Winter 2026 Newsletter
Table of Contents
Director’s Report
Regional Reports
Committee Reports
Of Interest:
Letter submitted by Cleveland activist Nina McClellan to the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Bob Krasen receives Columbia Free Press Libby Award
Dr John Ross’ response to Jon Husted
Recommended Reading
- Don’t Worry, Wall Street Journal—Health Insurers Are Profitable!
- Short of Medicare for All, Sanders Offers Democrats 6 Other Ways to Tackle Healthcare Crisis.
- The Impact of Health Insurance on Mortality.
- Let’s Be Accurate: It’s an Industry, Folks, Not a System. U.S. Healthcare Corporations Embrace Higher Profits Over Patient Safety.
- What to Know About the Nearly 10% Climb in a Key Medicare Expense for 2026, by Mark Miller, N Y Times, Nov 22, 2025.
- Health insurance premiums to double for over 500,000 Ohioans if ACA tax credits expire.
- RTA Mulls Service Cuts in 2026.
- Meet the Connector – A long article that presents very interesting information about PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers).
Recommended Videos
- Medicare Dis-Advantage Video on Last Week with John Oliver
- Healthcare-Now – National Medicare Conference Day 2
- 2-minute video on one person’s experience with prior authorization
- Less than 2-minute video from Sen Chris Van Hollen D-MD): “…We need Medicare for All”.
- Video of Dr Claudia Fagan, National Coordinator of PNHP: testimony before the Senate HELP Committee on Dec 3.
Director’s Report
From The Desk of Kendall Mays – State Director of SPANOHIO.ORG
Healthcare is a hot topic, now and will be more so in the New Year. We need to talk to our neighbors and tell them about HEALTHCARE FOR ALL OHIOANS/SPANOHIO.ORG. Tell them to register on our web site and join or donate. Our state conference will be April 25, 2026. Invite them to come. It will be at the Quest Conference Center in Columbus. Elections will be held in the afternoon, and we would like to see contested positions for regional coordinators. We also need committee members.
Please send in nominations for the Smiddie Award. The Smiddie Award is given at the conference to a member or activist who has contributed a great deal for the cause of health care for all. Contact Kurt Bateman (region5@healthcareforallohioans.org) or Kendall Mays (Span@spanohio.org) to place your nominations.
2026 will be an interesting year. Pay attention to the candidates that favor universal single payer. We desperately need them in our government.
Declaration of candidacy for partisan candidates in Ohio must be filed by 4 p.m. Feb 4. (90 days before the May primary election.)
Hope everyone has a Happy, Healthy and Productive New Year!!!!!
Regional Reports
Region 1 (Cleveland, Northeast Ohio)
Coordinator: Cathe Caraway (310-748-6111) cathe@carawaylaw.com
The 4th Annual Healthcare Justice Holiday Celebration happened on Saturday, December 6, 2025 in Lakewood, Ohio starting at 7pm. We had 55 attendees, which is a 25% increase over 2024’s celebration. The guests came from diverse communities and points of view and everyone bonded. We collected 100 food items and donated them to the food bank at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church.
We also collected $225 in cash donations to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Everyone brought food or drinks in addition to their donations. There was an abundance of goodies! At the celebration, there was holiday caroling, karaoke, dancing, games, food, drinks and lots of holiday cheer. It was absolutely magical when we sang the 12 Days of Christmas! When it was time to say good night, everyone helped to clean up. It was a very special night. The 2026 Celebration will be even bigger and better!
Great thank yous to Carol Rivchun for her beautiful piano playing and accompaniment of the holiday carols, Victoria Murphy for her piano playing and for providing the keyboard which sounded like a Steinway. Thanks to James Wolst for lugging the keyboard in and out of the party room. Thanks for food and drinks to Bob Parker, Anne Caruso, Nancy McCrickard, Brian Houlehan, and all the guests who brought food and beverages. Thanks to Linda New for compostable service ware. Thanks to Elieen Baker and Shelbie Baker for set up, clean up and keeping everything going and clean. Thanks to Juan Collado for providing the table games, getting the football game on the TV, and leaving behind a blue tooth speaker for karaoke. Thank you to Michelle Slaughter for lending the beautiful centerpieces. And above all, thank you to everyone who showed up to make it a wonderful party.
