Top News | Medicare for All: A Better Solution Than Whatever Trump Is Cooking Up

 

Tuesday, November 25, 2025 ■ Today's Top News  Medicare for All Backers Argue It's a Better Solution Than Whatever Trump Is Cooking Up "Republicans have a million ideas regarding healthcare. Except one," said Sen. Bernie Sanders. "They will never acknowledge that healthcare is a human right—to be guaranteed to ALL." By Jessica Corbett As President Donald Trump postpones unveiling his supposed plan to tackle soaring US healthcare costs—reportedly after pushback from congressional Republicans—Medicare for All advocates have renewed calls for shifting to a single-payer system. “Republicans have a million ideas regarding healthcare. Except one,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats, said on social media Monday afternoon. “They will never acknowledge that healthcare is a human right—to be guaranteed to ALL.” RECOMMENDED... Trump Healthcare Payment Proposal Sparks Fresh Medicare for All Demands to Fix ‘Broken’ Healthcare System As Dr. Oz Helps Prove ‘There Is No Republican Health Care Plan,’ Democrats Have Solution Most Refuse to Embrace: Medicare for All The union National Nurses United also called for Medicare for All on Monday, pointing to a recent West Health/Gallup poll that found 47% of US adults are worried they won’t be able to afford healthcare next year, the highest level since they began tracking in 2021. “The urgency around this is real,” West Health president Timothy Lash told NBC News. “When you look at the economic strain that is on families right now, even if healthcare prices didn’t rise, the costs are rising elsewhere, which only exacerbates the problem.” Over objections from progressives, including Sanders, a small group of Senate Democrats earlier this month agreed to help GOP lawmakers end the longest federal government shutdown in US history in exchange for just the promise of a mid-December vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies to help over 20 million Americans who face skyrocketing premiums. Citing unnamed White House officials, MS NOW reported Sunday that Trump was set to introduce the Healthcare Price Cuts Act to combat what the sources called “surprise premium hikes” as soon as Monday. “The plan would also eliminate ‘zero-premium’ subsidies currently offered under the ACA, intending to stop ‘ghost beneficiaries,’ a frequent Republican concern about alleged fraudulent policy recipients, by requiring a small minimum payment as a means to verify eligibility to receive benefits,” according to the outlet. “The nascent plan also features a deposit program that would incentivize lower-premium options on the ACA exchange,” MS NOW continued. “For individuals who downgrade coverage, the difference in coverage costs would be distributed to a ‘Health Savings Account’ provided with taxpayer dollars.” However, as Politico detailed Monday, also citing unnamed sources, “Trump’s healthcare plan is in limbo after pushback from Republicans who were caught off guard by the president’s forthcoming proposal—questioning, in particular, whether it would include additional abortion restrictions.” As parts of Trump’s proposal continued to leak in the absence of its formal introduction, the American Prospect‘s Ryan Cooper and David Dayen wrote Tuesday that “all told, there’s a good chance that Democrats will accept this offer, or something like it, as the best they’re likely to get for the time being.” “If they are ever in power again, they can fix the ACA permanently, and avoid the danger of subsidies expiring (as the Prospect advocated back in 2021). But it’s quite revealing as to the total bankruptcy of the Republican Party when it comes to healthcare policy,” the duo added. “The GOP will flinch from more than doubling health insurance premiums—at least if middle-class people and up are the most affected—but only if they can also make the insurance worse, and make poor people pay more.” Last week, in a pair of op-eds and a letter to Democratic lawmakers, Sanders argued that “at a time when the Republicans have been forced to finally talk about the healthcare crisis facing our country, it is essential that the Democratic Caucus unify behind a set of commonsense policies that will make healthcare more affordable and accessible.” He called for not only extending the ACA tax credits, but also repealing Trump and congressional Republicans’ $1 trillion in cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing; cutting prescription drug costs by requiring pharmaceutical companies to charge no more for medications in the United States than they do in Europe or Canada; investing in expanding primary healthcare; and banning stock buybacks and dividends, and restricting CEO compensation. Although Medicare for All lacks majority support in the Democratic Caucus, Sanders—the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions—also