Proponents claimed it would lower costs and improve health care for seniors. It has achieved neither of those goals; instead, it has become a wildly profitable scheme for private insurance giants. By Emma Curchin, Brandon Novick and Peter Hart | – ( Commondreams.org ) – The quasi-privatized system called “Medicare Advantage,” otherwise known as Part […]
Calls for US Arms Embargo as Israel Kills Nearly 500 in Lebanon
By Jessica Corbett | – ( Commondreams.org ) – The ongoing “bloodbath” in Lebanon fueled Monday calls for the United States to cut off weapons to Israel, a demand that people around the world have made for nearly a year, as the country has massacred tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “An […]
For-Profit US Healthcare System—Once Again—Ranks Dead Last Among Its Peers
Jake Johnson ( Commondreams ) – A report out Thursday shows that the United States’ for-profit healthcare system still ranks dead last among peer nations on key metrics, including access to care and health outcomes such as life expectancy at birth. The new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund is the latest indictment of a corporate-dominated […]
US Data Shows Continued Surge in Hate Against Muslims, Palestinians
By Jessica Corbett | – ( Commondreams.org ) – A spike in “relentless” Islamophobia across the United States that began in October with Israel’s U.S.-backed attack on the Gaza Strip continued through the first half of this year, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group said Tuesday. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) […]
To Win “Medicare for All” First Reclaim Medicare From Profiteers
Ed Weisbart ( Commondreams.org ) – Fifty-nine years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law—a high-water mark in the fight for universal healthcare that had started decades before and that continues to this day. Ever since Medicare became law, it has been a shining example of what is possible in U.S. healthcare: a […]
‘Ticking Time Bomb’: International Alarm as Poliovirus Found in Gaza Sewage
By Edward Carver | – ( Commondreams.org ) – Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples at six locations in the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization said on Friday, following announcements from both the Israel and Gaza health ministries. Vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 was found in samples taken on June 23 from sites in […]
At Least 90 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Massacre in ‘Safe Zone’ of al-Mawasi
By Julia Conley ( Commondreams.org ) – The United Nations’ top expert on human rights in Palestine condemned the Israeli military as it resorted to a familiar excuse for the killing of nearly 100 Palestinians on Saturday in an area that had been designated as a “humanitarian zone”—just the latest massacre of dozens of people […]
Do-it-Yourself Divestment: Bringing Anti-Gaza War Activism Home
Yes, schools and other institutions should divest from companies involved in war crimes or fueling the climate crisis. But individuals can also divest. Here’s how. By Scott Plous ( Commondreams ) – On Sunday, May 26—as graduating students at my school, Wesleyan University, tossed their caps into the air—bombs rained down on a tent camp […]
Why Are Any of Us Paying for the Scam That is Medicare Advantage?
By Thom Hartmann | – ( Commondreams.org) – They’re competing unfairly with Medicare, and you and I are paying for it. It’s obscene. When former U.S. President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans (and a handful of bought-off Democrats) created Medicare Advantage in 2003, it was the fulfillment of half of Bush’s goal of privatizing […]