Healthcare Must Be A Human Right, Not Motivated By Profit
Since 1991, the Green Party has called out in one voice for all people, that healthcare must be recognized as a human right.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many problems with the American system — most notably, it’s over-reliance on the market (or, more generally: capitalism) to handle allocation of resources and distribution. Many of the necessities of life are utterly mismanaged in a for-profit system, and perhaps none more obvious and egregious today than the healthcare industry.
In principle, health insurance is meant to cover health problems as they come up, and sudden emergency hospitalization due to COVID-19 is pretty much exactly what having insurance is all about. An ICU stay is extremely expensive, given the amount of equipment, medication, and professional care that is required. However, at exactly this moment when folks need insurance the most is when many are finding out they actually do not have insurance. Many are being laid off and furloughed, losing the so-called “good coverage” they thought they had all of a sudden through no fault of their own, only because our atrocious health system in the US attaches employers to our healthcare plans. Others that are still technically covered are finding out that the deductibles and co-pays are unaffordable when the bills are that large.
In short — during an emergency, global pandemic, many Americans are finding themselves in medical debt and without the care they need.
The Green Party has been unambiguous on this issue since the beginning: healthcare is a human right. In 1991, The Greens/Green Party USA, a precursor activist organization to the modern Green Party, called for “A single-payer National Health Program to provide free medical and dental care for all, federally financed and controlled by democratically elected local boards” as part of its Economic Bill of Rights.
Ralph Nader insisted on single payer healthcare being a part of his platform to run as the Green Party presidential candidate in 2000, and subsequently single payer healthcare became part of the national Green Party of the United States platform when it was officially recognized by the Federal Election Commission in 2001. Ever since, Green candidates for all levels of government every year have advocated single payer healthcare to move beyond today’s for-profit insurance system, and protect a human right to healthcare.
Today, Greens are again speaking out against not only for-profit insurance, but the entire for-profit healthcare system. For-profit hospitals and pharmaceuticals, combined with health insurance, results in some of the least accessible and yet most expensive care in the world. Statistics show that we don’t even get the highest quality care for all that expense — US mortality rates for example are much higher than many other industrialized countries, all of which have a single payer healthcare system.
Howie Hawkins, the leading candidate for the 2020 presidential nomination of the Green Party and top winner of the Pennsylvania Green primary this past April, has developed a plan for a National Health Service based on single payer. The Hawkins healthcare plan is one of the most comprehensive ever put forward, showing Greens again leading the conversation. Meanwhile, Democrats are lost trying to bailout for-profit insurance by paying COBRA while still arguing against single payer, and Republicans seem to be missing any sort of plan at all and are just continuing to scaremonger on the Affordable Care Act.
It’s clear that in 2020 the Green Party is the only party of the people that is demanding human rights instead of bailing out billionaires. We invite everyone demanding change to join our grassroots movement to create that change ourselves.
Note to Readers: The Green Party of Allegheny County needs your support to continue our pursuit of people and planet over profits. Please consider making a donation. We also encourage you to get involved in Green politics.
