DETROIT, MI – Health care is a basic necessity of life and survival. In the USA, 100 million people suffer from a chronic lack of access to health care. 50 Million are uninsured and 50 million more are underinsured, lacking medical insurance in part of the year. Both groups don’t see the doctor and are equally as sick. Their poor health is why the USA is ranked 37th in the world, in measures like infant mortality, maternal mortality, life expectancy and untreated illness.
The new health law; the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) which will be fully in effect by 2014 is not likely to meet its goals of improving access to care. The promised Medicaid expansion was the greatest hope to improve access for poor people. Approximately half of states are planning to expand their programs but without additional state funding. To save money, the states with “better” Medicaid programs plan to eliminate people from their rolls by the time their reform is complete. The insurance pools for individuals will increase insurance company profits while raising overall health care costs.
Why are we still talking about health care as a human right? If we were to implement a single payer national health care system, with a guaranteed right to health care, we would save money, cover everyone and we would all be healthier as a result.
These problems are part of the same disease. Health care costs a lot of money in all countries. Under capitalism, the money to pay for it depends on workers paying taxes to cover the bill.
Capitalism, based on buying and selling labor power and trading the wages for commodities has hit its limit in most parts of the world. The government and private companies are not creating enough jobs.
Why can’t the USA economy create jobs? Robot “factories” increasingly make the goods we use and this process is eliminating workers permanently. We need these tools! Workers should not have to do hard, dirty jobs and they cannot physically assemble precision items such as cell phones; so for society to keep advancing, we need and love these tools.
The cause of the disease is that under capitalism, these tools are in private hands, used to make items that are the most profitable with little consideration for people’s needs. As long as the factories, banks, hospitals, schools, buses and trains are in private hands with fewer of us working, we will not be able to afford health care. We will continue to be faced with austerity budgets at home, poverty and war as various forces fight for control of the remaining profitable enterprises.
We need a new world where public control of productive resources can allow us to plan for our needs without interference. To get there, we will need political power to make and enforce the laws and determine our own bright future.
