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THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS DIE EACH YEAR FROM A LACK OF HEALTH INSURANCE
America's healthcare system was in a state of disaster even before Covid. Covid exacerbated a system that wasn't working, resulting in the United States having the highest Covid death numbers in the world. Many recent studies show that this death toll could have been reduced by a universal healthcare system. Studies have also shown that future deaths could still be reduced by putting some kind of universal healthcare system in place.
A recent study by Yale epidemiologists showed that Medicare for All would save around 68,000 lives a year while reducing U.S. healthcare spending by around 13%, or $450 billion a year. In 2022, Yale researchers also found that more than 335,000 American deaths during the pandemic would have been prevented if there was universal health insurance. In addition, the U.S. would have saved $105 billion in COVID-19 hospitalization expenses alone.
A Lancet study in 2021 also showed that 40% of Covid deaths were preventable. The medical journal The Lancet came to this conclusion by comparing the pandemic in the United States with other high-income G7 nations, like Britain, France and Canada. One of the report's recommendations is a single-payer reform, like Medicare for All, that would, quote, "cover all residents under a single, federally financed plan providing comprehensive coverage," unquote. Read more about the study here at Democracy Now.
A March 2021 report by the progressive group Public Citizen also found that hundreds of thousands of U.S. COVID deaths could have been avoided under a single-payer system, noting that under such a system, hospitals would be better funded and providers would be better able to coordinate care for patients.
Americans are dying because they don't have health insurance or can't afford the out-of-pocket costs.
The recent hurricane disaster in the Carolinas shows even more failures in essential services where we now have the highest death toll since Katrina.
Immediate action is needed. An action agenda of what is needed is outlined at the end of this report.
THE HIGH AMERICAN MORTALITY RATE COMPARED TO OTHER MODERN STATES
There's also the fact that the U.S. now has the lowest life expectancy of any modern state, maternal death rates have reached a record high, and according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, mortality rates among U.S. children and adolescents are rising. The bottom line is that the United States is going in the wrong direction. We can't fix these dire issues without universal healthcare, paid sick leave, and other major changes.
POVERTY KILLS IN THE U.S.
Poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. In a recently published research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network by University of California - Riverside, in 2019 there were roughly 183,000 deaths associated with poverty in the U.S. among people 15 years and older. (Managed Healthcare, 4-23-23).
THE U.S. HAS HIGHER SPENDING ON HEALTHCARE COMPARED TO THE REST OF THE
DEVELOPED WORLD
The United States has extremely high spending on healthcare (especially when compared to other developed countries), yet millions in the U.S. remain uninsured and are drowning in medical debt. Dr. Bezruchka explains much of this in his book, Inequality Kills Us All: COVID-19's Health Lessons for the World (Amazon). Stephen Bezruchka's Website
Dr. Bezruchka's book explores just how deadly inequality can be to humanity and explores how even the smallest of policy changes, like parental leave, can make a huge impact on the long-term health of an individual's life. "Only two countries in the world with a population of a million or more don't provide [paid] time off to parents after you have your baby. So that is really important. Why do we not have a paid parental leave act in this country? ...And this is for the richest, most powerful country in world history," Dr. Bezruchka said.
The U.S. Has High Spending on Healthcare with Poor Outcomes (Scheer Post, 11-25-22)
MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WITH HEALTH INSURANCE ARE UNDERINSURED
Millions of Americans suffer under policies that are a bad joke in terms of "coverage."
One of the major problems is that of soaring deductible costs. Average enrollee spending on deductibles more than tripled between 2007 and 2017 (Tarbell, 6-1-21). Is spending $7,000 before one can get their healthcare covered realistic? No it is not.
The Commonwealth Fund also found that 40% of people in Affordable Care Act plans are under-insured because of high out-of-pocket charges - and many likely never meet their deductibles. As a result, millions of Americans are not going to the doctor or picking up prescriptions. So millions of people with ACA plans, or "Obamacare," as it has been colloquially called, can't even use the policies they have.
NO PAID SICK LEAVE IN THE U.S.
Currently, there are no federal legal requirements for paid sick leave in the U.S. Some states and local jurisdictions require it, but it needs to be a national requirement.
The United States is one of the few countries in the world that does not require paid sick leave for its workers. Of United Nation member countries, 181 provide paid sick leave in some form while 11 do not, including the U.S. So this places the U.S. along with nations like Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru, and Somalia.
IN 2023, U.S. SEES LARGEST LOSS OF SOCIAL BENEFITS
Many key relief programs were put in place when the government declared a federal Public Health Emergency at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. These programs provided a lifeline for the poor, and many other struggling Americans. But now that the federal Public Health Emergency has been declared over in 2023, these relief programs have been rolled back and ended. There also is no more new funding for Covid. At the end of 2022, Biden and Congress failed to include Covid funding in the 2023 budget. Zero dollars were appropriated for Covid in the fiscal year 2024 budget, which was released March 9th.
The federal Public Health Emergency was ended in the Spring of 2023. What this means is up to 18 million Americans (including millions of children) were tossed off Medicaid.
As of March 1st, 2023, the food stamp benefits added during Covid were taken away from 32 states. Recipient households had their monthly grocery allocations reduced by at least $95. (NBC News)
WE NEED ACTION NOW
It is morally unacceptable to say that today's health emergency is over. We need to treat an emergency like an emergency. Should a million more people have to die before the government takes serious action? The truth is that a million people have died, and the government is doing less now than it did last year. And even before the pandemic, thousands were already dying from a lack of access to healthcare.
ACT NOW TO SAVE LIVES!
We must keep poor people alive. The following steps need to be done right now.
HERE IS AN ACTION AGENDA:
- Emergency healthcare should be given to all who need it. This should include the immediate reduction or elimination of sky-high deductibles.
- The Public Health Insurance Option should be made available to everyone
- The so called "open enrollment" system for health insurance and Medicare drug insurance should be abolished. It's absolute madness to ban people from buying health insurance for most of the year. The healthcare exchanges must stay open throughout the year. The current deadline for open enrollment is January 15th. That needs to change.
- Medicare needs to be properly funded. Cuts in payments to doctors and hospitals must end.
- We must immediately enact paid sick leave for all workers.
- The budget cuts in the Social Security operating budget must be restored.
In every other modern state healthcare is a right. It should be a right here.
RELATED EARTH FUTURE ACTION REPORTS
Social Disaster USA - Millions of Americans Face Starvation and Poverty (Earth Future Action)
Dead or Alive in Modern America - The Right to Exist (Earth Future Action)
Life and Death in America (Audio) (Earth Future Action)
The Need for Paid Sick Leave (Earth Future Action)
American Citizens Aren't Getting Their Benefits
The Urgent Need for Protective Masks During Covid Crisis (Earth Future Action)
NEWS ARTICLES
FACT CHECK: Medicare for All Would Save the U.S. Trillions (Public Citizen, 2-21-20) Study
Biden's Ending of the Covid Emergency Is a Public Health Disaster (The Nation, 2-2-23)