Jake Johnson A right-wing coalition that’s been laying the policy groundwork for another Trump presidency has developed a plan to further privatize Medicare by making fraud-riddled Medicare Advantage “the default enrollment option” for newly eligible beneficiaries. The plan, highlighted Monday by Rolling Stone‘s Andrew Perez, is outlined about halfway through Project 2025’s 920-page playbook for […]
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Social Safety Net
We Deserve Medicare for All, But What We Get Is Medicare for Wall Street
By Les Leopold | – ( Commondreams.org ) – The United States health care system—more costly than any on earth—will become ever more so as Wall Street increasingly extracts money from it. Private equity funds own approximately 9% of all private hospitals and 30% of all proprietary for-profit hospitals, including 34% that serve rural populations. […]
World Health Organization: Gaza faces Epidemics; 449 Israeli Attacks on Health Services in Palestine
( Middle East Monitor ) – World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday confirmed more than 449 attacks on health services in Gaza and the West Bank since Oct. 7, saying “now the work of the health workers is impossible.” Speaking at a special session organised by the WHO executive board on […]
7 Questions to ask to Protect yourself from Medicare Advantage Scams
Diane Archer ( Common Dreams ) – During this Medicare Open Enrollment period, ask yourself these seven questions. And, please know that you can always call the Medicare Rights Center at 1-800-333-4114 or your SHIP—State Health Insurance Assistance Program—for free, unbiased advice on any of your Medicare questions. Q. What’s the biggest difference between traditional […]
How Turning Gaza into a Hellhole is Costing Americans Billions as Child Poverty Spikes at Home
( Tomdispatch.com ) – On September 19, 2001, eight days after 9/11, as the leaders of both parties were already pounding a frenzied drumbeat of war, a diverse group of concerned Americans released a warning about the long-term consequences of a military response. Among them were veteran civil rights activists, faith leaders, and public intellectuals, […]
How a Big Pharma Company Stalled a Potentially Lifesaving Vaccine in Pursuit of Bigger Profits
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester | – ( ProPublica) – Ever since he was a medical student, Dr. Neil Martinson has confronted the horrors of tuberculosis, the world’s oldest and deadliest pandemic. For more than 30 years, patients have streamed into the South African clinics where he has worked — migrant workers, malnourished children and pregnant […]
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity (Review)
Review of Peter Attia’s recent book, with Bill Gifford, OUTLIVE: THE SCIENCE & ART OF LONGEVITY, (New York: Harmony Books, 2023), $16.24. Auburn, Al. (Special to Informed Comment) – Peter Attia, M.D. received his medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine and trained at John Hopkins Hospital in General Surgery and worked at the […]
How to Enroll Intelligently in Medicare – A Consumers Guide 2024
Gainesville, FL (Special to Informed Comment)- Medicare open enrollment season begins October 15th, running through Dec.7, 2023. And very soon, everyone will be bombarded with new smarmy health insurance Medicare Advantage ads featuring healthy and happy-looking seniors playing tennis and telling us how wonderful their Medicare Advantage plan is and how much of a no-brainer […]
Medicare Advantage Overbills Taxpayers by $140 Billion a Year — Enough to Wipe Out Medicare Premiums
Jake Johnson ( Commondreams.org ) – A report published Wednesday estimates that privately run, government-funded Medicare Advantage plans are overcharging U.S. taxpayers by up to $140 billion per year, a sum that could be used to completely eliminate Medicare Part B premiums or fully fund Medicare’s prescription drug program. Physicians for a National Health […]