| Singlepayer.com is our site of the day
The National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) and the California Nurses Association (CAN) have created a website, singlepayer.com that has all sorts of information about health care in California and what a “Medicare for all" system would be like for Californians. There's a ton of information here and on this single page you can read all sorts of news coverage on health care, read up on California and national legislation, take specific useful steps to contact your legislator, contact the press, tell your healthcare story, and do something about this important issue that will be front and center in Sacramento for the remainder of this year's legislative session. You can also watch an innovative series of webcasts that lets patients tell their own stories. This online series exposes the hidden, everyday tragedies of a healthcare system run by insurance companies who make money by denying care--not by providing it.
Keep an eye on insurers
Like a lot of retirees who don't want to be a financial burden to their families, Mary Derks purchased a long-term-care insurance policy at age 65. Twelve years later, after a series of health setbacks, Derks counted on her insurance to help cover the cost of assisted living. Yet her insurer, Conseco, found excuse after excuse to deny her claims. Now, four years later, Derks' daughter has had to sell part of the family business to cover her elderly mother's care. That case in Montana is far too common nationwide. A recent investigation by the New York Times revealed that Conseco and a few other insurance companies had devised bureaucratic obstacles to delay or avoid payment of benefits. Conseco and its subsidiary Bankers Life made quick resolution of policyholders' claims difficult and commonly asked for irrelevant paperwork, according to documents the newspaper obtained.
eHealth: Bring us your uninsured
Vip Patel still isn't sure what made him sick shortly after he graduated Stanford University in 1985, but he does know why he didn't go to a doctor: He had no health insurance. Stricken with what he believes was food poisoning, Patel stayed on his college roommate's floor and grew a lot sicker before recovering. That experience laid the groundwork for eHealth Inc., which Patel founded in 1997 as a tool to deliver health care to the uninsured by helping people find medical insurance over the Internet. According to the Census Bureau, 46.6 million Americans don't have health insurance. That number is climbing as more businesses cut workers off from employer-provided health care because of escalating medical costs. In 2000, 69 percent of employers bought health insurance for their employees -- last year, that proportion fell to 61 percent.
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