Experts are warning that within two to four weeks the United States will find itself facing a full-blown pandemic caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus. We often hear mindless propaganda from conservative and liberal politicians alike declaring the the US has “the best health care...
Watch out! Uncle Donald is coming for your and all your relatives’ Social Security and Medicare! The all-out attack on Social Security and Medicare, the two remaining standing edifices of the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, has begun...
Many medicines are cheaper if you buy them outside your insurance for the cash price.
In these pandemic days most of us are used to the daily visits from trucks belonging to Amazon, Fed-X and UPS, as well as Uber and Lyft drivers delivering everything from food to clothing and parts for DIY plumbing and electric repairs. With all...
Fishs Eddy, NY – Driving from Philadelphia to our summer home in the Catskill Mountains region of upstate New York, my wife and I normally leave Interstate I-81 at the old coal-mining and railway center of Scranton, and head off on a meandering route on secondary roads through...
Ascension Health Alliance caught some attention last month when the nation’s largest Catholic hospital system formed a partnership with Google to find and use patient data in a more efficient way. But for those who are watching Ascension’s business practices, this seems more of a practical move to cut...
Seventy-five percent of Democrats support “Medicare for all.” But the American health care industry appears to have pushed Democratic leaders away from backing House candidates who would support universal public health insurance. This backhanded approach occurs as key lobbies for the industry have united in opposition to single-payer with...
There’s been a lot of talk this week about big corporations such as Amazon, Verizon and Comcast deciding to stop giving money to House and Senate Republicans who voted to overturn last year’s election. Guess which giants aren't on that list? America's big for-profit health insurers.
The pharmaceutical industry has reinforced its clout on Capitol Hill with campaign contributions that heavily support incumbents in both parties. That figure came to a total of $62.7 million during the 2016 election cycle, according to the OpenSecrets database. The largest drug companies lean, in particular, toward the members of...
The mid 1990s was a scary time for those of us who had just enough knowledge about the downside scenarios that could come to fruition as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. I was serving in the Navy during the transition from the bi-polar...
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed and exacerbated many underlying patterns of inequality in the U.S.—and disability-related inequities are no exception. While the disabled community is often overlooked in public discourse and policy alike, around 1 in 4 American adults is disabled. The CDC reports...
When I first met Wendell Potter, Tarbell’s founder and Chairman, I was immediately struck by his intelligence, humility, and his insatiable determination to call out corruption stemming from the ability of corporate money and the ultra-wealthy to drive their special interests into the fabric of our society. ...
A campaign cobbled together on a tight deadline required by Oklahoma’s strict referendum law, battled and won a narrow victory last Tuesday to amend the state’s constitution and mandate the expansion of Medicaid, overcoming the opposition of a Republican governor and legislature and major out-of-state funding for...
As we saw on January 6th, even though the 2020 election has ended, the U.S. remains strapped in for its four-years-long-and-counting rollercoaster ride. One of the defining features of this unending breaking news blitzkrieg has been the inherent inability to pause and substantively reflect on the grand...
When we read about “spreading misinformation”, the connotation typically defaults to bad actors. But most of us who’ve ever had a social media account has likely, unknowingly, shared misinformation. While disinformation is the ill-intent kind, (false information deliberately and often covertly in order to influence public opinion...
A two month coma, a misdiagnosis and a $3 million bill.
When Wendell Potter founded Tarbell, there was one overriding theme guiding the organization – better, cheaper and more accessible healthcare for all Americans. That mandate has not changed, nor will it change. Another mandate for our journalism was a commitment to be apolitical. Tarbell...
Big Pharma dresses wolves in sheep's clothing to keep drug prices high. Don't be deceived. Learn how to sniff them out.
The health industry is gearing up to be a major influence in 2020, and making it known from the first round of campaign contributions. Tarbell reviewed the top 20 health industry contributors in the 2017-2018 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets, to see how much they’ve shelled out in the...
Axelrod said that Medicare for All has “become a phrase as much as anything else.”