Friday Q/A: The Pandemic & Medicare for All
This pandemic has taken nearly a million American lives. Millions more lost their health insurance. Healthcare workers have been pushed to the brink—some driven to suicide—by the ceaseless workload.
Put simply, our healthcare system failed the COVID test. And yet the moment has not fomented a broad call for massive reform.
How has COVID shaped your perspective on U.S. healthcare? What will it take to translate the failures of the pandemic era into a mass movement for real healthcare reform in the form of a universal national health insurance program a la Medicare for All?
When it comes to health, housing, and infrastructure, politicians have been corrupted by wealthy donors. Politicians look away while American burns in worship of wealth. I live in a rural community with a substandard hospital, a rampant drug epidemic caused by hopelessness (no jobs, no future for our youth), neighbors who believe Covid-19 is "fake news" (despite the high death toll here), and senior citizens who live in poverty. EVERY WEEK I hear elders talk about having to choose between food and medicine, and wishing they had safe housing. The hole is so deep, and we just keep digging.
A colleague and I are working on research not just healthcare but economy too
need to address both given political condition of the US