Cleveland HCFAO/SPAN will be meeting on Zoom on Monday, January 12, at 5:00 PM. The Health Book Club will be meeting Friday, January 16 at 3:30 PM at Visible Voice Books at 4601 Lorain Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44102. The group will finish discussing Responding to the Right by Nathan Robinson. For details on either of these events, please contact clevelandspan@spanohio.org.
Submitted by Cathe L. Caraway
Also in the Cleveland area, an update on the University Hospitals Pediatricians who were fired. Our chapter has supported these physicians:
Lauren Beene, MD and Valerie Fouts-Fowler, DO, of University Hospitals in Cleveland were fired in June for organizing a union for doctors at the hospital and for fighting for the rights of patients. (See our Fall newsletter at Fall 2025 Newsletter).
Dr. Beene and Dr. Fouts-Fowler filed a lawsuit on Dec 15 against University Hospitals. The lawsuit alleges UH improperly fired the pediatricians, after raising serious concerns about patient care across the UH system. The lawsuit alleges their former employer terminated them in violation of their contracts and Ohio law and later engaged in a defamatory smear campaign against them.
Dr. Beene and Dr. Fouts-Fowler served thousands of pediatric patients during their time at UH and both have been named to the Cleveland Magazine Best Doctors List. In 2024, they began raising complaints to hospital administrators about a number of issues throughout the health system, including understaffing in the emergency room and changes that impacted the timely processing of blood tests for sick children.
“Every day for years, Dr. Lauren Beene and I cared for your children, watched them grow, celebrated their milestones, guided them through illnesses, fears, and challenges. Those relationships and connections meant everything to us. We spoke up about patient safety, about long wait times, about families who struggled to get the care they needed, and the need for physicians to have a voice”, said Dr. Fouts-Fowler.
Your support has given the pediatricians a position to push back. “Many haven’t had that opportunity. We’re very fortunate to have the backing of our community and that gave us the strength to move forward,” said Dr. Beene.
Following the physicians’ termination, the suit alleges that the hospital system made defamatory statements falsely accusing Dr. Beene and Dr. Fouts-Fowler of serious offenses, including data theft, violating physicians’ and patients’ privacy, and compromising patient care. As a result of the defamatory statements, Drs. Beene and Fouts-Fowler were subjected to online vitriol and their reputations were damaged.
“This is a step toward accountability. We’re not backing down. UH clinicians must be able to speak honestly to care for patients safely. And we will never stop fighting for our patients,” said Dr. Beene.
Dr. Beene and Dr. Fouts-Fowler are seeking reinstatement to their jobs, along with release from the non-compete and non-solicitation provisions of their employment contracts and damages to address the harms they have endured. The lawsuit was filed in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. The defendants in the lawsuit are University Hospitals Health Systems, University Hospitals Medical Practices and University Hospitals Medical Group Here is a link to a 2-minute video explaining their action:
https://www.facebook.com/1382976381/videos/1403513834645390/
They say:
We would be grateful if the message below could be shared with your networks via email and social media platforms, along with the attached graphic.
Thank you again for standing with us and for everything you’ve done to support this work.
Warmly,
Lauren Beene, MD and Valerie Fouts-Fowler, DO
ConcernedUHPhysicians.org
SHORT COPY-AND-SHARE MESSAGE
Silencing doctors is silencing patients. Safe care depends on clinicians being able to speak up without fear. When two UH pediatricians raised concerns, they were fired – and 5,000 children lost continuity of care.
Community members across Northeast Ohio are calling for transparency, accountability, and protections for physician voice. Please sign and share the petition:
Region 4-(Cincinnati, Southwest Ohio )
Coordinators: Deliah (Dee) Chavez (513-413-1178) dee49@fuse.net and Shot VanAusdall (he/him) (513)617-5129) vanausdall@fuse.net
Region 4 activists met for a social evening and brief report on the year’s activities in September. We heard from 2 new young activists who talked about why they were moved to become involved in the movement for a universal single payer health care system. We enjoyed great Mexican food as well as the documentary film ‘Fix It’. There was great discussion on where we are and where we are going.
In November, three Region 4 members, Suzanne Fuhrman, Robin Dickman, and Dee Chavez, who are also members of the local PNHP chapter attended the annual PNHP conference and Lobby Day in Washington DC. Two other Ohio members of HCFAO and PNHP and many medical students from across the state also attended, along with a total of 250 across the country. The conference featured Dr. Uche Blackstock, a dynamic speaker, who focused on the fact that there is an astonishingly low percentage of African American physicians compared to the general population. She pointed out the historical precedents that lead to this and why increasing that percentage would lead to erasing inequities in the health care of communities of color. Watch for Dr. Blackstock on major news networks!
