Democrats

See the following -

HealthCare.gov Security Gaps Identified In Contractor Documents

Joseph Marks | Nextgov | December 17, 2013

A congressional watchdog investigating the troubled launch of the Obama administration’s online health insurance marketplace HealthCare.gov released a handful of contractors’ statements on Tuesday showing they were concerned about security vulnerabilities before and soon after the site launched. Read More »

How Billionaire "Philanthropy" Is Fueling Inequality And Helping To Destroy The Country

Prashanth Kamalakanthan | Truthout | August 19, 2013

Peter Buffett, the second son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, worries that the state of philanthropy in America “just keeps the existing structure of inequality in place.” At meetings of charitable foundations, he says “you witness heads of state meeting with investment managers and corporate leaders. All are searching for answers with their right hand to problems that others in the room have created with their left.” [...] Read More »

How Health IT Benefits From Obama's Re-election

Ken Terry | InformationWeek | November 8, 2012

The day after President Obama was re-elected and Democrats held onto control of the U.S. Senate, the future looked bright to folks in the health IT field. Read More »

I Lost My Seat In Congress, And All I Got Was This Broken Website

Elahe Izadi and Sam Baker | Nextgov | November 15, 2013

Vulnerable House Democrats back in 2009 knew that they were risking their political careers by casting votes for the Affordable Care Act. And more than 60 of them--including some who didn't even vote for the bill--lost their seats the following year. Read More »

Is Lobbying Closer To Bribery... Or Extortion?

Mike Masnick | Techdirt | April 10, 2012

We've certainly talked quite a bit about the institutional-level corruption of the way Congress and lobbying works, but a recent This American Life episode, done in partnership with the Planet Money team takes a much deeper dive into how lobbying works... Read More »

Issa Demands Details On HealthCare.gov Fix

Joseph Marks | Nextgov | October 23, 2013

A top House Republican critic of the Obama administration’s rocky HealthCare.gov rollout wants more information about how the government plans to fix the glitch-ridden online insurance exchange. Read More »

Managed Cost, Mismanaged Care

Meade Klingensmith | Remapping Debate | February 13, 2013

This is the first in a series of articles examining the phenomenon by which health care policy has come to be dominated by a single-minded desire for cost control, while concerns about maximizing the quality of care have been downgraded or ignored entirely.

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More Hunger For The Poorest Americans

Staff Writer | New York Times | December 24, 2013

This is a harsh season for Americans struggling to afford food. Last month, the long lines at food pantries across the country grew longer with the expiration of the boost to food stamp benefit levels included in the 2009 economic stimulus plan. Those lines are apt to grow even longer thanks to the refusal of House Republicans to renew extended unemployment benefits as part of the recent budget deal. Read More »

Mostashari: Obama Reelection Points To Critical Role Of Data

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | November 7, 2012

Farzad Mostashari, MD, the national health IT coordinator, said that data and analytics played a critical role in the campaign and re-election of President Barack Obama – mirroring the growing importance of data in healthcare. Read More »

NBC/WSJ Poll: 60 Percent Say Fire Every Member Of Congress

Domenico Montanaro | NBC News | October 10, 2013

Throw the bums out. That’s the message 60 percent of Americans are sending to Washington in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, saying if they had the chance to vote to defeat and replace every single member of Congress, including their own representative, they would. Just 35 percent say they would not. Read More »

Obamacare, Failing Ahead Of Schedule

Ross Douthat | New York Times | October 19, 2013

THIS is not the column about the Obamacare rollout I expected to write. [... For now there is a more pressing subject: The online federal health care exchange, the heart of the Obamacare project, is such a rolling catastrophe that it may end up creating a major policy fiasco immediately rather than eventually. Read More »

Ohio Dept. Of Insurance: Obamacare To Increase Individual-Market Health Premiums By 88 Percent

Avik Roy | Forbes | June 10, 2013

Democrats continue to try to dismiss the evidence that Obamacare will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. [But...] Ohio Department of Insurance announced that, based on the rates submitted by insurers to date, the average individual-market health insurance premium in 2014 will come in around $420, “representing an increase of 88 percent”.... Read More »

Poll: Distrust In Media Hits New High

Lucy Madison | CBS News | September 21, 2013

U.S. distrust of the mass media is at an all-time high, according to a new poll from Gallup, which indicates that six in ten Americans have little or no trust in mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Read More »

Results Of State Legislatures, Ballot Initiatives Could Spark Conflict With Feds

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | November 7, 2012

American voters considered 174 ballot measures in 38 states Tuesday and shifted the balance of power in several state capitals, in some places potentially setting up a battle between state and federal law. Read More »

Sequester Damage Detailed; Health Records Won’t Merge

Tom Philpott | The News Tribune | August 3, 2013

With Congress seemingly satisfied to let the defense budget take another $52 billion hit in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 [...] Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gave a preview recently of how Round 2 of budget sequestration could rattle current forces and deepen damage to U.S. readiness. Read More »