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Statements |
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Corporate Restructuring of Healthcare Fails the American People
by Billy Wharton,
co-chair Socialist Party USA (February 25, 2010)
At the President’s Healthcare Summit today, the American people
witnessed a debate between the bad proposal for healthcare reform and
the even worse one. The Democrats House and Senate Bill’s fail to
address the growing problems of for-profit healthcare. Instead,
by mandating the purchase of healthcare, their plan will create a
profitable market for private health insurance companies to exploit.
The Republican’s counter-proposal, which seeks to allow consumers to
buy insurance plans across state lines, would reverse decades of
necessary reforms carried out at the state-level. This would give
mega-healthcare corporations a free-hand to expand their already
abusive practices.
While the two parties squabble about how to carry out the corporate
restructuring of healthcare, the American people continue to suffer
under a for-profit healthcare system. 50 million people are
underinsured, another 20 million underinsured and nearly 50,000 people
die each year from preventable illnesses. In response, millions
of Americans have begun to avoid healthcare – a recent survey indicates
that 6 out of 10 have either deferred or delayed necessary care in the
last year.
A fundamental political shift in the healthcare debate is
necessary. Instead of a discussion of how markets should operate
or how to build the proper risk pool to insure profits, we should be
examining how to recognize healthcare as a basic human right of all
people. Simply put, healthcare should not be treated as a commodity.
Private health insurers provide no medical benefit to the people they
cover. They merely extract profits from the doctor-patient
relationship. Instead, we should create a comprehensive medical system
that guarantees no-charge access and the provision of all medically
necessary care.
Near the end of today’s summit, President Barack Obama asked “Can
America, the wealthiest nation on earth, do what every industrialized
country in the world does?” As a socialist, my answer is yes, but
it will not come for the Democratic or Republican proposals.
Instead, a single-payer National Healthcare Program would provide
universal access for all people in America. Such a program would pave
the way for the creation of a fully socialized medical system that
would insure healthcare as a human right.
The time for high-level summits and backroom wrangling among
politicians who have received large-scale contributions from private
insurers and pharmaceutical companies has ended. It is now time
for the creation of a mass social movement that expresses the desires
of everyday Americans for a medical system organized around
the values of solidarity, compassion and justice. Rejecting both
the Democratic and Republican proposals will be a key part of this
process.
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