Attn. Senate: Most Americans Want a Public Option

Staff / Truthdig Oct 20, 2009 There may not be enough support in the Senate for a public option, as Finance Committee chair and health industry plaything Max Baucus contends, but according to a new poll, a growing majority of Americans wants one President Obama says . Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Health Care Reform Insurance Companies Can Believe In

Bill Boyarsky / Truthdig Oct 20, 2009 It’s now clear that health care “reform” is a bonanza for the insurance companies But these acquisitive businesses want even more Their efforts to increase their profits are at the center of the clandestine Senate and House negotiations currently shaping the health bill. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Progressive Group Targets Harry Reid

Staff / Truthdig Oct 19, 2009 The Bold Progressives (aka PCCC) have taken the health care fight to the home states of conservacrats Ben Nelson and Max Baucus and Republican swinger Olympia Snowe Now the group is going after the man himself with a new public-option pressure ad. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Real Talk on Health Reform

Staff / Truthdig Oct 17, 2009 President Barack Obama has finally put into words what everyone already knows: that insurance companies are "deceptive and dishonest" in their efforts to kill any semblance of health care reform, no matter the cost. Now let's see if he does anything with this knowledge. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Harkin Sees a Public Option in Health Bill’s Future

Staff / Truthdig Oct 17, 2009 Those two little words keep popping up amid all the chatter about health care reform, and here they are again, thanks to Sen. Tom Harkin, chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee: "public option." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Snowe Helps Baucus Bill Pass Committee Hurdle

Staff / Truthdig Oct 13, 2009 Maine's Olympia Snowe explained her vote for health care reform by saying "when history calls, history calls." It called, she answered, and now the Senate Finance Committee's Baucus bill, which would force Americans to buy health insurance without offering a public option, is off to get married to the more progressive Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee bill.Max Baucus' health care bill has passed the Senate Finance Committee, with the help of lone wolf Sen. Olympia Snowe. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

German Socialists Make Do Without Socialized Medicine

Staff / Truthdig Oct 9, 2009 Germany is one of the world's great welfare states, but the country's health care system isn't strictly socialist. Nonetheless, lots of options, tight regulation and universal coverage are helping Germans live longer than Americans. Might the German example offer a way out of America's health care struggles? Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Missing Health Care Debate

Bill Boyarsky / Truthdig Oct 6, 2009 One way to give people a good deal on their health care is the so-called public option. A better way is the kind of strong regulation that isn't even being discussed. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Ad for the Public Option Takes Sen. Ensign to Task

Staff / Truthdig Oct 5, 2009 Nevada Sen. John Ensign's recent infidelity scandal lurks in the background of an ad for the public option running in parts of his home state this week, courtesy of the progressive coalition Health Care for America Now! The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder notes that the coalition has paid $100,000 to run the ad for a week to point out Ensign's financial entanglements with the health care industry. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Obama Pressures Senate on Public Option

Staff / Truthdig Oct 5, 2009 Like a reluctant Sisyphus, the president is still pushing the public option up Capitol Hill According to a report in the L Times, Obama has been trying to sell moderate Democrats on the idea That's no easy task, as many have taken gobs of money from the private health industry and coincidentally oppose meaningful reform. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Making Tragedy Out of Farce

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Oct 1, 2009 The Senate Finance Committee's health care debate has given Michael Moore hours of footage for his next cinematic assault on the system. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Public Option Only Looks Dead

E.J. Dionne Jr. / Truthdig Oct 1, 2009 The strangest aspect of the debate over a public option for health coverage is that the centrists who oppose it should actually love it. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )