This is a Cross Post with the Healthcare for All PA/PUSH site on trends in medical bankruptcies and an update on decreases in Massachusetts mortality rates over the same period. In my post on the Gallup polls on improvements in the uninsured rates.  I speculated that looking at the rates of medical bankruptcies would provide […]

The New Economy Working Group is having a celebration of innovators with panels, workshops, and awards on March 20-22 at Baker Hall on the Carnegie Mellon University Campus and other locations.  Details are below.  A single payer system is integral to a new/more efficient economy as Dr. Gerald Friedman showed in his economic impact study. […]

With all of the shenanigans of the government shutdown, the debt ceiling, and the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) over and the debates over the Affordable Care Act website underway, it is now time to talk about the dollars and cents of healthcare. Healthcare for All PA will be hosting UMASS economist Dr. Gerald Friedman […]

This is a repost from the Healthcare for All PA/PUSH Website. The Keystone Research Center is a great resource for economic data on Pennsylvania.  They have come out with a report on the state of wages in PA.  Above is a graph from their report showing how wages have declined since the recession began in […]

Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon.com has purchased the newspaper The Washington Post.  Above is a discussion of it’s impact on journalism and the publishing industry on the show Democracy Now! This blog has been part of the Amazon Associates program since April 1, 2011. I have posted links to books, movies or other products […]

The Healthcare for All PA/ PUSH page has posted a press release from the state wide organization announcing the release of an economic impact study showing how a Single Payer healthcare system can cover everyone in Pennsylvania while controlling costs for businesses.  It is reprinted below.  There are many excellent posts on single payer at […]

This video does an excellent presentation on how Americans perceptions on income inequality and the reality differ.  These disparities are correlated with health outcomes and can be remediated by many factors, some of which are discussed in the related posts below and in the TED talk by Nick Hanauer seen here. **Related Posts** Income and […]

Last year I wrote posts on how disapproval of the healthcare law passed in March of last year reflected the fact that the law was not “liberal enough” and if you included those who thought it wasn’t liberal enough with those who thought supported it you would have a majority.  In the most recent CNN […]

In these times of economic anxiety the political parties and the news media are playing a cynical poker game with our nation’s resources. The latest manifestation of this struggle is the battle over the debt ceiling which is the limit on the amount of money the federal government can borrow. At a healthcare meeting in […]

In Fiscal Year 2002-2003, I worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare in the Medicaid Office of Budget and Planning.  Back then the State’s total budget was $40 billion and Medicaid accounted for $10 billion.  The spending was in entitlement form which means that, like the prison system (the world’s oldest entitlement program), when […]