Healthcare is a human right. Yet in our system, 60,000 people die every year because they can’t afford it. Everyone should be guaranteed access to quality medicine and care, both because it’s the morally right thing to do, and because every person’s health affects everyone else’s, both directly (as during outbreaks of infectious diseases like the current coronavirus), and indirectly (as their ability to contribute to society is impaired). What’s stopping us are the entrenched interests, which drains an enormous amount of resources—money, time, etc.—from the rest of us, which could be put to better use. Detailed studies from think tanks ranging the political spectrum all show that singlepayer Medicare for All would save us a massive amount of money over time. We must demand it, now.
Fran Quiqley, addressing the horror and stupidity of our system at Common Dreams:
Last week, I listened as several Indiana workers in the hospitality industry gathered in southeastern Indiana to talk about their health. A cook in her 60s shared how she had gone months without her asthma inhalers because she couldn’t afford them. During that period, she was taken to the hospital by ambulance twice. A restaurant server talked about not being able to pay for tests her doctor recommended for potentially cancerous breast tissue. Another has seven prescriptions. She tearfully described her perpetual calculation about which to fill, because she can’t come close to affording them all.
Each story was greeted by sad, knowing nods. Several workers spoke about skipping doctor visits, reluctant to add to the stack of unpaid medical bills already piling up on their kitchen tables.
Beyond their inability to get the care they need, they all had another thing in common: They all had health insurance.
At least, they had what often passes for health insurance in the United States. Unique among other nations, we prioritize the interests of corporations making billions of dollars in health care profits over the goal of ensuring access to care. While 27 million Americans have no health insurance at all, four in ten working Americans have a high-deductible plan that forces them to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket before they get any benefit from the premiums taken out of their paychecks each week.
Reams of academic medical studies confirm what the workers in Indiana tell us: Price tag barriers to accessing health care deter people from seeking the care they need. As recently as last month, most Americans may have seen this as a problem solely for the worker who could not afford to see a doctor about her high blood pressure or diabetes. This month, we know it is a problem for everyone.
That same worker is unlikely to seek testing and treatment for the coronavirus, which means they may unknowingly spread it.
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