The Truth-O-Meter Says:Bill Pascrellon Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 in a speech on the House floorPascrell says up to 22,000 Americans die yearly because they don’t have health insuranceThe debate over reforming the U.S. health care system has inspired a torrent of often conflicting statistics. We will look at three assertions made by Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey. In this item, we will test his assertion that “as many as 22,000 Americans die each year because they don’t have health in

With public support for healthcare reform losing steam, House Democrats head home for the August break with a new theme: Hold insurance companies accountable. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is bracing for “carpet bombing, shock and awe” from insurance companies directed at members of her caucus. “We have no illusions about what insurance companies will do to hold on to their power to exploit patients or about how much money they have to spend on it and what they have at stake,” she

Featured blog entries7/24/09 10:38 AM Health Care for All 501c(3)One of the big differences between the 1993 Hillarycare debate and our current conversation is that we’re hearing a lot more fact and lot less fiction about how other countries’ systems actually work. Thank the Internet. Back in 1993, the “Harry and Louise” ads succeeded because most Americans didn’t have access to any other sources of information. Now, the whole world is at our fingertips. Anybody who really wants to know how heal

President Obama’s Health Care Reform PlanBy Deborah White, About.com“”Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesThis article explains and simplifies answers to key questions about President Obama’s health care reform plan provisions, ideas, and rationale, in the President’s own words.Why Does Health Care Need to Be Reformed?“Right now, premiums for families that have health insurance have doubled over the last 10 years. They’ve gone up three times faster than wages.“So what we know is that if the curr

I thought about titling today’s column “Sausage Making, Interrupted” in (dis-)honor of the House of Representatives scarpering off on a five-week vacation without finishing their work on healthcare reform (the Senate , it should be noted, is reportedly planning on doing exactly the same thing next week, to their equal shame). Then I thought I’d riff on the old doctor joke: “The operation was a success… the patient died on the table, though.” But when I sat down to write, I decided I was sick