March 7—This AP article look at problems in the UK's single-payer healthcare system reminds us that for social democracy to really work, it must be implemented efficiently.

February 19—One of the most noteworthy political and social experiments of recent years has been playing out in Oregon, which largely decriminalized possession of psychoactive substances following a 2020 referendum. The bill redirected funds to treatment programs, but these have been slow to ramp up, and a sharp increase in overdose deaths is now causing Oregonians to reconsider their course. TSD, which supports the decriminalization of psychoactive substances, hopes that Oregonians will find measures, other than criminalization, to guide substance addicts to healthier lifeways.

January 21, 2024—21.3 million Americans have signed up for Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) health plans in this year's open enrollment season, including 5 million first-time enrollees, signaling the growing importance of this key plank in American social democracy.

Single-payer healthcare has become the quintessential issue for some on the Democratic left. Joshua Holland, fellow at the Nation Institute, argues in this Nation piece that there may be more realistic—and effective—paths to universal healthcare access.

Several states have passed legislation requiring insurers to offer birth control coverage, heading off cultural conservatives in the Trump administration and Congress who seek to eliminate contraceptive coverage in federally supported plans.

In the wake of Republicans’ first “repeal and replace” disaster, economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman offers sensible improvements for the Affordable Care Act.

More than eight million American children rely upon the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for access to medical care. This article from the Kaiser Foundation provides a good introduction to the program and summarizes research into the program’s effectiveness.

Does the healthcare debate sometimes seem to revolve in the same narrow circle, trying to figure out how to afford a too-expensive system? Why are medical costs so high in America? The answer is the power of specialists’ lobbying groups, writes a practicing otolaryngologist in this New York Times op-ed piece. The author calls for fewer specialists, more general practioner gate-keepers, independent rate-setting committees and transparency in costs and results. A refreshing burst of outside-the-box thinking and straight talk from an informed insider.

The concept of a single-payer healthcare system is the hottest current issue for a sizable minority of Democrats. Traditional party leaders consider the idea undoable in the current political climate, but a House bill has the backing of 112 of the body’s 193 Democrats, and California may be on its way to enacting its own version of single-payer statewide.

Many of we social democrats are rooting for California to lead the way on single-payer. Columnist George Skelton, a supporter of a national single-payer system, remains skeptical in this L.A. Times piece.

This New York Times article looks at the key role Medicaid plays in providing health care to one-fifth of all Americans.

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen laments the sad state of healthcare in America as compared to other modern nations and looks at the reasons why.

With the chronically ill accounting for a large share of health costs, House Speaker Paul Ryan has said that the healthy should not pay for the sick. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, writes economist David Cutler in this comprehensive and thoughtful Washington Post piece.

This report by the Kaiser Foundation provides an in-depth look into who makes up the uninsured population, progress made under the ACA, and the difficulties faced by those without health insurance.

New York Times columnist David Leonhardt opines that Republican intransigence on the ACA will ultimately lead to a single-payer healthcare system in the U.S.