Health-Insurance Gap Surges as Political Issue

Democrats, Governors, Business Push Change,
But Fixes Vary Widely

By DEBORAH SOLOMON and DAVID WESSEL
Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2007; Page A1

Suddenly, the long-festering issue of providing health coverage to the one in six Americans who lack it seems to have leapt to the top of the national to-do list.

Medicare for All: The Only Sound Solution to Our Healthcare Crisis

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By Guy T. Saperstein, AlterNet

January 16, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/46550/

We all know that America's healthcare system is collapsing. Andy Stern has written that America's employer-based health insurance system is "dead." Auto executives troop to the White House complaining that they are not competitive with foreign automakers because they pay $1,500 per car for health insurance. Some of the biggest laughs in movies come when America's healthcare system is ridiculed. Politicians, even Republicans, are offering solutions.

Bush Plots Health-Care Push

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Employer-Plan Tax Change May Aid Coverage for the Needy

By JOHN D. MCKINNON and DEBORAH SOLOMON
Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2007; Page A6

WASHINGTON -- With health-care costs emerging as one of voters' biggest domestic concerns, President Bush is considering promoting a tax-code change making it easier for people to buy health insurance for themselves in the open market, rather than relying on employers.

California Nurses Statement on Gov. Health Plan

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January 8, 2007

For Immediate Release

Contact: Charles Idelson, 510-273-2246

The California Nurses Association today said it welcomed the decision of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to address the state’s escalating healthcare crisis. But, said CNA President Deborah Burger, the sum of his proposals may ultimately amount to “little more than a fresh coat of paint on a collapsing house.”

Health insurers deny policies in some jobs

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Common medications also can be deemed too risky in California.

By Lisa Girion
Times Staff Writer

January 8, 2007

Health insurers in California refuse to sell individual coverage to people simply because of their occupations or use of certain medicines, according to documents obtained by The Times.

First, Do Less Harm

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New York Times

January 5, 2007

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Universal health care, much as we need it, won’t happen until there’s a change of management in the White House. In the meantime, however, Congress can take an important step toward making our health care system less wasteful, by fixing the Medicare Middleman Multiplication Act of 2003.

A Healthy New Year

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