How the Coronavirus Exposes the Need for Universal Health Care
(Original Image From CNN)
Bernie Sanders predicted this. All of this.
Apparently Bob Iger did as well because that man quit and bolted before Disneyland closed. But his apparent fortune telling skills are for another day.
The United States losing quite badly against this coronavirus is a result of decades of mishandling of the concept of health care, medicare, providing basic damn needs for the American people. Everything is connected, and it was a slow burn and it was burning during multiple administrations but the powder keg has pretty much blown. From stock markets to the economy to even the world of sports, the United States has pretty much shut down as this virus has affected every aspect of American life during early 2020. I’m not here to say that the United States is forever doomed from this, nor am I am here to even place the blame. But I am here to say that one man running for president predicted all of this, and that our views and beliefs towards health care and the people that need them has to change, and now.
The numbers for the coronavirus are extremely inaccurate, and I can say this with all the certainty and not because of administration or who is president---but instead it’s because of how the workforce in this country is set up. We are one of the few advanced and developed countries to not universally provide pregnancy leave or sick leave. Compound that with the fact that 40% of the country cannot afford unexpected expenses of $500 minimum, and you’ll have sick people nationwide still going to work because they can’t afford to take time off. Doesn’t help that wages have remained stagnant for a decade while cost of living has increased. Obama’s Obamacare was a step in the right direction but with so much opposition, so many restrictions, and so many enemies past and present trying to kill it, it’s hard for the service to properly function.
Universal health care would not have fully eliminated this virus and prevented it from spreading without issue, but with health care availability for everybody, it would have been far faaaaaaar more effective in terms of tracing the virus and properly surveying just how many people are affected or at the very least at risk. But going to the hospital is expensive, even requesting an ambulance is expensive. Nowadays people Lyft or Uber themselves to the emergency room just to avoid the astronomical costs of riding an ambulance. So how can you expect a country of 300 million plus to combat a new virus if people are too broke or too financially unstable to even do the testing? How can you fight the coronavirus if up until this point the mere testing of it costs money? As a reminder, testing for this virus is still not free, hot damn are the politicians in Washington stupid.
Because of the completely dysfunctional budget the United States partakes in, becoming an expert in the medical field comes with costs sometimes too extreme to defeat, resulting in a shortage of doctors, nurses, professionals overall. Cuba has more doctors per capita than the United States, and this is with a microscopic fraction of the economic power the U S of A wields. Even today, countries like Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, even the Netherlands are testing people for the virus at a faster rate than the United States. Part of this is because we spend $630 billion on military and although we spend more on health care, the money doesn’t yield good results simply because of the mishandling of the entire system.
The only way to prevent a repeat of this catastrophe is to dramatically alter the mindset towards health care: it should be a human right as an American citizen and not a way to profit. We have to keep business money away from the concept of health care.
Michael Bloomberg spent over $400 million in marketing for the presidency. Jeff Bezos just spent $150 million on a house, just one house. Then there’s the news of a TRILLION dollars being spent to try to stabilize the markets which had gone off the deep end. And then there’s the military budget which has been increasing every single year, and now we have a space force consuming taxpayer funds that could have been used to fight this coronavirus. Oh and the taskforce budget to take on potential outbreaks like this one? Completely slashed by the current administration a mere year before the virus reared its ugly head in China.
This country has too much money, too much power, too many educational choices, too many resources, and too many connections to not have a strong health care system that can provide to everyone in need. Between the constant bailouts, constant rising costs, and the TRILLION THAT WAS SPENT TO APPEAL TO BITTER RICH PEOPLE WHO LOST 3%, there is no longer an excuse to not head in the direction of medicare for all. This shit is serious, it is unacceptable that the most powerful and influential nation in the planet still has people going bankrupt every day because of medical costs. It is unacceptable that a virus from thousands upon thousands of miles away has choked the country’s financial and social structure. And while we are it, why in the hell are so many people still dying from the common flu?
Just like Bernie Sanders predicted, the current health care system is shattered, broken, and only appeals to pharmaceutical companies and investors involved with the process of profiting off of the pain and sicknesses of American citizens. Ambulance drives shouldn’t cost one grand. A regular checkup shouldn’t cost hundreds of dollars. Testing for an illness plaguing the entire world should not cost a penny. Medicine shouldn’t cost twice as much here as in the next country. This is bonkers, I thought this was the best nation in the world, so why the third world methods to providing health to people who aren’t in the upper class? We see universal health care work well around the world, we even share a border with a country featuring the service. 80 miles off the coast of Florida has a communist island with superior health care. Come on, debating against this is no longer feasible.
It really isn’t that hard, better emphasis and better budget towards health care, as well as a process that grants affordable health care to everyone would not have prevented the spread of the coronavirus, but could have contained it a hell of a lot faster than what is happening now. To compliment this, we need a better education system to provide us with more doctors and nurses to help people from sea to shining sea. Lastly, the workforce culture has to change, as we need to do a better job with medical and paternity leave for all Americans in the workforce.
And once again, Bernie Sanders is literally the only man standing for the idea of universal health care, as Trump is trying to kill Obamacare and Joe Biden is trying to merely enhance it. Enough with the excuses, enough with the useless defending, enough with the false tears towards the millionaires and billionaires who are going to pay more to get this movement towards better health care going, it is time to wake up and see this as the best solution for one of the biggest problems plaguing the United States. It is time for universal health care, it is time for free tuition to raise the next wave of aspiring doctors, it is time to transform health care from an industry into a basic American right that everyone deserves.
We don’t have to worry about costs when it comes to our health when we decide to strip the profitability. The coronavirus crisis is proof that what we have is broken, but the solution is definitely within reach. But it starts with a movement, it starts with us standing up and exclaiming that everyone deserves the ability to seek consistent good health without sacrificing finances.
Enough is enough.