emphasized his belief that it remains the ideal long-term solution. He reintroduced the Medicare for All Act in April with Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (Mich.). Other single-payer advocates have also seized on current concerns and debates about the ACA. In a column for Truthdig last Thursday, Conor Lynch wrote that “with Republicans spotlighting the greed, corruption, and inefficiency of US healthcare, progressive Democrats have an opening to take Medicare for All off the back burner and renew the push for a comprehensive overhaul.” “The fact that Republicans are calling out insurance companies for their profiteering shows how much the national mood has changed since the passage of the ACA,” he continued. “With Republicans unable to offer anything but a return to an intolerable status quo ante, Democrats should make the case for moving beyond the broken status quo.” The previous week, CJ Mikkelsen, a retired firefighter and paramedic now leading a small nonprofit in Michigan, made the case in the Midland Daily News that “we need a system like every other country in the developed world has.” Mikkelsen shared some of his and his wife’s health struggles and stressed the society-wide benefits: “Medicare for All would mean that everyone is covered for everything at all times. No more losing coverage because you’ve lost your job, want to go back to school, or are starting your own business. The last thing I want you to know about Medicare for All, and pay attention here—IT’S CHEAPER THAN WHAT WE’RE DOING NOW.” Defiant Democrats Slam Trump 'Intimidation' After FBI Seeks Interviews Over 'Illegal Orders' Video "We will not be bullied." By Brad Reed Democratic lawmakers who participated in a video warning US military personnel against following unlawful orders issued by President Donald Trump remained defiant after being contacted by the FBI. As reported by Reuters on Tuesday, the FBI has requested interviews with Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), as well as Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-Penn.), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Md.), and Jason Crow (D-Colo.), just days after Trump demanded their imprisonment or even death for supposed “sedition.” RECOMMENDED... Trump, Who Incited Jan 6 Insurrection, Wants Sedition Charges for Lawmakers Reminding Troops of Duty to Disobey Illegal Orders Pentagon Threatens to Court Martial Democrat Who Warned Troops Against Following Illegal Trump Orders One US Department of Justice official told Reuters that the FBI interviews are to determine if the Democratic lawmakers engaged in “any wrongdoing” when they spoke out against the president potentially giving unlawful orders that pit the US military against American civilians. The Democrats, however, vowed that they would not be intimidated by any FBI investigation. In a social media post, Slotkin said that Trump’s push to jail the Democrats for exercising their First Amendment rights demonstrated the reason why they decided to participate in the video in the first place. Slotkin accused Trump of “weaponizing the federal government against his perceived enemies,” while adding that he “does not believe laws apply to him or his Cabinet.” “This is not the America I know,” added Slotkin, a former CIA analyst. “I’m not going to let this next step from the FBI stop me from speaking up for my country and our Constitution.” Houlahan, Crow, Goodlander, and Deluzio issued a joint statement accusing Trump of “using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress,” and vowed that “no amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution.” “We swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” they emphasized. “That oath lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it. We will not be bullied. We will never give up the ship.” The FBI interview requests came just a day after the US Department of Defense (DOD) said it had “received serious allegations of misconduct” against Kelly, who is a retired US Navy captain, and was launching an investigation that could result in him being recalled to active duty to face court-martial hearings for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). In a separate social media post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attacked all the Democrats who participated in the video as the “seditious six” and said that Kelly had been singled out for DOD investigation because he was the only member who was still subject to UCMJ given his status as a retired naval officer. Bari Weiss: Bounds of ‘Acceptable Debate’ at CBS News Will Range From Alan Dershowitz to Dana Loesch "After years of complaining that there wasn't enough viewpoint diversity in acceptable media discourse, Bari Weiss now appears to suggest that there's too much," said one critic. By Stephen Prager Since Paramount’s