Crash Survival Zone

Medicare and Social Security are in terrible shape. Unfortunately, private-sector health and pension plans are doing even worse.
By Daniel Gross
Unlike my colleague Robert Samuelson, I’m not too worried about the impending bankruptcy of Medicare and Social Security, the government-run programs designed to provide health care and pensions to Americans. The two programs, he notes, will [...]

The trust funds for both Medicare and Social Security will run out of money earlier than expected because of the recession, the trustees reported today. The Medicare Trust Fund will run out of money by 2017 two years earlier than forecast last year. The Social Security Trust Fund’s life has been shortened by four years [...]

At a White House meeting on Monday, health care industry leaders vowed to trim $2 trillion from the nation’s health care spending over the next decade. It remains to be seen whether these people, representing insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors, keep their promise. After all, we’ve been down this road before, with the major [...]

3M Co. and Kimberly-Clark Corp. are among the few manufacturers that make respiratory masks sophisticated enough to ward off swine flu, exacerbating a shortage at retailers.

Only masks rated N95 or above, which can filter at least 95 percent of airborne particles, are effective at blocking the H1N1 virus, according to the U.S. Department of Health [...]

Can the epidemic take down global markets?
The media has been hyper-focused this weekend on the news that more than 1,000 people in Mexico have become infected with Swine flu, also known as Influenza A H1N1. Nearly 90 people have died from the outbreak. The strain appears to have spread to several countries including the United [...]

By Russell Mokhiber

Fifty million Americans are without health insurance.

More than 22,000 Americans die every year from no health insurance.

The underinsured are dying too.

That’s why, according to recent polling, the majority of the American people want a Medicare for all, Canadian style, single payer health insurance system in the United States.

The majority of doctors want it.

The [...]

The answer: taxes on the wealthy and changes to Medicare

President Obama’s health care budget plays to nearly every type of constituent.

There is $6 billion set aside for cancer research and more than $70 million to improve access and quality to health care in rural areas. He’s allotted $330 million to address chronic shortages of health [...]

More Americans will lose their health insurance as the economy weakens, health care becomes more expensive and fewer employers offer coverage, the U.S. Institute of Medicine said in a report on Tuesday.

The institute, an independent research organization that advises U.S. policymakers, said safety-net services such as charity care and hospital emergency rooms cannot be relied [...]

An analysis of proposals to overhaul U.S. health care by President-elect Barack Obama and members of Congress suggests it is possible to insure all Americans without significantly raising total health spending.

Some 46 million Americans, or about 15 percent of the population, have no health insurance. While Americans pay more per person for care than any [...]