Health Care Policy

2009

• 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.

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  Rethinking Government

  Drew Westen : Government

  Effective government is the precondition of freedom. And Obama needs to tell us that.

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  Democrats Don't Deliver

  Adam Howard

  Five Democratic senators on the Senate Finance Committee helped defeat a public option; do they really think that will advance reform--or even their political careers?

• The Medicare Gravy Train

  Trudy Lieberman

  Humana and other insurance industry giants have been fomenting a scare campaign among seniors to keep the industry's wasteful taxpayer subsidy going.

• Missing from Healthcare Bills: Coverage for Reproductive Health

  Sylvia Law : Reproductive Rights

  Health reform promises support for comprehensive care. That promise plainly does not extend to women who depend on public funds and seek abortions.

• Lowballing Health Reform

  J. Lester Feder : Health Insurance

  Progressives need to be as concerned about insurance coverage affordability as we are about a public option.

• Obama Is Fired Up About Healthcare

  MSNBC

  The Nation's Ari Melber on Obama's speech to the AFL-CIO which seemed to inspire the president's populist side and showed an eagerness to engage with the public.

• A Method to Their Madness

  Gary Younge : Conservatives & The American Right

  It takes considerable skill to convince people that something that is clearly good for them--like universal healthcare--is not.

• President Obama: 'The Time for Action Is Now'

  C-SPAN

  President Obama invokes history and offers a robust vision of progressive governance (if not the public option) in his major address to Congress on healthcare.