new Trump-aligned billionaire owner, David Ellison, installed the right-wing pundit Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, fear has abounded about how she might attempt to reshape the network to fit her worldview. Weiss once fashioned herself as a champion of “ideological diversity,” in contrast to what she deemed a takeover of academia and media by intolerant “woke” types who’d fostered an “illiberal” atmosphere of political conformity. RECOMMENDED... Bari Weiss’ CBS News Spiked Interview Question on Trump Crypto ‘Corruption’ Trump Threatens to Sue BBC Over Jan. 6 Video Clip in Latest Attack on Press But now that she’s at the helm of one of America’s most storied news organizations, she seems to view her role much differently. During a panel at the Jewish Leadership Conference, a gathering of conservative and pro-Israel Jewish figures, this week Weiss laid out her goals for how she plans to use her powerful position. “I think it’s about who’s in the room,” Weiss said. “I think it’s about redrawing the lines of what falls in the 40-yard lines of acceptable debate and acceptable American politics and culture.” She said her goal for the network is to create a new form of “centrist” news, not by adopting a dispassionate “voice from nowhere,” but by amplifying people who are “clearly and identifiably on the center-left and the center-right in conversation with one another.” “This is an opportunity to speak for the 75%, for the people that are on the center-left and the center-right,” Weiss said. Weiss gave an example of two figures she thought would represent this paradigm: “I was in... Chicago last week... where Dana Loesch, former spokeswoman for the [National Rifle Association], was debating Alan Dershowitz on guns. Now, these are people who have wildly different opinions on the Second Amendment, and yet showing they can have good faith, very passionate, very charismatic disagreement, and still like each other at the end of the day is very important.” Weiss contrasted these preferred figures with those “rising in the podcast charts,” whom she said “don’t represent the values and the worldview of the vast majority of Americans.” These included pundits on the extreme right like Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate, who have expressed overt Nazi sympathies, as well as former Fox News host-turned independent podcaster Tucker Carlson, who has given each of these men friendly interviews. But she also mentioned Hasan Piker, a popular left-wing Twitch streamer who has faced accusations of antisemitism, including from members of Congress, for his denunciation of Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, which has resulted in the death or injury of more than 10% people living in the strip over the past two years. Piker has called antisemitism “completely unacceptable,” adding that he finds “the conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism to be very dangerous.” One critic on social media wrote that “after years of complaining that there wasn’t enough viewpoint diversity in acceptable media discourse, Bari Weiss now appears to suggest that there’s too much.” While Weiss said she does not mean for her narrowing of the discourse to be done in a “censorious, gatekeeping way,” Weiss has long been criticized for her attempts to silence critics of Israel. As David Klion wrote in the Guardian in September, Weiss’ publication, the Free Press, which Ellison purchased in September for an eye-popping $150 million, has championed the second Trump administration’s efforts to force institutions of higher learning to crack down on anti-Israel speech on college campuses, which it has portrayed as part of a crusade against “antisemitism.” “The pattern is clear: If you work at a liberal institution and you want the Trump-controlled federal government to step in and discipline it, Bari Weiss is there to help,” Klion wrote. Prior to Weiss’ ascendance, CBS News and other major networks had already faced scrutiny for their near-total lack of Palestinian perspectives in their coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. In December 2024, Adam Johnson reported in the Nation that across the major Sunday shows on NBC, ABC, CNN, and CBS, there had been 2,557 mentions of Gaza since October 7, 2023, but only one Palestinian guest had appeared across all four of them, while Israeli guests had been featured 20 times. Staffers at CBS have raised concerns about Weiss having an even more aggressive “hall monitor” approach to policing coverage in her new position. Critics say that her singling out of Dershowitz and Loesch as representatives for the bounds of acceptable opinion suggests that she will pursue rigid ideological conformity at the network. “Everyone Bari Weiss thinks is too extreme to be included always has one thing in common: opposition to Israel,” noted independent journalist Glenn