Feature

I'm a Slave to Socialized Medicine

By: Steve Weissman, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Doctor making house call.

A doctor makes a rare house call to visit patients in Florida. While such house calls are uncommon in the US, Steve Weissman explains that in France, where he and his wife live, they are common. (Photo: Gregg Matthews / The New York Times)



    Growing up in Florida in the 1940s, I saw many of the doctors my family knew fighting against Harry Truman's effort to enact what they called "Socialized Medicine." Their immediate target was Sen. Claude Pepper, a New Deal Democrat who supported universal health care. Our doctor friends dubbed him "Red Pepper" and helped defeat him in the elections of 1948. Yet, for all this early "fight for freedom," I now find myself in France enjoying single-payer, socialized medicine, which I would heartily recommend to all Americans. »

Surface mining operation.

President for 60 More Days, Bush Tearing Apart Protection for America's Wilderness

by: Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian UK

    Oil shale mining in Rocky Mountains gets go-ahead. "Midnight regulations" to dismantle safeguards.

    Washington - George Bush is working at a breakneck pace to dismantle at least 10 major environmental safeguards protecting America's wildlife, national parks and rivers before he leaves office in January.

»

Job seekers line up in NYC.

Bush Signs Jobless Benefits Extension

by: Jim Abrams, The Associated Press

    Washington - With no end in sight to economic bad news, President George W. Bush on Friday ensured that millions of laid-off workers will keep getting their unemployment checks as the year-end holidays approach.

    Bush signed an extension of jobless benefits into law just before 8 a.m., as he was preparing to leave the White House for a morning flight to Lima, Peru, to attend the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

»

Recent Articles

News

Opinion