Scranton, Pa. - for a microcosm of where health care is needed the most among the 47 million uninsured in this nation. ...more

November 8, 2009

Having lived in Ontario and now in Brookridge, Bruce and Beverly Gethen know firsthand the differences between the American and Canadian health care systems. ...more

November 6, 2009

Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year. ...more

November 4, 2009

Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year. ...more

November 4, 2009

Perhaps 50 years ago, one of the presidents of Chrysler Corporation is reputed to have said, "There are no large problems, just combinations of small problems." ...more

November 4, 2009

As I was talking recently with the founder of a large American corporation, the conversation turned (inevitably) to health care reform. His employees in their 20s, on average, cost the company about $1,500 a year in health bills. Those in their 50s cost at least 10 times more. The effect of proposed health care reform - which limits the ability of insurers to charge higher premiums for older adults - would be, he said, a large shift of America's health care burden to the younger generation. ...more

November 4, 2009

The debate over health care reform has entered an unreal world where facts can always be shouted down. Several letter writers have said they don't want the government choosing their doctor, but do we have a right to choose our own doctors? When I went to work for the City of Fort Lauderdale years ago, I was given a list of doctors I was allowed to go to if injured on the job. More recently, I worked for an international conglomerate. My health benefits could indirectly be set by a board of directors that met in another hemisphere, whose minutes are circulated in an ideographic language. Actually, that company gave me a free annual checkup, one of the best benefits I've ever had. My employer chose the doctor, of course. On a temporary job, I once collapsed while wearing a maladjusted gas mask. I was taken to a doctor chosen by the employer. A nurse put a thermometer in my mouth and said that I had a temperature of 120 degrees. A few minutes later they figured out that their newfangled electric thermometer wasn't working. ...more

November 2, 2009

The doctor doesn't look like much of a crusader, bent over the frail frame of 90-year-old Alberta Scott. ...more

November 1, 2009

It would be hard for health care reform to be in worse shape. What were once lofty promises to curtail the excess of a soulless group of health insurance companies has turned into what is almost certainly going to be a bonanza for those very same companies. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying desperately to salvage some aspect of the bill and even still it seems unlikely that any good will come from this "reform." ...more

October 31, 2009

The Senate today confirmed Regina Benjamin to be the U.S. surgeon general, elevating a well-known Alabama family physician to be the nation's top doctor. ...more

October 29, 2009