healthcare

Few folks I know really take the time to understand what's really going on with Medicaid. Most just listen to the double-talk coming out of McCrory & Wos and roll their eyes in disbelief. Not Rose Hoban. She's digging into the substance with in-depth coverage that is well worth your time.

Interviews with Wos and Steckel, complete with transcript attached.
http://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2013/04/12/state-health-leaders-d...

Monday/ Tuesday was a two part story. How "Broken" is NC Medicaid?
http://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2013/04/15/how-broken-is-nc-medic...
http://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2013/04/16/nc-medicaid-has-streng...

Check it out.

I would guess that most people here support single-payer health care, as I do. What we have is the Affordable Care Act, which is at the very least a good start. But it's also pretty damn complicated in a lot of ways. As this DailyKos article shows,the public is pretty misinformed about the impacts of the law.

Now I can tell people about how their kids can stay on their insurance during college. I can tell people about subsidies for the poor uninsured and the Medicaid expansion. Where I run into problems are when business owners call me. It isn't even that they are bitching about having to provide insurance, the just want to know their liability.

This is a “must see” documentary. Set your dvr to CNN at 8 pm this evening to record and view this most compelling and entertaining program. Escape Fire - The Fight to Save American Healthcare

This came across my screen today ... a reasoned and informed perspective about health care spending. The sky is not falling. Never has been.

Progress NC Action is proud to be partnering with the Center for American Progress Action Fund on a special report that reveals the real cost to North Carolina of the Romney/Ryan Plan. CAP Action has analyzed the Romney/Ryan plan and measured its potential impact on our state in a number of critical areas, including taxes, jobs, medicare, healthcare and more.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn the facts and to pick up materials you can pass along to your family and friends before November 6th.

You are invited to join us at a press conference in Raleigh this Wednesday afternoon featuring U.S. Congressman David Price, or at a special forum later that evening at UNC Greensboro. There will also be a Charlotte press conference on the morning of October 18th with details to some.

Event information and a link to a comprehensive resource page you are welcome to use is posted after the jump.

There’s an interesting discussion going on over at Reddit, where they’re discussing a WSJ Article entitled Romney Emails on Massachusetts Health-Care Law. The folks on Reddit spend some time discussion whether the emails were obtained by “hacking” - it doesn’t look that way - but there is also some fairly good political discussion.

Last night, Norman Goldman interviewed the L.A. Times' David Lazarus about his column describing a bill soon to be introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) that would allow states to introduce Medicare-for-all on a state-by-state basis:

If passed into law — admittedly a long shot with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives — McDermott's State-Based Universal Healthcare Act would represent a game changer for medical coverage in the United States.

In my morning update on recent news, I neglected to mention an exciting development in postdigital journalism, a new venture called NC Health News started by veteran WUNC reporter Rose Hoban.

From what's I've learned, this is primarily a self-funded venture, which means I'm here to pass the hat among those of you who value good reporting at the intersection of healthcare and public policy. If you can contribute, please do.

And in the meantime, go ahead and bookmark NC Health News. You'll be glad you did.

I know, I know -- what else is new? But for the love of god, I do not understand why people don't just rake these blatant hypocrites over the coals: apparently, cutting Medicaid costs is only good when it hurts poor people. If it's profiting your donors and the interests behind your favorite mega-lobbyists, well then, let the Medicaid dollars rain down. Here's an article from the NY Times explaining how the GOP hopes to give special exemptions to their doctor friends so that they can rake in the Medicaid dollars:

http://nyti.ms/w06scK

WISE, VA: A pregnant woman’s water broke as she awaited free dental care at the Wise County, VA fairgrounds on Saturday. She had stood in line in hot and muggy weather with over a thousand others to get a numbered ticket at the 12th annual Remote Area Medical (RAM) Health Expedition. According to RAM staffer, Jean Jolly, she didn’t want to leave and lose her place in line.

An ambulance standing by eventually took her to town in time to have her child in a hospital instead of an animal stall. The child might have been the first ever born at a RAM free clinic. But not without a number, joked one of RAM’s 1,700 volunteers.

Far from Washington’s "debt crisis" abstractions is another crisis, an American reality one cannot describe in words nor experience secondhand.