Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Melissa RossJuly 30, 2015

As the two massive government programs that insure poor and older Americans turned 50 Thursday, leading insurers in Florida are brushing aside Jeb Bush‘s recent comments that Medicare should be “phased out.” “We’re not policymakers,” said Michael Lawton, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Florida. Lawton represents the nation’s largest private health insurer serving millions […]

Marc YachtApril 8, 2015

Healthcare inequities are costing American lives, increasing disabilities, and bankrupting families forced to choose between healthcare and essentials. Obamacare covers 16 million but an additional 32 million remain unprotected. Although insurer abuses such as cherry picking, pre-existing conditions, denials and rate gouging are being addressed, exorbitant administrative costs and high premiums continue. America’s healthcare problems […]

Guest AuthorNovember 25, 2014

After years of race riots in major cities, President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 established the Kerner Commission, shorthand for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. He wanted to know their causes and how to prevent them. Released in 1968, the report concluded, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — […]

Martin DyckmanApril 14, 2014

Fifty years ago, Congress was moving toward enacting the first meaningful civil rights law. Lyndon Johnson, the masterful president who was about to accomplish what had seemed impossible, was looking for someone to help implement the legislation. The choice would fall on LeRoy Collins, Florida’s former governor. It would toll the end of his political […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 26, 2014

Listening to all the punditry in the wake of the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty has led to one conclusion: Most of the common assumptions Americans have about poverty are dead wrong. Among them: – Most poor people are black. While the poverty rate among African Americans is more than double […]

Tag: Lyndon Johnson

Florida’s insurers defend Medicare at 50

Marc Yacht: Obamacare helps, but it isn't enough

Stephen Goldstein: 50 years later, Florida remains ‘separate and unequal’

Martin Dyckman: Battle for civil rights cost some politicians their careers

Andrew Skerritt: Most assumptions about the poor are dead wrong