After 2 days of the conference we were inspired to continue our efforts on Lobby Day, Nov. 3rd at the US capital where we had a walk and rally across the Capital grounds, then talked to many legislators’ health policy advisors or other aides. See Lobby Committee report for more details.
Our next Region 4 meeting will be Feb. 25, 2026 at 7PM.
Submitted by Dee Chavez
Region 5-(Columbus, Central Ohio)
Coordinator: Kurt Bateman (614-562-1066) kurt.pdamerica@gmail.com
HCFAO Region 5 has been in transition this past fall with the resignation of co-coordinator Tamie Wilson. Members of the region have participated in Moral Mondays vigils at the Ohio Statehouse with the Ohio Poor Peoples’ Campaign and candidate forums in and around Columbus.
Member Arlene Sheak has been invaluable at keeping us engaged.
Bob Krasen, past Region 5 coordinator was honored by the Columbus Free Press with a “Libby” this autumn for his years of activism.
Bob has continued to produce Letters to the Editor he has shared with the group.
Members of Region 5 will need to nominate a new coordinator for election this Spring at our bi-annual HCFAO/SPAN conference in April as Kurt Bateman the remaining coordinator will transition to the office of State Director.
Committee Reports
Equity Committee Report
The Equity Committee finished 2025 with two events in November: a Listen, Learn, Empower workshop addressing health needs and disparities for American Indians and the launch of our HCFAO demographic survey. The survey was designed to capture a baseline portrait of our organization and to be used in the future to track growth in inclusivity as we aim to form coalitions across the spectrum of ethnic, racial, cultural, geographical, etc., communities.
Since its beginning in 2022, the Equity Committee has initiated and completed eighteen workshops and projects including eleven focused on healthcare inequities for marginalized communities. The entire list is in the December 2025 Equity Committee newsletter.
At our committee meeting in October, the Equity Committee decided to disband at present and take what we have learned with us as we continue working with HCFAO in various other ways. Through our work together we have gained insight into the disparities that affect the health outcomes of individuals in traditionally marginalized communities and into the importance of allowing this insight to continue informing our work for single payer healthcare in our state and our nation.
We encourage Healthcare for All Ohioans (HCFAO) as an organization to form a broad base of support seeking out opportunities to work with organizations across all sectors of our population. The values of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion remain essential for us in striving for single payer, universal, affordable Healthcare for All.
-Nancy McCrickard, Chair
Program/Conference Committee
We held a successful showing of the movie “American Hospitals – Healing a Broken System” which we made available on a state wide Zoom showing. As the movie announcement says, “American Hospitals uncovers the economic incentives of an industry that is charging outrageous fees while sitting on billions of dollars in accumulated cash – while 100 million hard-working Americans suffer from medical debt.” We had a good attendance, and the movie was followed by lively discussion.
Unfortunately, the movie, produced by the same people who made “Fix It: Healthcare at a Tipping Point” is not available for free. But you can rent or buy it from Amazon, Apple, etc.
The Committee is now looking to the future. Our State Conference for SPAN Ohio will be Saturday, April 25 at the Quest Center in Westerville, OH, just north of Columbus. (Note that the venue has moved slightly, but is in the same basic area as at our last couple of conferences at the Quest Center).
We have two committed speakers lined up so far: Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works; and Rose Roach, National Coordinator for the Labor Campaign for Single Payer, and also Chair of Healthcare for All Minnesota. They will provide a greater understanding of the issue to conference attendees and inspiring motivation to increase our efforts. As we face a public polity that seems only to serve the financial interests of the Insurance and Big Pharma the “fierce urgency of now” echos from the activism of those who struggled before us.
The conference will run from approximately 9:30 AM to 4 PM. There will be a registration fee which will include coffee and refreshments in the morning as well as lunch. Information about the details will be on the SPAN Ohio website soon, as well as sent in a future email.
SPAN Ohio Lobby Committee
One of our goals at this time is to meet with all members of the committees to which HB289 and SB78 are assigned. Sponsor testimony has been given in the House Insurance Committee for HB289 and we are asking representatives on the committee to urge the Chair, Brian Lampton, to hold proponent testimony hearings.
While we have met with all the Democrats on the committee and a few Republicans, it has been difficult to get responses from others for a formal meeting.
