NEW ***NEW***NEW NEW BOOK COMING I’ve just signed a contract for my fifth book. “THE COMPANIES WE LOVE: Six Companies That Project a Hip, Progressive Image — and Whether We Should Believe Them” will be published by Beacon Press in 2012.
STORY OF THE WEEK:
Hold Your Nose But It Really Is Health Care Reform
from “The New York Times,” Dec. 20
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/health/policy/20care.html?hp
I wish there were a public option, expanded Medicare, or some way to guarantee an affordable alternative health plan whose costs weren’t inflated by insurance company marketing.
I wish people of all incomes and genders could get equal insurance coverage for legal medical needs — that is, that women who couldn’t afford private insurance could get coverage for abortions.
I wish there were stronger requirements to curtail ridiculous medical overspending and require comparative and outcomes-based analysis.
But most of all, I wish that 30 million Americans who don’t have health insurance could have access to coverage they could afford. I wish insurance companies would be required to cover the people who need it most, such as people with pre-existing conditions. I wish the country would at least try some pilot programs and commissions to look into cost containment. And I wish that we could, finally, after seven presidents and 100 years, show that we can take the first step toward protecting all of our citizens, just like every other industrialized nation.
Well, the bill pending in the Senate would grant the most important wishes. If we can pass even minimal health care reform, the stage will be set for a future Congress to improve it. If we fail, it will be a long time — if ever — before another Congress dares to try even this much. And who knows? Maybe the public will finally start to believe that the pols in Washington can actually do something. Maybe this feeling of accomplishment will propel Congress toward tackling climate change. It’s a new year, a new decade, and time for us all to hope.
* * * * * * * * *
I have over 20 years of experience specializing in health care, retirement issues, and the nexus between business and public policy.
I am a former editor and/writer at Fortune, Business Week, the Bergen Record, Crain’s New York Business, and Institutional Investor.
My last book, “Pension Dumping: The Reasons, the Wreckage, the Stakes for Wall Street” (Bloomberg Press, 2008) has won top awards from ForeWord magazine and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
I now write for The New York Times, Newsday, The Scientist, the Websites portfolio.com and scientificamerican.com, Institutional Investor, and more.
