A group of fifty doctors along with the non-profits groups, Single Payer Action and Our Economy, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act should be struck down. The brief argues that Congress doesn’t need the new power to compel individuals to buy a product from a private company to effectively regulate the healthcare marketplace. It can easily do so with its current approaches, such as a single payer system, which is used for Medicare.

In a surprise move, Paul Ryan found a Democratic partner to propose a new Medicare plan that does not fully privatize it, but instead keeps fee-for-service Medicare as an option alongside a premium support plan. This is the same proposal that the front-running Republican Presidential candidates have made.

Washington Post columnist correctly notes that OECD nations provide equal or better health care but at a fraction of the cost paid by the US. But he then ignores the obvious conclusion — that we should adopt one of their proven systems — and instead claims that an unproven and unlikely scheme using vouchers to private insurers would work.

While Americans claim they prefer smaller government, they prefer a bigger government that provides more health care services according to a new poll by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Only 37 percent of Americans would prefer a smaller government that provided fewer health services, while a majority, 52 percent, said they would prefer a larger government that provided more health services.

A new study projects that the new Vermont health care system, modeled on single payor, could significantly health care costs for the state. The savings amount depends on how soon the state can get a federal waiver under the Affordable Care Act and the state legislature and relevant agencies adopt recommended cost-saving mechanisms.

Montana’s Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer believes his state should follow Vermont’s lead in progressive health care reform at the state level. He plans to ask the federal government to grant Montana waivers to adopt a better system modeled after the one used in the neighboring Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

The percentage of young American adults between the ages of 18-25 without health insurance decreased over the past year, while the percentage of adults over 26 without insurance increased, according to Gallup.

The only thing worse than Washington being foolishly swept up in unnecessary deficit hysteria when our political leaders should be focused on jobs, is that all these so called “deficit hawks” entirely ignore the actual best solutions to shrink our long term deficit. That is why it is encouraging to see more regular exposure of the fact that adopting Medicare for All is the best way to address our long term deficit concerns.

Regular voters actually like real progressive health care reforms when that is what is offered. Expanding public health insurance programs is popular. During the health care debate large majorities always supported allowing people to buy into Medicare, the public option, and expanding Medicaid. It is the corporatism people hate.

The main problem with our health care system is… the health care system itself. The chart shows that the US has the lowest life expectancy when plotted against 19 other affluent nations, AND spends the most money on health care. We have the worst of all possible worlds, and the Affordable Care Act isn’t going to radically improve matters,