Calling for healthcare for all Americans

People in the U.S. have a choice in the election in November. We can continue the injustice with a $93 billion profit-driven, private-insurance healthcare system that leaves many millions to languish without care and many millions more to face the frustrations of systemic delays in care delivery, service diminishment and denials of promised benefits. We need to build a healthcare system that provides necessary care to everyone.

The belief in healthcare for all is deeply embedded in American conscience and culture. Across America, local communities regularly hold fund-raising events for children and adults without health insurance who are faced with expensive medical needs. This belief in health care as a human right requires us to remove the private health insurance companies from the system and institute single-payer, national healthcare for all Americans.

In times of crisis, the American people have joined social movements to demand justice and government action. The progressive movement in the early 20th century resulted in stronger regulations on medicines, medical education and healthcare delivery systems. During the Depression, the labor movement won the Social Security Act with the expansion of disability and health care benefits for employees. The Civil Rights movement and the war on poverty led to Medicare and Medicaid. It is time for the American people to collectively stand on the belief that healthcare is a basic human right, the healthcare system can be changed to provide necessary benefits for all.

Michael C. Deanhardt, Anderson