Greenwald. As other critics noted, Dershowitz and Loesch are not figures that many would associate with the “center-left” and the “center-right” as Weiss claims. While the clear majority of Democratic voters now believe Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, Dershowitz—who left the party to become an independent last year—has referred to such accusations as antisemitic “blood libel,” and denounced protesters against Israel’s military campaign as the equivalent of “Hitler Youth.” The lawyer has also defended many of the most egregious actions by Israel, including its attacks on hospitals, which have killed over 1,400 people according to UN figures from August: “Sometimes attacking a hospital saves lives,” was the title of one video he published on November 16, 2023. “If you’re going to redraw the lines to square up more with what 75% of Americans believe, how are you going to cover aid to Israel, which is wildly unpopular among that 75%?” one social media user wrote in response to Weiss, referencing recent polls showing that the vast majority of Americans now disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. Loesch, meanwhile, is far from a moderate or a cordial participant in polite disagreement. She is widely credited with helping to morph the NRA from purely a gun advocacy group into a vehicle for a broader right-wing culture war. She has personally described gun safety advocates as “tragedy dry-humping whores,” and the political left as “godless.” Meanwhile, she’s appeared to threaten journalists explicitly, saying they “need to be curb-stomped,” after previously calling them “the rat bastards of the Earth” and “the boil on the backside of American politics.” Rather than reflecting the consensus of American opinion, Greenwald noted, the “charismatic” conversation between Dershowitz and Loesch on gun control had garnered a grand total of 860 views on YouTube within five hours of being posted. “I’ve been writing about elite vs. popular politics for a long time,” said Zachary D. Carter, a senior reporter at HuffPost. “[I] don’t think I’ve ever seen elite consensus more disconnected from public reality.” 'Vought Should Resign,' CFPB Workers Say of 'Pledge' to Be Nice to Wall Street Fraudsters "What's next, 'Russell Vought Tells CFPB Examiners to Serve Tea to Their Wall Street Masters in Tiny French Maid Aprons'?" By Jessica Corbett “Why is Russell Vought showing the world his weird, creepy pledge of allegiance to big corporations? Have some dignity, Russell.” That’s what Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Union member Alexis Goldstein said on Monday about the CFPB acting director’s new “humility pledge” that examiners with the agency’s Supervision Division will be forced to read to financial institutions before conducting reviews next year. RECOMMENDED... Ethics Officials Ousted Amid Probe of Trump Ally’s Access to Mortgage Files ‘We Must Overturn Citizens United,’ Says Sanders as Analysis Details Billionaire Takeover of US Politics Several other CFPB Union members joined Goldstein in blasting Vought’s pledge, including treasurer Gabe Hopkins, who said that “whoever wrote this has never even spoken to an examiner before, only been wined and dined by industry lobbyists.” The lengthy pledge states in part that the CFPB’s “goal is to work collaboratively with the entities to review entities’ processes for compliance and/or remedy existing problems,” and the agency “is doing so by encouraging self-reporting and resolving issues in Supervision, where feasible, instead of via Enforcement.” CFPB Union president Cat Farman inquired: “Is this fan fiction I’m reading? What’s next, ‘Russell Vought Tells CFPB Examiners to Serve Tea to Their Wall Street Masters in Tiny French Maid Aprons’?” “Instead of traumatizing CFPB workers with his roleplay fantasies,” Farman argued, “Vought should resign so we can finally do our jobs protecting Americans from Wall Street fraud again.” Vought—also the Senate-confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget, a role he previously held during President Donald Trump’s first term—has unsuccessfully tried to shutter the CFPB completely this year. As the New York Times reported Monday: The new pledge is, for now, mostly symbolic. Mr. Vought halted nearly all work at the bureau shortly after his arrival in February, and bank examinations have not resumed. The agency’s hundreds of examiners have been told to spend their time closing out all open matters; they are currently barred from initiating new ones. And Mr. Vought has refused to request money for the consumer bureau from the Federal Reserve, which funds its operations. The bureau warned in court filings that it would run out of operating cash early next year. In a Friday statement announcing the pledge, the Vought-led agency claimed that under the Biden administration, the Supervision Division “was