In the Senate Financial Institutions, Insurance and Technology Committee, there has NOT been sponsor testimony on SB78 yet. Again we have met with all the Democrats, but not all Republicans.
Another goal we are working on currently is to discuss incremental laws that have been initiated in other states. We have been inspired by Dr. John Ross’ knowledge of these laws.
We are are greatly helped in our efforts by Dr. Phil Lichtenstein.
1) The All Payer system in Maryland, in which the state puts money into a pool and a rate setting commission sets a budget for hospitals. It was enacted 20 years ago and has proven to save greatly in administrative costs and to prevent hospital closures.
2) The Single Payer Medicaid system in Connecticut, which chose one insurance company to administer all the Medicaid coverage. This was enacted 5 years ago and saved the state significant amounts of healthcare expenditures.
3) Elimination of copays for primary care.
We have had meetings with legislators on both sides of the aisle and there is real interest in these incremental steps.
None of these ideas would provide universal coverage which is our true goal, but all are significant steps toward demonstrating cost-savings and simplification, which leads to making healthcare more accessible.
Lobbying in Washington, D.C.
In November, Ohioans including 5 members of both HCFAO and PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) and several SNaHP (Students for a National Health Program) medical students across the state lobbied in Washington DC. We were only able to meet with health policy aides or other aides as legislators were not in DC due to the shutdown.
Primary issues discussed were as follows:
1) Prevent the privatization of traditional Medicare and highlight the fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare Advantage.
2) Stop the pilot program rolled out by CMMI (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation), so-called WISeR (Wasteful and Inappropriate Spending Program) which is proposed in 6 states, including Ohio. This program would use Artificial Intelligence in traditional Medicare to process claims. We know that AI technology is used by private insurance and has been associated with greatly increased claim denials.
We plan to followup with meetings with the legislators themselves.
Above photo outside of US Congresswoman Shontel Brown’s office, from left to right: Dee Chavez; Adam Salem, Ohio State University medical student; Representative Brown’s Legislative aide; Cathe Caraway; Suzanne Fuhrman; Minseo Kim, Ohio State University medical student and SNaHP member; then Brandon Petrovich, NEOMED (Northeast Ohio Medical University) in Rootstown, OH medical student and Chair of Ohio State SNaHP outside of Rep. Brown’s office
Primary issues discussed were as follows:
1) Prevent the privatization of traditional Medicare and highlight the fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare Advantage.
2) Stop the pilot program rolled out by CMMI (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation), so-called WISeR (Wasteful and Inappropriate Spending Program) which is proposed in 6 states, including Ohio. This program would use Artificial Intelligence in traditional Medicare to process claims. We know that AI technology is used by private insurance and has been associated with greatly increased claim denials.
We plan to followup with meetings with the legislators themselves.
SPAN members Cathe Caraway, Robin Dickman, Dee Chavez (front) and Suzanne Fuhrman, behind Cathe; with PNHP doctors in Washington DC on Nov 3.
The next Lobby Committee meeting will be Wed., Jan. 28th at 7PM. Contact me for details at dee49@fuse.net
Submitted by Dee Chavez
Chair Lobby Committee
Of Interest
Bob Krasen’s (Healthcare for all Ohioans) speech after awarded the Columbus Free Press Libby Award, November 9, 2025:
“A TV Commercial ad is based on 3 simple questions. ‘What’s the bad news? What’s the good news? and What’s the difference?”
The Bad News?
The people in the USA have a 3 year shorter life expectancy than our neighbors to the north in Canada. The USA is not one of the 58 countries in the world which provide necessary healthcare to their people. Our Infant and maternal mortality are the highest among first world nations.
Hospitals are closing where they are most needed: in the inner cities and rural communities.
Doctors are tired of playing “Mommy may I?” with insurers, drug companies, and hospitals, having to get prior authorizations.
Clearly, the USA healthcare payment system not working for us.
The Good News?
Medicare for All in the US Congress, or the Health Care for All Ohioans in the Ohio Legislature, would cover We the People for life… for all necessary medical conditions through any licensed medical provider.
Doctors would have 20% more time to see patients, because ‘prior authorizations’ are gone.
Hospitals would be made whole by one payment per month covering all of their expenses, and could close their patient billing departments, which need nearly one accountant for every patient bed.
Patients would never see a medical bill, deal with medical debt, or ‘out of network’ nonsense.
Just healthcare!
What’s the Difference?
