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Monday, September 21, 2015

Health Care Reform Articles - September 21, 2015

A Huge Overnight Increase in a Drug’s Price Raises Protests

Trapped in the System: A Sick Doctor’s Story

What Bernie Sanders means by ‘democratic socialism.’ (You still have your choice of pajamas.)

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. -- The shorthand that the media uses to describe Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has changed.
“It used to be that I was known as ‘the longest-serving independent in the history of the United States Congress,’ which is true,” Sanders said during an appearance Saturday at Saint Anselm’s College here. “Now I’m a ‘self-professed democratic socialist.’ Things change when you run for president.”
In response to a student’s question, Sanders, whose campaign for the Democratic nomination has surged in recent weeks, went on to give a lengthy of explanation of what “democratic socialism” is -- and is not.
“So what does that mean?” Sanders asked the students. “Does anyone here think I’m a strong adherent of the North Korean form of government? That I want all of you to be wearing similar colored pajamas?”
Democratic candidate for president, Sen. Bernie Sander's (I-Vt.) campaign is surging, but does he even have a chance against Hillary Clinton? The Fix's Chris Cillizza explains. (Pamela Kirkland and Randolph Smith/The Washington Post)
When the laughter died down, the longest-serving independent in Congress asked how many of the students were familiar with the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland and Norway.
“Are these democratic societies? Obviously they are,” Sanders said, relaying that voter turnout in Denmark tends to approach 90 percent.
“Is it a society where the government owns every mom-and-pop store?” he asked. “Of course not. You have all kinds of capitalist entrepreneurship going on, a lot of wealth being created. But what else do you have? … An effort to make sure that all people benefit from the wealth that’s being created. So you have a much more equitable distribution of wealth and income. … I talked to a guy from Denmark, and he said, ‘In Denmark, it is very hard to become very, very rich, but it’s pretty hard to be very, very poor.’ And that makes a lot of sense to me.”

Hillary Clinton to go on offense over GOP plans to repeal Obamacare

Hillary Rodham Clinton will begin filling in details this week of her proposal to tweak the Affordable Care Act, and she will attempt to use Republican presidential candidates’ opposition to the health-care-expansion law against them. 
Clinton plans a series of events in Louisiana, Arkansas and Iowa to needle Republicans over their opposition to a law that has greatly reduced the number of uninsured Americans, her campaign said. Some details of her strategy were provided exclusively to The Washington Post ahead of her first health-care-related event on Monday.
The focus on health care represents a shift for national Democrats and a full embrace of a law that had a troubled rollout and has not always polled well. Unlike in the 2012 election, when many Democrats tiptoed around their support for Obama’s namesake law, Clinton is making it a central part of her argument that she should succeed him.
Clinton frequently praises the 2010 law, often known as Obamacare, but says it does not go far enough. She wants to address the quickly rising cost of prescription drugs, for example, and has said she is examining possible changes to the Cadillac tax, as it is often called, on premium health-care plans. She also often says that mental health care and ­substance-abuse treatment need to be simpler and cheaper to obtain. Several Republicans competing for the 2016 nomination have said they would repeal the law immediately upon taking office.
Nearly 9 million people were added to the health insurance rolls last year, according to Census Bureau data released this month. That reduced the number of uninsured Americans to slightly more than 1 in 10. That is down from just over 16 percent in 2009, when President Obama took office with a pledge to pass a national health-care mandate.

Josh Freed: Time to build the Great Wall of Canada before Trumpmania explodes

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