the weaponized arm of the CFPB.” The agency added that “where these exams were previously done with unnecessary personnel, outrageous travel expenses, and with the thuggery pervasive in prior leadership, they will now be done respectfully, promptly, professionally, and under budget.” Given that Vought “stopped all supervision exams in 2025, refuses to fund CFPB, and says he’s shutting us down by 2026,” CFPB Union member Doug Wilson asked: “So how will we supervise banks in 2026 if CFPB is closed? How can bank exams be ‘under budget’ if there is no budget?” Ripping Vought’s pledge and press release as “incredibly disrespectful to Supervision’s dedicated workers,” fellow CFPB Union member Tyler Creighton said that the pair of documents also “misunderstands or misconstrues Supervision’s prior work.” “Supervision’s workers have always conducted examinations professionally, efficiently, conscientiously, and with a focus on remedying consumer harm,” Creighton said. “We will continue to do so as soon as Donald Trump and Vought end their 10-month suspension of examinations and let us get back to work for the American people.” Another CFPB Union member, Steve Wheeler, highlighted that “they’re trying to make it sound like it’s groundbreaking to send notifications of exams ahead of time and keep data pulls relevant to the examined area, when those are things we already do.” Originally proposed by now-Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis via the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama. Warren joined the CFPB Union members in calling out the new pledge, declaring that “Donald Trump is Wall Street first.” Union member Ravisha “Avi” Kumar pointed out that “under previous administrations, CFPB examiners protected consumers from banks, like Wells Fargo, that incentivized their employees to cut corners and overlook consumer harm. CFPB forced the banks to return that stolen money to consumers.” “Ironically, under this administration, Vought says he will incentivize examiners to rush jobs (cut corners) and stick to the surface (overlook consumer harm),” Kumar added. “How is that still consumer financial protection?” The pledge announcement came a day after CFPB officials told staff that much of the agency workforce will be furloughed at the end of the year and that remaining consumer litigation will be sent to the US Department of Justice (DOJ). “This is Russ Vought’s latest illegal power grab in his ongoing plan to shut down the CFPB and protect CEOs instead of consumers,” said Farman. “CFPB attorneys are afraid DOJ will dismiss these cases.” “Vought’s already helped Wall Street swindle $18 billion from Americans this year,” the union leader continued. “If Vought is going to keep refusing to fund CFPB in order to illegally dismantle the agency, while he wastes over $5 million of CFPB’s dwindling budget on personal bodyguards, then it’s time for Congress to impeach and remove Russell Vought from power.” Sanders, Warren Help Form Senate Democratic ‘Fight Club’ Challenging Schumer’s Leadership "So glad there are some Senate Dems willing to fight back," said one progressive strategist. By Jake Johnson Angered by the Democratic leadership’s fecklessness and lack of a bold vision for the future, a group of senators including Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has formed an alliance to push back on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the party’s campaign arm ahead of next year’s critical midterm elections. The existence of the group, known as the “Fight Club,” was first revealed Monday by the New York Times, which reported that the senators are pressing the Democratic Party to “embrace candidates willing to challenge entrenched corporate interests, fiercely oppose the Trump administration, and defy their own party’s orthodoxy.” RECOMMENDED... Survey Shows Large Majority of Grassroots Democrats Back Primary Challenges for Schumer and Jeffries ‘Next Step Is Primaries’: Calls for Schumer Ouster After Leading Shutdown Surrender Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Tina Smith of Minnesota, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut are also members of the alliance, and other senators—including Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon—have taken part in group actions, according to the Times. “The coalition of at least half a dozen senators... is unhappy with how Mr. Schumer and his fellow senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, the head of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, have chosen, recruited and, they argue, favored candidates aligned with the establishment,” the newspaper reported. “The party’s campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has not made any formal endorsements in contested primaries. However, the senators are convinced that it is quietly signaling support for and pushing