Brian was the picture of health before his diagnosis. He’s grateful he has insurance and wants everyone to get covered. Back in 2012, Brian Skibo had no reason to think there was anything wrong other than some work-related back pain. But when the pain didn’t respond to treatment, and he started getting headaches, his doctor ordered some tests. What the […]

“We have to do a better job of showing the voters in Michigan how we’re going to create a state where they can stay and succeed.” I first interviewed Lon Johnson almost exactly two years ago when he first ran for Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. He ran a spirited campaign for Chair gaining support from the entire Democratic […]

On Fox News: Friday’s jobs report was terrible news, barely worth mentioning. “So the headline is unemployment rate ticks up to 5.7″ percent,” Steve Doocy said, as he quickly wrapped up the segment. In reality: “This might just be the most perfect payrolls report ever,” according to economist Justin Wolfers. On Twitter, he raved about the strong growth of 257,000 […]

An op-ed in USA Today this week, penned by Rutgers University political science professor Ross K. Baker, puts forth the argument that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2016 because Democrats are afraid of “powerful women”. It’s such an utterly preposterous idea that it’s worth exposing for all ridiculosity. Here’s what Prof. Baker has to say: […]

If SCOTUS eliminates the ACA’s tax credits, Dolly and Chip would no longer be able to afford insurance — and the consequences could be life-threatening. UPDATE: After this story was posted, Dolly resubmitted an application for Medicaid and she and her husband were accepted into the program based on their very low income. So although they are no longer at […]

We’ve all seen the signs in restrooms of restaurants we go to that say “Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work”. Why do you see these? Because it’s the law. The Food and Drug Administration requires it. That’s a good thing, right? Because, as the FDA’s regulations say, “Proper handwashing reduces the spread of fecal-oral pathogens from the hands […]

In anticipation of the Supreme Court hearing King v. Burwell — the case that could take health insurance from millions based on a garbage legal argument that Congress wanted to deny subsidies to people in states that didn’t build their own exchanges and didn’t tell anyone because conspiracy — Republicans have been pretending that they will have a plan to […]

If you listen to DTE Energy and Consumers Energy tell the story, Michigan is perched on the precipice of an impending energy crisis of epic proportions. New ads running television – over 400 in the past two months – tell us that, thanks to federal regulations, many of our coal-fired power plants will be shut down. The result, they suggest, […]

There’s nothing like a conference full of health advocates to remind you how far we’ve come — and how far we have to go. If you think the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is all there is to health reform, you could not be more wrong. It’s understandable, I suppose, that folks who don’t work in health advocacy might not be […]

Let’s you and him fight… Thanks to the division within the Michigan Republican Party, the state legislature which is dominated by Republicans was unable to find a way to fund our roads. Their internal disputes led them to toss the decision to voters who will decide if we should the state sales tax by one-percent to pay for road repairs, […]

Obamacare is an amazing success. It’s helping taxpayers save as much as $600 million as we’ve added over a decade of life to Medicare while massively expanding coverage. It’s an imperfect improvement from the status quo and the greatest attempt to reduce inequality we’ve made as a nation since the 1960s. But calling the “Obamacare success story” an underserved genre […]