Bells ringing! Birds singing! People smiling! knowing that we no longer have a weighted albatross of medical payment chaos around our necks. In the adjusted words of Martin Luther King, ‘We’re free at last…free at last! Thank God Almighty, we’re free at last!’
All of us are needed to influence our legislators to Pass Medicare for All. We need 218 votes in the House; 51 in the Senate, and a President who will sign the bill.”
Letter submitted by Cleveland activist Nina McLellan to the Cleveland Plain Dealer
(Unpublished, and written prior to the actual December 11 U.S. Senate vote on extending the ACA credits beyond the end of 2025.)
December is upon us and we can anticipate congress to start debating the cost of health care, especially the spike in ACA/ Obamacare premiums. Most Republicans will likely oppose funding the subsidies which the Democrats tried and failed to get reinstated during the budget shutdown. Senator Husted has come out with some proposals to try to contain costs but these, as usual, are tinkering around the edges of a fundamentally broken system.
As long as health care is controlled by private insurance, drug and hospital conglomerates, we’ll have a bizarrely complicated, unaffordable cruel system. I am over 65 and thank god every day for Medicare. We need Medicare-For-All, a single-payer system for everyone, not just elders. Every other industrial country has a health system that guarantees coverage for all residents.
We must remind our representatives that the constitution called for the new government to “provide for the general welfare” of “we the people”, not greedy corporations and the super wealthy. Let’s yell, scream, hit the streets and demand fundamental change, not congressional tinkering, so that everyone is guaranteed full and comprehensive health care coverage.
Dr. John Ross’ response to the announcement of Sen. John Husted as a “health reformer” in the Senate. (Sabrina Eaton, 11/21/25 article in Cleveland.com: Husted outlines fraud, freeze and fix healthcare plan)
Husted has the correct diagnosis but the wrong treatment
Senator John Husted says he wants to “fix” our healthcare system that 70% of Americans say is failing them. So do I. He seems to think rising healthcare costs are due only to the ACA rather than our whole corrupt sickness care non-system. The Senator, though still a rookie, accurately identifies the major problem – the “middlemen” gouging us and not just in the ACA marketplaces. His solution is to attack the “fraud”, “freeze” the tax credits for families to purchase commercial insurance in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces.
We’ve heard it before. “It’s the doctors, the hospitals and drug prices.” We need doctors and hospitals and drugs. However, we don’t need the “middlemen” – the more than 1000 commercial health insurance companies and the army of billing clerks and administrators in the hospitals and doctor offices who must fight with them over payment day after day.
The hyper-complexity of 1000 payers with different rules, networks, levels of coverage, co-pays and deductibles results in healthcare financing which requires an army of paper pushers and bureaucrats to chase down and track the money for our care. Unlike other rich nations, we fail to recognize that healthcare is not an “ordinary product” where market forces might control costs and increase quality. Kenneth Arrow won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1972 related to his work on why markets forces will often fail in healthcare. For example, if you needed open heart surgery and it was on sale, would you have two?
“Reformers” have been using market forces for half a century ever since Nixon signed the HMO Act in 1973. We’ve tried HMOs, PPOs, ACOs, even heart healthy Cheerios. None have produced cost control or improved quality. Market forces have simply failed to provide comprehensive universal coverage or cost control. Our costs, coverage and outcomes are worst among all the wealthy nations, which spend half as much without these market-based reforms. Husted’s recommendation of health savings accounts (available in the US since 2004) and healthcare price transparency (part of the ACA since 2010) are not new. They too have failed to control costs or improve coverage.
We do have the best doctors, hospitals, equipment and research in the world. Sadly, we have the worst possible hypercomplex financing system, still failing to deliver affordable care to all who need it. Market forces seem to be the disease for which they were supposed to be the cure. The “Big Bad Bill” will add 10 million more to the 27 million already uninsured and destroy the best research institutes in the world to allow billionaires their tax cuts.
I support a different proven solution: In December of 2020, the Congressional Budget Office studied using an improved and expanded Medicare for all. They say it would cover everyone comprehensively without copays and deductibles, still save at least $400 billion annually in administrative waste to pay for improved expanded coverage and free up time for doctors and nurses to provide more needed care. Universal improved coverage makes it simple and simplicity would save enough to make covering everyone affordable. Crucially, reform based on an improved expanded Medicare for all will save patient lives and likely improve the financial and emotional lives of physicians, nurses, and patients. Public financing would bring needed public accountability to our underperforming healthcare system. Looking at the beneficial bottom line for caregivers and patients, we should fear the status quo, not the change.
