all buy it. If universal health care could get 60 votes in the Senate, we’d all have it. But these two imperatives — the need to control costs and the need to attract the 60 Senate votes required to overcome a filibuster — point in opposite directions. This is the central paradox of health reform. (more…)

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The American Prospect May 2008 (Click here for original article.)

The next administration will expand health coverage. Will they fix what is broken — or just inflate costs?

Robert Kuttner | April 21, 2008

America’s health-insurance system is nearing a breakdown. Not only are nearly one-third of all Americans uninsured at some point every year, according to the Commonwealth Fund, but growing numbers of Americans who are nominally covered are seriously underinsured. When insurance fails to cover medically needed procedures, tests, or prescription drugs, citizens must choose between medical care and other necessities of life. (more…)

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The American Prospect May 2008 (Click here for original article.)

A model grassroots organizing campaign mobilizes public opinion for universal coverage in a state long dominated by private insurers.

Marc Caplan | April 21, 2008

Connecticut — still known as the insurance capital of the United States even with takeovers and significant layoffs in the industry — might be the last state conventional wisdom would expect to break new ground in the fight for universal health care. But it could well happen. Strong advocates and legislative proponents, significant business support for real change, and an innovative health-care foundation implementing a well-funded broad-based organizing campaign are positioning Connecticut to provide national leadership on the issue. (more…)

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The American Prospect May 2008 (Click here for original article.)

The cost crisis of Medicare gets a lot of attention. The program can be fixed only by universalizing the larger health system in which Medicare resides.

Jonathan Cohn | April 21, 2008

When Lyndon Johnson signed the law creating Medicare in 1965, he promised that it would transform the lives of America’s senior citizens. “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine,” Johnson proclaimed. “No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years.” As ambitious as those goals were, some of Medicare’s architects had even loftier hopes. Many were veterans of Harry Truman’s crusade to provide insurance to every single American; it was only after that effort failed that they decided to concentrate on covering the elderly, whom they knew to be a politically sympathetic group. But in focusing on senior citizens, they didn’t give up on bringing insurance to the rest of the country. Medicare, they fervently hoped, would be a stepping stone to universal coverage — and perhaps a model for how to achieve it. (more…)

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The American Prospect May 2008 (Click here for original article.)

Addressing the whole range of behaviors that affect health is the key to a healthier society. This requires a universal health care system.

Neal Halfon | April 21, 2008

The case for universal health-insurance coverage is becoming universally acknowledged. To make a real difference in health outcomes, cost, and system performance, we need to cover the whole person, with a full continuum of appropriate care, and ensure continuity over a person’s entire life. Anything less will perpetuate inefficiencies and poorly coordinated coverage, which engender fragmented and poor-quality care. But universal coverage alone is not sufficient to reduce the remarkable 35-year difference in life expectancy across different classes of Americans. Universal coverage alone is also not likely to greatly improve the United States’ ranking of 46th in life expectancy and 42nd in infant mortality among 192 nations. A high-performing national health-care system must also focus on the prevention of disease and promotion of optimal health for all its citizens. (more…)

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The American Prospect May 2008 (Click here for original article.)

What the Massachusetts experiment teaches us about incremental efforts to increase coverage by expanding private insurance.

Marcia Angell | April 21, 2008

For all their promise of change, Democrats are remarkably timid about changing the health-care system. The system now costs twice as much per person as those of other advanced countries and delivers worse average outcomes. It prices tens of millions of people out of health coverage altogether and limits care for countless others. Yet leading Democrats are clinging to this system, proposing to cover more people but not changing the system itself except at the margins. The timidity extends to choice of words. No one is supposed to say “single-payer” or “national health insurance” anymore, because that is “politically unrealistic”; the most we are allowed is to talk of reforming the system incrementally so that someday it will morph into “Medicare for all.” (more…)