Healthcare for all: Build the Movement

Latest

Disabled people protest Medicaid cuts.
PHOTO/HARVEY FINKLE

 
OAKLAND, CA —Want to get rid of poor people? It’s simple. Deny them health care so they’ll just get sick and die. Want all American families, including the poor, to be healthy contributors to a vibrant society? Then supply good health care to people who need it. Don’t do what federal and many state governments seem determined to do right now—use work requirements as an excuse for denying people the human right to health.
As the article “This is how we win National Improved Medicare for All,” by Dr. Margaret Flowers illustrates, the health care crisis that makes low income workers sicker than anyone else can be ended by uncoupling health care from the drive to make profits off of other people’s misery. A national single-payer health plan, New Improved Medicare for All is how to do it. And it would be cheaper and less confusing than the profit-first system we have now.
Trump’s cruel requirements that people work for their Medicaid (already in force in some states) are aimed the other way, at keeping the poor sicker. They will heap more suffering and injustice on the most vulnerable people in our nation. We’ve seen this playbook before. The bi-partisan effort to end “welfare as we know it,” led by President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, shoved hundreds of thousands of working families off the welfare rolls and into dire poverty. They called it “welfare reform” when they should have called it welfare termination.
Today the billionaires and millionaires in Congress support Trump’s latest attack in the war on workers. Why spend money on the people when their rich corporations can use it? We reject such immoral thinking. In a robot economy we can afford good health care for all. We need to build a new movement for National Improved Medicare For All!  (NIMA) The first step is to build unity among all who suffer a common poverty, so that we can fight for the economic priorities we need.
 

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Emmy-Winning Journalist Deported After Reporting on Anti-Trump Protest

Emmy award-winning journalist Mario Guevara was deported to El Salvador – a country he fled over 20 years ago — in retaliation for filming law enforcement activities, says the Committee to Protect Journalists.

A Salute to Chicagoans Fighting ICE

A salute to Chicagoans fighting ICE and to the food delivery worker on a bicycle who outrode ICE agents after they tried to kidnap him on the streets of downtown Chicago.

Over 60 Lawmakers Launch Investigation Into Trump Administration’s Disappearances

Some Democrats in Congress have announced they are investigating the Trump administration’s practice of disappearing immigrants to other countries.

America Cannot Afford This Dangerous Step

Americans should be chilled at government's recent designation of “Antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization (it isn't an organization). This allows for the criminalization of broad swaths of dissent, and won't stop with "Antifa."

America is Divided—But it’s the Wrong Divide

The real divide is between those who have and those who don't. We have the abundance to care for everyone and government must see to it that people's needs are met.

More from the People's Tribune