QWhat is CPUSA's view on healthcare? Do you believe government should provide healthcare for all?
AHi, and thanks for writing in.
We consider health care, including full reproductive and mental health services, a basic human right. We support anything that expands access to health care and oppose anything that restricts it. We support the Affordable Care Act as a first, but insufficient, step toward full national health care, and we support the growing movement for single-payer/Medicare for All. We also look to Cuba's groundbreaking public health system, where all people receive full medical care without any billing or involvement from insurance companies.
Since I've got a little space left, though, I want to talk about the idea that the government is the entity providing health care to people under socialism. Health care is provided by doctors, nurses, and other people whose job is to care for people--under socialism just as under capitalism. The government, in both cases, simply sets the conditions in which that work is done.
Under a capitalist health care system, the government regulates health care to protect the interests of corporations that make a profit by providing insurance, pharmaceuticals, and medical technologies. This means that patients face sky-high health care costs and that providers have to spend their time jumping through hoops to secure resources and services for their patients. Under a more logical system, the government would protect patients and providers by making those resources available in the public sector.
With profit out of the way, we could get to what medicine is supposed to be about: caring for people.
Solidarity,
Cori & Scott
We consider health care, including full reproductive and mental health services, a basic human right. We support anything that expands access to health care and oppose anything that restricts it. We support the Affordable Care Act as a first, but insufficient, step toward full national health care, and we support the growing movement for single-payer/Medicare for All. We also look to Cuba's groundbreaking public health system, where all people receive full medical care without any billing or involvement from insurance companies.
Since I've got a little space left, though, I want to talk about the idea that the government is the entity providing health care to people under socialism. Health care is provided by doctors, nurses, and other people whose job is to care for people--under socialism just as under capitalism. The government, in both cases, simply sets the conditions in which that work is done.
Under a capitalist health care system, the government regulates health care to protect the interests of corporations that make a profit by providing insurance, pharmaceuticals, and medical technologies. This means that patients face sky-high health care costs and that providers have to spend their time jumping through hoops to secure resources and services for their patients. Under a more logical system, the government would protect patients and providers by making those resources available in the public sector.
With profit out of the way, we could get to what medicine is supposed to be about: caring for people.
Solidarity,
Cori & Scott
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