Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

F. Douglas Stephenson

F. Douglas Stephenson , LCSW, is a retired psychotherapist and former instructor of social work in the University of Florida Department of Psychiatry. He is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Donald Trump
Trump’s Immigrant Gulags:  A Bonanza For Private Prison Corporations

Trump’s Immigrant Gulags: A Bonanza For Private Prison Corporations

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When it comes to for-profit, private corporate incarceration of immigrants, making lots of money is like drinking salt water, the more they drink, the thirstier they get. Roman proverbs say that the more money a rich man has, the more driven and addicted he becomes to accumulating […]

Health
Trump Junk: Won’t Enforce Rules for Short-Term Junk Health Insurance Plans

Trump Junk: Won’t Enforce Rules for Short-Term Junk Health Insurance Plans

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) — With the Trump administration rolling back essential health insurance protections and rejecting a national, single-payer health insurance program, America’s race to the bottom continues full steam ahead for millions of Americans with pre-existing health conditions. The Administration will now amend the Biden-era rule that limited the duration of short-term […]

Corporations
Beware of Health Insurance Companies Bearing Gifts

Beware of Health Insurance Companies Bearing Gifts

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When it comes to Medicare Advantage,“beware of health insurance companies bearing gifts”, just like “beware of Greeks bearing gifts”, is a phrase that serves as a cautionary warning against trusting those who may have ulterior motives, particularly when they present seemingly generous health insurance policy offers. Everyone […]

Featured
Medicare, Imperiled by Trump, Turns 60

Medicare, Imperiled by Trump, Turns 60

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Sixty years ago, July 30, 1965, at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, former President Harry S. Truman and his wife, former First Lady Bess Truman, became the first recipients of the new Medicare health insurance program. President Lyndon Johnson and the U.S. Congress […]

Featured
Trump's Project 2025 abolishes Medicare; We need to Fight Back and Expand it

Trump’s Project 2025 abolishes Medicare; We need to Fight Back and Expand it

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) — The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, framed by former Trump administration staffers and secretly endorsed by Trump himself, proposes changes in Medicare benefits that could destroy Medicare as we know it. Instead, we must fight back and expand it. On July 30, 1965, at the Harry S. Truman […]

Addiction
The Sacklers may not Get away with Opioid Grift after all, as SCOTUS strikes Down Bankruptcy Settlement

The Sacklers may not Get away with Opioid Grift after all, as SCOTUS strikes Down Bankruptcy Settlement

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Allen Frances, M.D., distinguished former chair of psychiatry at Duke University school of medicine wrote in a Oct., 2017 New Yorker magazine expose, “Their name (Sackler/Purdue Pharma) has been pushed forward as the epitome of good works and of the fruits of the capitalist system. But, when […]

Health Care
How the Corporations’ “Medicare Advantage” Harms America’s Patients and Providers

How the Corporations’ “Medicare Advantage” Harms America’s Patients and Providers

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment) – 1). Medicare Advantage (MA), the privately-administered version of Traditional Medicare (TM), is causing significant harm to America’s patients, providers, and health 2). Political support for the private health insurance industry and Medicare Advantage exists because our government permits private health insurance companies to exact large profit from its […]

Drugs
How to Enroll Intelligently in Medicare –  A Consumers Guide 2024

How to Enroll Intelligently in Medicare – A Consumers Guide 2024

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, FL (Special to Informed Comment)- Medicare open enrollment season begins October 15th, running through Dec.7, 2023. And very soon, everyone will be bombarded with new smarmy health insurance Medicare Advantage ads featuring healthy and happy-looking seniors playing tennis and telling us how wonderful their Medicare Advantage plan is and how much of a no-brainer […]

Health
End Predatory Private Medicare “Advantage” Plans Now

End Predatory Private Medicare “Advantage” Plans Now

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) — Wendell Potter, a New York Times bestselling author, highly respected health care and campaign finance reform advocate, authority tackling corporate and special interest propaganda, alerts us to the dangers of Medicare Advantage plans now offered by the private health insurance industry. “In just a few weeks”, says Potter, […]

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • …
  • Page 6
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Türkiye Bans Israeli Ships, Goods at its Ports, Halts Cargo Overflights, Declares Gaza a Genocide
  • The price of genocide: How US Funding sustains an unraveling Israeli Economy
  • Why Even "Progressive" Dem Leaders won't Stand up on Gaza: AIPAC's Undue Influence
  • Russia, China, reject attempt of E3 to Reimpose Sanctions on Iran over Nuclear Program
  • Host, Bully, Hypocrite: The US's Shameful Gatekeeping of the United Nations

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved