New Orleans        Truth is stranger than fiction, but sometimes reality copies fantasy.  I couldn’t help thinking about this while reading the news of an assassination of a healthcare executive.  Unbelievably, the Brain Thompson, the 50-year-old CEO of United Healthcare, the giant US-based health insurer was gunned down and killed.  This didn’t happen in …

New Orleans       In the United States, there’s a tendency to argue that we need a healthcare system that is better, and that’s the truth.  Our corporate system, both for-profit and pretend nonprofit, is too expensive with too many gaps for too many people.  Single payer systems like Canada’s or the vaunted National Health Service …

            Heerlen           When we think of healthcare protections in the United States compared to Europe, it seems like night and day in terms of coverage, and there’s a lot of truth in that common understanding.  Talking to a key leader and organizer of the Hospital Alliance (Ziekenhuisalliantie) that sprung up in Heerlen and surrounding communities, …