wealth is health
by Matthew Kimball
Published: April 18, 2008
I tend to carp about healthcare. The reason for my invariable position on the matter is because the system provided in the United States does not adequately meet the needs of the population. We are the most affluent country in the world, yet we can’t provide the emotional stability to people that their illness will be taken care of regardless of their socioeconomic status. We have the money and resources to provide ubiquitous coverage, yet politicians feel the need to stroke the hair of this paradigm of capitalism, known as the healthcare industry.
The very term “industry,” implies a motive of capital, shoving the welfare of society off to the side. People that oppose social coverage have an ideology similar to Darwinism, where the market will decide who receives the care that is needed. The overwhelming principle of this mentality is that Americans need the freedom to choose the care they want, instead of some lackluster government plan that insures everybody the access to treatment as a right of citizenship. Currently, nearly 47 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population, go without health insurance, a number that has increased by 6.8 million since 2000.
According to a March 2, 2007 New York Times article by Robin Toner and Janet Elder, “Americans showed a striking willingness in the poll to make tradeoffs to guarantee health insurance for all, including paying as much as $500 more in taxes a year and forgoing future tax cuts.” It would appear that the opinion of the U.S. population doesn’t mean a whole lot, unless it coincides with the will of Corporate American.
The consequences of a privatized healthcare industry can be colossal. In another New York Times article on April 11th, Paul Krugman articulates a story of a young Ohio woman named Trina Bachtel who was having health issues during her pregnancy and sought help at a local clinic. Unfortunately, she had previously sought care at the same clinic while uninsured and had developed a large unpaid balance. The clinic refused to see her unless she paid a balance of $100 for every future visit – money she didn’t have. Ultimately, she sought care at a hospital 30 miles away, but it was too late. Both her and her unborn child had died. These are the kind of stories that candidates like John McCain need to address. However, corporate lobbyists search for those without souls.
Another disconcerting aspect of our nation’s health is infant mortality rate. For being the most affluent country in the world, our rate falls well behind other less-affluent countries. According to geographyiq.com, the United States infant mortality rate is higher than that of countries like Malta, Slovenia and Portugal and just below South Korea. While the concentrated wealth of the healthcare industry certainly limits the access of prenatal care, this alarming rate of infant immortality maybe be linked to covert racism. In the PBS documentary Is Inequality Making Us Sick, Dr. Michael Lu, a medical doctor at UCLA, suggests that infant mortality may be intrinsically linked to the stress that is experienced by minorities due to racial inequality. He states that the everyday issues with racial inequality cause a surfeit amount of stress, which actually has biological consequences in the long run.
The biological consequences of overwhelming stress can negatively affect the birth process, where babies may be born with a profusion of health issues. The people most affected by infant mortality will be African Americas, Latinos and many other minorities. In a sad twist of fate, these are the same individuals that grow up in the most deprived neighborhoods, which lack the adequate services to serve its community members. This is the segment of the population that can benefit the most from a government healthcare plan. Children born under conditions of poverty will inevitably have supplementary amounts of health issues, only adding to the cost of healthcare for the individual. Universal healthcare may bring some people out of poverty. Finding employment, finding housing, finding high-quality education and finding healthy activities for your children are already stressful enough.
Universal healthcare is a sign of progression in society. Social programs are an indication that the welfare of society is at the forefront of governmental policies and that things like global hegemony and imperialism are things of the past. Additionally, social welfare sets a standard for the rest of the world that encourages cooperation and harmony, something that the world is in great need of.
—
(email this article or post to social network)
—
(15)