skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SCOTUS skeptical that state abortion bans conflict with federal health care law; Iowa advocates for immigrants push back on Texas-style deportation bill; new hearings, same arguments on both sides for ND pipeline project; clean-air activists to hold "die-in" Friday at LA City Hall.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

"Squad" member Summer Lee wins her primary with a pro-peace platform, Biden signs huge foreign aid bills including support for Ukraine and Israel, and the Arizona House repeals an abortion ban as California moves to welcome Arizona doctors.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken, and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

Medicare Turns 50: Four Million Floridians Benefit

play audio
Play

Wednesday, July 29, 2015   

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Thursday is the 50th anniversary of Medicare, and the program's advocates are using the occasion to push for a major expansion.

Today, it provides health care to 55 million Americans, including 4 million in Florida. Medicare's proponents say it has been so successful that the country ought to consider universal, government-funded health care - a kind of Medicare for all.

Dr. David Himmelstein, co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, said Medicare eases the burdens many seniors face, and does it with one-sixth the overhead costs of private insurance.

"Medicare has been vital to improve both the physical and mental health and financial health of the elderly, who were largely abandoned by the private insurance industry before Medicare existed," he said.

Opponents of universal health care say the government has too much control over people's lives already. They also point to the latest government estimates, which show the program will remain solvent until 2030 but would require changes to stay afloat after that.

Himmelstein, a professor at the City University of New York and Harvard Medical School, countered that analysts have been predicting Medicare's demise for decades - and keep pushing the time frame further and further into the future.

"Medicare is solvent today and will remain solvent if our government makes any reasonable decisions about its future," he said.

National Nurses United, affiliated with the "Medicare Turns 50 Coalition," is taking up the cause of universal health care as well. The union plans rallies Thursday in 30 cities across the country, including one at 11 a.m. at the Federal Building in Miami. The nurses want Congress to support House Resolution 676, which would expand Medicare to all U.S. residents. The resolution is online at congress.gov.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Rep. Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, the House Democratic floor leader, called Missouri politicians "extremist" on social media after they passed the most restrictive abortion ban in the country and defunded Planned Parenthood. (Fitz/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

The Missouri Legislature has approved a law to stop its Medicaid program, known as MO HealthNet, from paying Planned Parenthood for medical services …


Environment

play sound

A round of public testimony wrapped up this week as part of renewed efforts by a company seeking permit approval in North Dakota for an underground pi…

Social Issues

play sound

Air travelers could face fewer obstacles in securing a refund if their flight is canceled or changed under new federal rules announced Wednesday…


The Iowa Movement for Migrant Justice calls Senate File 2340 a "ridiculous stunt," passed in an election year "to mobilize voters using fear and anti-immigrant sentiment." (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Advocates for immigrants are pushing back on a bill signed by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in the last few days of the legislative session, modeled on a …

Environment

play sound

An environmental group is suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Arkansas mudalia snail under the Endangered Species Act. In …

Currently, more than 2.7 million Californians live within 3,200 feet of an operational oil well. (MSPhotographic/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Leaders concerned about pollution and climate change are raising awareness about a ballot measure this fall on whether the state should mandate buffer…

play sound

A coalition of climate groups seeking cleaner air at the rail yards and ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will hold a "die-in" rally tomorrow at Los…

Health and Wellness

play sound

By Marianne Dhenin for Yes! Magazine.Broadcast version by Shanteya Hudson for Georgia News Connection reporting for the YES! Media/Public News …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021