Johnathon S.Ross MD MPH
Past President, Physicians for a National Health Program
Toledo, Ohio 43606
Recommended Reading
Don’t Worry, Wall Street Journal—Health Insurers Are Profitable!
FAIR: Oct 31, 2025
Over the past year, older Americans, low-income people who enroll in private Medicare and Medicaid insurance plans, and people covered by health insurance purchased from the Affordable Care Act exchanges have been doing something that private insurance companies and their Wall Street investors find disturbing: They’re actually going to the doctor and getting the healthcare they need.
Insurers in ‘rough shape’
In January, the Associated Press (1/16/25) reported that insurer “UnitedHealth posted a better-than-expected profit in the final quarter of 2024, but a nagging rise in medical costs and care utilization surprised Wall Street.” The article noted that this “nagging rise” meant the company’s revenue only “climbed about 7% to $100.8 billion, which missed expectations.” This report came under a headline announcing, with no apparent sense of its own absurdity, that “Medical Costs Linger” for the company whose business it is to pay for people’s medical costs.
In February, Healthcare Dive (2/25/25) said health insurers had “wrapped up 2024 in rough shape, recording falling profits from insurance businesses and releasing guidance suggesting that medical costs could continue climbing this year.” What reporter Rebecca Pifer meant by “rising medical costs” was a decline in the portion of every dollar in premiums that insurers skim off the top.
. . .
In April, UnitedHealth announced that it had discovered “heightened care activity” by people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans, and “changes in the profile” of patients treated by the company’s physician practice and pharmaceutical insurance subsidiary Optum. English translation: Our members are sicker than we thought, and getting more healthcare than we expected. United changed its “guidance” from anticipating profits of roughly $26 billion over the full year 2025 to just under $23 billion.
. . .
The fact that Medicare manages to direct 99% of its premiums (in the form of taxes) to paying doctors, hospitals, labs, therapists, drug companies, technicians, aides and the insurers themselves was absent from the story, as it nearly invariably is. Missing, too, was how the privatization of Medicare has loaded up the program with unnecessary bureaucracy: When Medicare pays private insurers instead of covering people directly, the companies skim their 10%+ off the top, money that Medicare spends on patient care when they cover people directly. For full article: Don’t Worry, Wall Street Journal—Health Insurers Are Profitable! — FAIR
Medicare for All Is Popular — Even When Put Up Against Attacks
Americans are consistently saying that the cost of living is their top concern, and health care prices, in particular, are set to soar in 2026 — with employers expected to face the largest price increase in more than a decade. This comes as Americans already spend far more than any other country on health care, despite having some of the worst rates of life expectancy and infant mortality among wealthy nations.
Medicare for All, a policy popularized by Senator Bernie Sanders, would provide all Americans with health care that is free at the point of service, paid for by tax increases.
In a new survey, Data for Progress finds that 65% of voters support a Medicare for All system — described as a “national health insurance program…that would cover all Americans and replace most private health insurance plans.” This includes majorities of Democrats (78%) and Independents (71%), and a plurality of Republicans (49%).
For full article: Medicare is Popular Even When Put Up Against Attacks
Short of Medicare for All, Sanders Offers Democrats 6 Other Ways to Tackle Healthcare Crisis
By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, November 18,2025
. . . Senator Bernie Sanders says: “while I believe that the long-term solution to the healthcare crisis is Medicare for All, and I appreciate the 16 cosponsors we have on that legislation in the Senate, and the more than 100 cosponsors we have in the House, this bill does not yet have majority support in the Democratic Caucus.”
“The good news, however, is that there are a number of much-needed reforms to the healthcare system that we could offer now that would substantially improve the lives of the American people and are also incredibly popular,” he continued.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at an impromptu press conference in Washington, DC on November 5, 2025.
Specifically, Sanders called for:
- Extending the ACA tax credits;
- Repealing Trump and congressional Republicans’ $1 trillion in cuts to the ACA and Medicaid;
- Expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing;
- Cutting the cost of prescription drugs by at least 50% with legislation requiring pharmaceutical companies to charge no more for medications in the United States than they do in Europe or Canada;
- Expanding primary healthcare with investments in the National Health Service Corps as well as community and teaching health centers; and
- Banning stock buybacks and dividends, and restricting CEO compensation.
