Affordable healthcare is one of the most important issues facing Americans, and this is why the Obama administration spent so much time working on a feasible plan. Though not perfect, it was a giant step toward ensuring that everyone was covered. Remember, before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, nicknamed Obamacare, more than 40 million Americans were without healthcare.
People have been advocating for a universal healthcare coverage system for decades, but capitalism in America has been too concerned about the profit motive to seriously entertain such a notion. This has become painfully clear in the past 40 years or so wherein doctors have been overruled by corporate insurance executives in determining what care should, or should not, be given. Many patient treatment decisions were made with financial considerations as top priorities.
The United States is the only industrialized nation outside of South Africa where there is no universal coverage system. Moreover, citizens pay thousands of dollars more for prescription drugs in the U.S. than in many other places across the world. Big Pharma is the beneficiary.
In America, most healthcare benefits have been connected with employment. Medicaid coverage has been a savior for the poor, and Medicare has offered partial coverage for the elderly. People caught in the middle, however, have been extremely vulnerable; a single catastrophic illness, or loss of employment, can mark the beginning of financial ruin.
Enter the Trump administration. The mantra of the Republican Party has been “repeal Obamacare.” Donald Trump was on the stump during his entire campaign promising to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. The truth of the matter is that they actually have nothing suitable for a replacement, even though they had seven years to work on one. The only thing that the GOP has floated is a plan that would take away healthcare benefits from as many as 20 million who have grown accustomed to having it under the Affordable Care Act.
Healthcare statistics are trending toward poorer health for many Americans. This is by design. Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, strokes and many other diseases are proliferating at an alarming rate. Evidence is growing that these conditions are connected to diet, environmental pollution, and chemical ingredients in household products. Since this is the case, those responsible for this situation (corporations) should bear the cost of healthcare. Corporations like Monsanto are saturating the food market with genetically modified products (GMO). The jury is out regarding how much GMOs play in the deteriorating health profiles of Americans. Also, sugar is included in many products and is implicated in many disorders. Artificial sweeteners are also implicated. Some have been taken off the market because clinical trials showed that they caused cancer. Miraculously, these products (Aspartame and saccharin) were allowed back on the market, and they are now voraciously consumed.
The other side of this coin is the prescription drugs that are sold for ailments no doubt caused by the food we eat and by environmental pollution. Prescription drugs usually have side effects so severe that some of them actually lead to death! So, the corporations have a perfect source of cash flow: saturate the environment with illness-causing substances, and then provide the “cures” which, like an ever revolving cycle, require more care, and hence, more cash. Big business and big government, therefore, see illness in America as a cash cow, which is, in essence, a CASH CHAOS (COW). In other words, chaos is the hallmark of our financially–driven system.
There is a simple solution. A single payer plan wherein the financial motive (read insurance companies) is removed would lower the cost of healthcare. Traditionally, corporations and government have refused to place the well being of the American people above profits. If the American people would unite in opposition to this corporate/- governmental anti-people behemoth that is ramrodding bad health down our throats, the situation would change overnight! A luta continua.
