President Obama used very forceful language to strongly oppose Paul Ryan’s Republican plan to privatize Medicare. The President described Ryan’s proposal as leaving people to the mercy of the insurance industry: I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit [...]

Paul Ryan’s Republican budget plan would privatize Medicare and dramatically slash Medicaid over time. The result: senior citizens, poor children and the disabled paying dramatically more for care, getting worse health insurance coverage and/or losing coverage altogether, according to a report by the CBO. Under the proposal, most elderly people would pay more for their [...]

Beyond the Deficit Commission’s non-report total cop-out on health care, what disturbs me is what changes they do recommend: embracing the economagic myth that the way to control health care costs is just to make regular people pay even higher co-pays, deductibles, and out of pocket costs. This idea that we can reduce overall health [...]

A few weeks ago, some polling suggested a minor increase in support for the new health care law, but recent polling indicates that is likely not the case. Three new polls show little improvement and even some loss in support for the law. Polls from Pew (approve 35 percent, disapprove 47), CBS News (approve 36, [...]

And now it can be told: Yes, Virginia, health insurance CEOs are making huge amounts of money while their firms rapidly increase premiums and work diligently to find ways to not pay for their customers’ care. From the Washington Post: The chief executive of UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, reaped almost [...]

Karen Ignagni the CEO of AHIP, held a conference call with members of the press this morning. I am persona non grata with AHIP, but perhaps Jane got by the AHIP screeners (remind you of the George Bush towh hall meetings?), and will be able to give us her impressions of what transpired. Before the call, AHIP [...]

Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post is reporting that in a closed door meeting of the Senate Finance Committee, John Kerry proposed including a ten-year trigger in the healthcare bill.  In a closed-door meeting of Senate Finance Committee Democratic members and their staff Wednesday evening, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) suggested that the committee bill include [...]

The special interests, all aligned against the urgent needs of the American people, are spending $1.4 million a day so that they will prevail and we won’t.