donors toward specific Senate candidates: Rep. Angie Craig in Minnesota, Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan, and Gov. Janet Mills in Maine.” Members of the “Fight Club” have endorsed Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s bid for US Senate. In addition to Flanagan, Sanders has backed Abdul El-Sayed’s US Senate run in Michigan and Graham Platner’s campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine. Platner’s top opponent in the primary race, Mills, was “aggressively recruited” by Schumer. News of the “Fight Club” alliance comes after a small group of centrist Democrats, with Schumer’s tacit blessing, capitulated to President Donald Trump and Republicans earlier this month by agreeing to end the government shutdown without an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, even as health insurance premiums skyrocket nationwide. The cave sparked widespread fury, much of it directed at Schumer. Indivisible, a progressive advocacy group that typically aligns with Democrats, has said it will not support any Senate Democratic primary candidate who does not call on Schumer to step down as minority leader. “We must turn the page on this era of cowardice,” Indivisible said following Senate Democrats’ capitulation. “We must nominate and elect Democratic candidates who have an actual backbone. And we must ensure that the kind of failed leadership we see from Sen. Schumer does not doom a future Democratic majority.” Thus far, no sitting member of the Senate Democratic caucus has demanded Schumer’s resignation. But the emergence of the “Fight Club” is the latest evidence that the Democratic leader’s support is beginning to crumble. “Absolutely love to see this,” progressive strategist Robert Cruickshank wrote on social media in response to the Times reporting. “So glad there are some Senate Dems willing to fight back.” Israeli Assault Has Plunged Gaza Into Worst Economic Collapse Ever Recorded: UN Report "In an optimistic scenario... it will still take several decades for Gaza to return to pre-October 2023 welfare levels." By Brad Reed A United Nations report claims that Israel’s assault on Gaza has led to “the most severe economic crisis ever recorded,” with nearly seven decades’ worth of economic development wiped out over the span of two years. The report, which was released on Monday by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), found that all 2.3 million people in the exclave now live below the poverty line, with per-capita gross domestic product falling to just $161, one of the lowest figures in the world. RECOMMENDED... Lancet Study Shows Over 3 Million Years of Human Life Lost in Israeli Assault on Gaza ‘Americans Should Be Enraged’: Reports Expose Unprecedented Corruption at Trump DOJ Additionally, the report found that the unemployment rate in Gaza was as high as 80%, while inflation in the exclave surged to nearly 240%, as the Israeli military blockade caused a widespread famine by preventing basic necessities from reaching Gaza residents. One particularly striking metric flagged by the report was the precipitous drop of night-time luminosity, which fell by 73% in Gaza between September 2023 and May 2025, an indication that Israel had completely destroyed most of the exclave’s power infrastructure and left the vast majority of its people without electricity. In fact, a map showing the presence of night-time electric lights in Gaza in May 2025 showed that the only areas in the exclave that had power were ones in the very south on the border with Egypt and in the very north on the border with Israel. The UNCTAD report also painted a very grim picture of what it will take to rebuild Gaza. “In an optimistic scenario of double-digit growth rates facilitated by a significant level of foreign aid, it will still take several decades for Gaza to return to pre-October 2023 welfare levels,” the report said. “The international community should act to ensure a permanent ceasefire immediately and, once recovery commences, prioritize life-saving interventions, including access to essential healthcare, both physical and mental, clean water, and the restoration of basic infrastructure.” While Gaza suffered the most devastation as a result of Israeli military operations, the UNCTAD report noted that the West Bank was also undergoing significant economic distress. Specifically, the report said that the West Bank is suffering through “its most severe economic downturn on record, driven by heightened insecurity, movement and access restrictions, and the loss of productive opportunities in all sectors of the economy.” Israel’s war in Gaza, which began after Hamas launched a surprise attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, has so far killed an estimated 70,000 Palestinians. A report released by Physicians for Human Rights–Israel last week also estimated that nearly 100 Palestinian detainees have died while being held in Israeli custody. JOIN THE MOVEMENT As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. JOIN WITH US TODAY ■ More News BBC Rebuked for Censoring Historian Who Called Trump ‘Most Openly Corrupt President in American History’ Soaring Medicare Part B Premium Takes Big Bite Out of Social Security Increase A protest co-led by the California Nurses Association was pictured in Anaheim, California on July 1, 2025.  (Photo: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) With much of the nation’s focus on skyrocketing Affordable Care Act costs, the Trump administration recently announced a Medicare Part B premium increase of nearly 10% for next year—an amount that will swallow a significant chunk of Social Security recipients’ already paltry cost-of-living boost. The monthly premium for recipients of Medicare Part B, the insurance portion of the program, will be $202.90 next year—a $17.90 increase compared to 2025. The increase will push the monthly premium above $200 for the first time in the program’s history. RECOMMENDED... ‘Astronomical Premium Increases’ Loom for Millions After Dem Capitulation to GOP Medicare Advantage, Privatized Medicaid Could Cost Americans $2 Trillion Extra Over Next Decade Jeanne Lambrew, director of healthcare reform at The Century Foundation, wrote in an analysis last week that the $17.90-per-month Medicare premium increase will effectively wipe out 33% of next year’s Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which was 2.8%—or $53.76 monthly. “This is the greatest erosion of the COLA in nearly a decade,” Lambrew observed. “The Medicare premium increase is the highest in four years, the projected employer-sponsored insurance increase is the highest in fifteen years, and the health insurance marketplace premium increase for 2026 is the highest out-of-pocket cost increase for all types of coverage in history.” To proponents of Medicare for All—a proposal that would provide comprehensive health coverage to everyone in the US for free at the point of service, for a lower overall cost than the status quo—rising premiums across the for-profit US healthcare system provide yet another reason for urgent, transformational change. “Medicare shouldn’t have premiums... or copays or deductibles,” Michigan US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed wrote in a social media post on Tuesday. “Medicare should cover vision, dental, and hearing. And Medicare should cover everyone.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the lead sponsor of the Medicare for All Act in the Senate, bashed Republicans for their willingness to entertain a range of healthcare proposals “except one.” “They will never acknowledge that healthcare is a human right—to be guaranteed to ALL,” the senator wrote on Monday, the day President Donald Trump was expected to unveil a patchwork healthcare proposal aimed at averting an Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidy disaster of the GOP’s making. But the White House postponed the rollout as the plan—which reportedly would have extended the ACA tax credits for two years while imposing new limits on the program—faced pushback from Republicans on Capitol Hill. The president’s proposal also reportedly included a scheme to push Americans into higher-deductible plans. “Trump, facing collapsing polling and a potential riot-inducing scenario on health insurance, might have backed off temporarily on the longstanding Republican tendency to ruin the healthcare system so rich people can have more tax cuts,” The American Prospect‘s David Dayen and Ryan Cooper wrote Tuesday. “But he’s still ruining the healthcare system, make no mistake, just a bit more stealthily. This has always been the GOP approach to healthcare, and it’s not going anywhere.” A Global Message to TikTok: Stop Your Profit Model of 'Toxic and Addictive' Content for Kids US Troops Near Venezuela Reportedly Denied Holiday Leave as Fears Grow of Unpopular and Lengthy Trump War VIEW ALL NEWS ■ Opinion Does Anyone Even Remember Trump Once Favored Medicare for All? Who's going to pay for covering everybody, including the currently uninsured? "The government's going to pay for it," Trump said in a 2015 interview. By Ralph Nader When the AI Bubble Bursts, Working Families Will Pay the Price When the housing bubble burst, approximately 10 million Americans lost their homes. What will we lose this time? By Saqib Bhatti Despite the Smiles, Mamdani Must Know That Trump Remains a Fascist Rattlesnake Democratic socialists don’t need Trump’s approval. We need to defeat his MAGA forces. By Norman Solomon VIEW ALL OPINION Share this email with a friend Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams · PO Box 443 · Portland, ME 04112-0443 · USA Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your contribution is tax-deductible. EIN: 20-3368194