| October 2, 2019 | Jill Bold | managing editor |
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Healthcare should be a human right, not a privilege.
The American Journal of Medicine reported that medical bankruptcy amounts to tens of thousands of dollars in debt annually.
One in three GoFundMe campaigns in the U.S. are created to raise funds for exorbitant medical bills.
“We firmly believe that access to comprehensive health care is a right,” GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon said. “Things have to be fixed at the local, state and federal levels of government to make this a reality.”
Job-related healthcare isn’t stable, as evidenced by the recent General Motors’ battle with striking unions. Vox.com reported GM announced that its latest blow against the unions was to revoke healthcare from 50,000 workers. Companies know they can withhold healthcare as a bargaining chip against union workers to reduce wages and other perks.
Being able to retain control of one’s own healthcare strengthens worker’s rights.
At the heart of the conflict is the need for profit in the insurance industry. This is a private industry that can and does benefit financially by blocking access to healthcare by edging out anyone who isn’t rich enough or is too sick.
Many groups are currently priced out of the insurance game. Unemployed individuals, homeless people, college students and retirees are some of the most vulnerable sections of American society and are badly affected by the current private insurance situation.
Even a member of a very privileged group of people suffered greatly from a lack of affordable healthcare. Nobel Prize winner Leon Lederman was forced to sell his medal that he was awarded in 1988 for his breakthroughs in physics to pay for a medical treatment. He passed away within three years of selling the medal that symbolized his greatest life achievement.
A Medicare For All plan can ensure that the dangerous profit motive is removed from the healthcare equation. It can function to serve all citizens. Everyone in, nobody out.