For full article:Sanders offers Democrats 6 ways to Tackle Healthcare Crisis
The Impact of Health Insurance on Mortality
Annual Review of Public Health; Vol. 46:541-550 (Volume publication date April 2025).
ABSTRACT
A 2008 review in the Annual Review of Public Health considered the question of whether health insurance improves health. The answer was a cautious yes because few studies provided convincing causal evidence. We revisit this question by focusing on a single outcome: mortality. Because of multiple high-quality studies published since 2008, which exploit new sources of quasi-experimental variation as well as new empirical approaches to evaluating older data, our answer is more definitive. Studies using different data sources and research designs provide credible evidence that health insurance coverage reduces mortality. The effects, which tend to be strongest for adults in middle age or older and for children, are generally evident shortly after coverage gains and grow over time. The evidence now unequivocally supports the conclusion that health insurance improves health.
For full article: Impact of Healh Insurance on Mortality
Let’s Be Accurate: It’s an Industry, Folks, Not a System. U.S. Healthcare Corporations Embrace Higher Profits Over Patient Safety
By Donna Smith
Calling the U.S. healthcare mess a system is the softening of economic terminology that drives the health industry ever forward to higher profit margins. Patients receiving care are medical losses to the insurance side of the house, while those same patients are revenue line items for hospitals and clinics. Our lives are not being protected, and our personal resources are often drained. Industry and greed do that, not health systems designed to heal and serve.
This year is on track to bring record profits to hospitals in Denver like the one in which my husband was recently trying to heal from complications of hip replacement surgery. Denver area hospitals did great this year and last, even if they try to dance around the facts behind their business successes, and corporate public relations staff work hard to keep the public out of that loop. Look at the newspaper’s description of the profits. Do you see or hear the measures of how many patients were made healthier by their care? Nope. The measures are almost all business and economic – this is an industry, not a system.
. . . 
Camera monitor used in patient rooms, August 2025, Photo by Donna Smith
I am 100% in favor of getting the profit motive out of hospital care as much as possible. Greed knows no limits and greed does not belong as a measure of our health. This health industry is a largely unregulated mess. You know, and I know it. It’s time to speak the truth about it – the United States does not have a health system. We have an industry that uses patients as widgets and counts profits as the only desired measure of success.
Making money is a fine thing so long as it doesn’t mean lying about how we do it. We fuel our economy on suffering and illness, and without the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act/ACA/Obamacare subsidies, the health industry will be even more attentive to their bottom line.
You ready?
For full article: It’s an Industry, Folks, Not a System
What to Know About the Nearly 10% Climb in a Key Medicare Expense for 2026
By Mark Miller, N Y Times, Nov 22, 2025
. . . Medicare officials announced that the standard Part B premium, which covers services such as physician visits and hospital outpatient care, will be $202.90 a month — up 9.7 percent. . . .
Why the big jump?
The new numbers reflect general increases in the cost of health care. National health expenditures rose about 8 percent in 2024, federal data shows, and are expected to outpace gross domestic product growth over the coming decade. Another cause for the rising Part B costs is a shift in health care delivery from hospitals to outpatient settings. More care and medications are being delivered in these settings, Dr. Neuman said. [Hospitalization costs are covered in Medicare, which has no premium]
The growth of Medicare Advantage plans — which now account for more than half of total enrollment — plays a role as well. These privately offered alternatives to government-run traditional Medicare often reduce upfront costs by including prescription drug coverage. They also include out-of-pocket caps ($5,320 this year) without the Medigap policies that provide that protection in traditional Medicare. That comes with trade-offs, including health care provider networks and frequent red-tape hassles with coverage approvals, known as prior authorizations.
Medicare spends about $80 billion more annually for Medicare Advantage enrollees than it would if they were enrolled in traditional Medicare, leading to higher spending for both Part A (which covers hospitalization) and Part B.
For full article: What to Know About the Nearly 10% Climb in a Key Medicare Expense
RTA mulls service cuts in 2026 due to rising healthcare costs
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is mulling service cuts in mid-2026 to cope with budget problems caused by soaring health care costs. Such cuts would be coupled with a hiring freeze, frozen wages for non-union employees and other cost-savings measures, officials said during an initial 2026 budget presentation to board members on Tuesday.
For full article: RTA mulls service cuts in 2026
Health insurance premiums to double for over 500,000 Ohioans if ACA tax credits expire
(Front page of Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sunday, Dec 7, 2025)
. . .
