Health Care Policy

2009

• Crunch Time in the Senate

  Lindsay Beyerstein

  Will conservative and liberal objections to the Senate healthcare bill's provisions regarding women's health doom the legislation?

• Filibustering the Public

  The Editors : Senate

  Filibustering healthcare reform? This is not what democracy looks like.

• Round Two: The Coming Battle Over Abortion Funding

  Sharon Lerner : Health Insurance

  The prochoice movement stops playing nice in the fight for healthcare reform.

• Healthcare History

  The Editors : House

  The House's healthcare reform bill is a first draft of history; as with most first drafts, it has its share of flaws.

• Whose Team Is It, Anyway?

  Katha Pollitt : Reproductive Rights

  Prochoicers have been taking one for the team for too long now. Enough already.

• A Year of Obama

  Alexander Cockburn : Barack Obama

  Since the president took office, his administration has yielded one surrender after another.

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  Slide Show: Enemies of Health Reform

  The Nation spotlights the senators, amendments, activists and organizations most likely to derail healthcare reform efforts.

• Abortion Battle Puts Health Reform at Risk

  Countdown

  Nation editor Christopher Hayes is "infuriated" by the last-minute add-on that prohibits coverage for abortion in the House health plan.

• Where's the Birth Control?

  Sharon Lerner : Feminism & Women

  Another complication in healthcare reform legislation has emerged: so far, it fails to require insurers to cover basic preventive services for women, including contraception.

• The Tide Is Turning on Healthcare Reform

  Peter Dreier

  In the past month, momentum on healthcare reform has unmistakably shifted as progressives have taken to the streets, the Internet and the halls of Congress to push for a bold plan.

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  Crafting Health Reform

  J. Lester Feder : Health Insurance

  Healthcare reform is looking less like a fantasy and more like a probability--but we need to keep a close watch on affordability, financing and the public option.

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  Pelosi Pushes Public Option

  Lindsay Beyerstein

  A Congressional Budget Office report suggesting that a robust public option would actually cut the deficit seems to have lit a fire under Speaker Pelosi.

• Will Congress Pass a Strong Public Option?

  GRIT TV

  Author Sharon Lerner and Rep. Raul Grijalva discuss flaws in the Senate Finance Committee's health bill and increased popular support for a public option.

• Is Congress Opting Out of Real Reform?

  GRIT TV

  Is the so-called opt-out provision a worthy compromise for progressives who've already compromised just to get to a discussion of a public option?

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  Public Health Before Wall Street Wealth

  Robert Scheer : U.S. Economy

  The healthcare debate has become a convenient distraction from the far more pressing issues surrounding the banking meltdown.

• Why We Can't Weaken Healthcare Reform

  ABC News

  The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel thinks that we need to stop fixating on debt and unemployment benefits, and instead focus on a job creation program.

• Progressives and the Fight for Healthcare

  VideoNation

  Marcy Wheeler talks strategy, saying that Democrats need to "push the positive" to encourage people to not accept anything but the public option.