Fifty million people in the U.S. lack healthcare; 18 thousand die every year because of it. Other industrialized countries have universal coverage, yet costs in the U.S. are more than twice the average. Intensifying public outrage over this situation forced the present drive for healthcare reform. President Obama and Congress responded, but the result is… Read more »
healthcare
Public healthcare battle in Washington state
As Washington D.C. politicos plow ahead with healthcare “reform” that profits Big Insurance, low-cost state programs become a survival issue. Yet in the “other” Washington, state politicians slashed $238 million from one such program — Basic Health. Thousands of people have already been forced off the program. In 2010, Governor Christine Gregoire’s plan for balancing… Read more »
Proyectos de ley de cuidado de salud rancios y atorados en el Congreso
“Americanos con y sin seguro médico pierden sus hogares y su sustento porque no pueden costearse el cuidado médico”, expresa iracundo el Dr. Samuel Metz de Mad as Hell Doctors. “Ya es hora de dar prioridad a la salud de 300 millones de americanos antes que al bienestar financiero de 1,100 compañías de seguro médico.”… Read more »
Congress’ rotten healthcare bills: whatever happened to the public option?
“Americans with and without health insurance lose their homes and their lives because they cannot afford medical care,” fumes Dr. Samuel Metz, of Mad as Hell Doctors. “It’s time to put the medical health of 300 million Americans ahead of the financial well-being of 1,100 health insurance companies.” It has been a year since President… Read more »
Community organizing scores a win for Washington state Basic Health
The inhumanity of the U.S. healthcare system torments me every day at my job as an injury claims adjuster. I see the anguish of customers who cannot pay exorbitant medical bills after their claims are denied. One day I could no longer sit by as this toxic machine destroys more human life. I wanted to… Read more »
Bans against marijuana going up in smoke
It’s not just a pipe dream anymore. The movement to reform marijuana laws has gone global, and the chance to rewrite draconian drug policies has never been better. From Latin America to Europe, and 14 states that have legalized marijuana for medical use, the tide is turning. A growing body of scientific evidence confirms what… Read more »
Flip the funding to stop the budget cuts: Sisters Organize for Survival pushes unions to lead fight in Washington state
While politicians in Olympia, Wash., are striving to balance an “all-cuts” budget, Sisters Organize for Survival (SOS), a campaign of Seattle Radical Women, says poor and working people cannot take another round of shredding the safety net. SOS is mobilizing in response to Governor Christine Gregoire’s budget proposal that seeks to close the deficit by… Read more »
“Recovery” versus reality: Jobs, healthcare, and housing woes
As people in the U.S. slog through yet another El Niño-fueled winter of hundred-year storms, an even bigger storm is brewing. For the last four years, a kind of economic Katrina has been unfolding, sweeping away home ownership and demolishing hopes for a comfortable retirement or a college education. Workers have been battered by unemployment,… Read more »
Answer to the budget travesty: tax profits and end the wars
On April 15, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Rep. Paul Ryan’s version of the 2012 federal budget. Called the “Path to Prosperity,” it embodies the biggest shift of wealth from one class to another in U.S. history. The Ryan plan would decimate Medicare, gut Medicaid and slash two million jobs. At the same time,… Read more »
Vermont leads the way on universal healthcare
Thanks to grass-roots organizing, in May Vermont became the first state to create a path for a universal, publicly funded health care system. A community-labor coalition, Health Care Is A Human Right Campaign, defeated attempts to exclude undocumented workers. Next up — implementing the plan.
