A Cure For Our Cultural Ills? We Start Anew. Health Care For All.

Mike Magee At a Code Blue presentation last week, questions centered on next steps in health reform – all the way vs. incremental, and not whether, but when and how fast. Health care reform in America has become a cultural issue. Health care as fundamental to building a nation and its culture from scrap was […]

Kamala Gone, But “Medicare-for-All” Not Forgotten.

MIKE MAGEE MD As the number of Democratic contenders for the Presidency begins to dwindle, the “Medicare-for-all” debate continues to simmer. It was only ten months ago that former candidate Kamala Harris’s vocal support drew fire from not one, but two billionaire political rivals. Michael Bloomberg, looking for support in New Hampshire declared, “I think we could never […]

“Socialized Medicine” – Can It Work One More Time?

With excerpts from CODE BLUE: Inside the Medical Industrial Complex. Mike Magee In an interview that aired this week on Democracy at Work, Professor Richard Wolff asked me about the term “socialized medicine.” My response: Once our nation makes it through the Impeachment hearings, expect the Republican party to pull out the “golden oldies” when […]

“blank”…. FOR ALL.

Mike Magee In a Washington Post interview this week, Rep. Donna Shalala, former head of HHS and now a member of Congress from Florida, suggested that democratic reformers focus on universal coverage by whatever means possible. In her view, this includes opening up voluntary access to Medicare (50+), Medicaid (more liberal entry standards), employer based insurance […]

Is Big Change Coming? Jake and Kamala (& Michael and Howard)

Mike Magee The decade long battle by Republicans to “repeal and replace” Obamacare is fading slowly into the background. But as this week’s dust up, ignited by CNN’s Jake Tapper’s probing of Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s views on Medicare expansion revealed, we still have a long ways to go. By the next morning, two of […]

Public Opinion on Health Reform is Moving left for both R’s and D’s.

Mike Magee If there is a face for a “compassionate capitalist”, many would drop in the wise visage of Warren Buffett who famously declared “Medical costs are the tapeworm of American economic competitiveness.” Others have stated it differently while agreeing with results of the 2018 Bloomberg health efficiency index placing the U.S. dead last. The […]