One study estimates medical bills already are a problem for more than 20% of Ohioans.
. . . .
Without the extension, premiums will skyrocket. In Ohio, roughly 513,000 of more than 583,000 people with Obamacare plans – 88% of enrollees — would be affected. These Ohioans are at risk of seeing their healthcare costs soar, and for some of them, that could mean being priced out of coverage all together.
. . . .
More than one in five Ohioans already reported having trouble paying off medical bills in 2023, according to the Ohio Medicaid Assessment Survey. With premium costs set to more than double for many families, that number is likely to grow significantly in 2026.
The national average annual out-of-pocket premium cost for marketplace enrollees is expected to jump 114% next year, rising from $888 to $1,904, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The Health Policy Institute of Ohio also examined how annual premiums will increase for different hypothetical Ohio households if the tax credits expire.
- A 27-year-old single adult making $35,000 a year will go from paying $1,033 annually for their policy with the enhanced tax credit to $2,615 without.
- A 35-year-old couple making $30,000 will go from paying nothing annually with the enhanced tax credit to $1,107 without.
- A 49-year-old couple with a 19-year-old child making $90,000 will go from paying $6,246 annually with the enhanced tax credit to $8,964 without.
. . .
The Urban Institute estimates that Ohio could see an additional 140,000 people who are uninsured because of the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits. That many people would increase the state’s uninsured rate by 29%.
For full article: Health Insurance Premiums to Double
Meet the Connectors
Editors note: A long article, but very interesting information about PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers):
Middlemen, our economy’s most shadowy characters, sit in between buyers and sellers and get rich in the process. It can even be a matter of life or death.
by Whitney Curry Wimbish December 5, 2025, The American Prospect
PBM contracts disfavor independent pharmacies so severely that they are closing across the country, as the Prospect’s David Dayen has reported. Yet they control so many transactions that pharmacies can’t survive without them. To get into a PBM’s network, pharmacies must agree to a take-it-or-else contract where the PBM reimburses them for every drug sold, a payment called the “maximum allowable cost” that is a secret between the PBM and the pharmacy. The health plan is then required to reimburse the PBM for that amount. But the PBM can demand more and keep the difference, and they don’t have to say that’s what they’re doing.
The secret contracts between PBMs and pharmacies are designed to hide vital information from customers. They forbid pharmacists from telling customers about lower-priced drug options, on the threat of kicking the pharmacist out of their network. PBMs force pharmacists to charge secret “co-pays” on some drugs, Dayen reported in 2017, except they aren’t co-pays. They’re a fee for the PBM.
To blame PBMs solely for drug price-gouging would be selling the problem short, said Antonio Ciaccia, president of Three Axis Advisors, a consultancy and researcher that exposes problems in the prescription drug supply chain. But “what makes PBMs uniquely problematic is that the system relies upon their purity. They are intended to be the counterweight in the environment.” He likened PBMs to a firefighter in the gasoline business. The system relies on them being good, he said, without incentives for them to be good.
.. . . .
Drug industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) COO Lori Reilly said in the hearing that typical PBM kickbacks from drug companies are more than 50 percent of the cost of the drug, that they limit patients’ access to lower-cost drugs, deny and limit access to biosimilar and generic medicine, and refuse to put cheaper insulin and lower-priced hepatitis C drugs on their formulary list. Reilly referenced a GAO report finding that patients paid four times more than their insurance company in 79 of the top 100 most frequently rebated drugs.
. . . .
Ohio and Kentucky actually created public PBMs for their state Medicaid programs, eliminating the middleman. . . . .
For full article: Meet the Connectors
Videos
Medicare Dis-Advantage on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Healthcare-Now National Medicare for All Conference (Nov 23, 2025)
(Note, the Audio starts at about 6 minutes into the program. It is a 3 hour video)
2 Minute Facebook Video on one person’s experience with Pre-authorization.
2 Minute video from Senator Chris Van Hollen (D – MD):
“Yes, let’s extend the [Affordable Care Act] tax credits to prevent a huge spike in healthcare costs for millions. Then, let’s finally create a system that puts your health over corporate profits. We need Medicare for All.”
Dr. Claudia Fagan, National Coordinator of PNHP testimony before Senate HELP Committee on Dec 3.
Written Transcript:
https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/866499a3-a3d6-feb8-7e8f-43d4bec2e45b/Fegan Testimony.pdf
Actual testimony:
about 5 minutes, starting at 59 min, 10 seconds
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