Once again letter writers to this newspaper state we need to go to universal health care like the rest of the industrialized world. This shows a complete lack of knowledge about how the systems in other countries work; especially those in Europe. ...more

January 2, 2010

Shhh. I'm in a trance. Each year at this time, I gaze into my crystal ball or lapse into a supernaturally induced trance to predict what will happen in the coming year. Here now, is Part I of Scott's Trance-Induced 2010 Year in Preview: ...more

December 30, 2009

The leading cause of disability and death in the United States is chronic disease. Heart disease and diabetes lead the list. About 133 million Americans live with at least one chronic disease and more than one in 10 have three or more. Your humble author is well acquainted with these numbers in so far as 18 months ago I received a new lease on life, a liver in an 8-hour transplant surgery. The costs are staggering. Chronic disease accounts for 75 percent of the more than $2 trillion spent on health care each year. Coronary heart disease alone, which afflicts 16.8 million Americans, costs some $165 billion a year. ...more

December 27, 2009

The leading cause of disability and death in the United States is chronic disease. Heart disease and diabetes lead the list. ...more

December 27, 2009

Americans, it appears, will have health care reform whether we want it or not. And most of us don't want it, polls show. That doesn't seem to matter to Congress, which in a frenzy of deal-making came up with a near-incomprehensible mess of proposed changes to a health-care system that serves most people well. ...more

December 27, 2009

The Senate voted Thursday to reinvent the nation's health care system, passing a bill to guarantee access to health insurance for tens of millions of Americans and to rein in health costs. ...more

December 25, 2009

Senate Democrats passed a landmark health care bill in a climactic Christmas Eve vote that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in U.S. history. The 60-39 vote on a cold Christmas Eve morning capped months of arduous negotiations and 24 days of floor debate. It also followed a succession of failures by past congresses to get to this point. Vice President Joe Biden presided as 58 Democrats and two independents voted "yes." Republicans unanimously voted "no." ...more

December 24, 2009

The Senate voted Thursday to raise the ceiling on the government debt to $12.4 trillion, a massive increase over the current limit and a political problem that President Barack Obama has promised to address next year. ...more

December 24, 2009

The fact that we've known since the beginning of time that politicians negotiate sweetheart deals to get legislation passed doesn't do anything to lessen the anger we feel over the Senate health care bill. This isn't about disagreeing with needed improvements. It is about "buying" votes by offering special gifts for states. ...more

December 23, 2009

Senate Democrats won a crucial test vote on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, putting them on track for passage before Christmas of the historic legislation to remake the nation's medical system and cover 30 million uninsured. ...more

December 21, 2009