Suffering for Profits
American Exceptionalism strikes again
I wrote recently that our news feeds are flooded with atrocities and atrocious humans that distract us from the most important issues facing the planet - like the Climate Crisis. What follows is another subject that has been pushed off the page. I am attempting to put it back on a front burner. Lives are being lost for profit.
The American Healthcare System is very sick. Michael Moore wrote about it years ago. He created a documentary that could have moved us towards progress. But it didn’t. Because the oligarchs who PROFIT from our illnesses convinced Americans that private healthcare was the “American Way” and that competition would lead us to being the best. That a national healthcare system for everyone was “socialism”. Pure Bullshit.
As an American, I find the chart above to be embarrassing and humiliating. And horrifyingly sad. Why isn’t this talked about with a determination to change it? Some Americans are obsessed with preventing abortions (women’s reproductive freedom). Where are those voices on this subject? Don’t moms and babies have a “right to life” after leaving the birthing room?
Please look at any column on the chart below. But perhaps, to feel the most shame, zoom in on the two right hand columns. Compare the United States with other “developed” nations and shed tears. Then slide back to “Total Healthcare Spending Per Capita…”. This is where you are allowed to be angry.
Our profit driven, millionaire creating, cruel and deliberately bureaucratic health (care?!) system is a perfect example of American Exceptionalism gone crazy. That is the theory that the United States is either distinctive, unique, or exemplary compared to other nations.
We spend twice as much on trying to stay healthy and we get half the care - and we don’t live as long - compared to other developed countries. We use our Emergency Rooms for primary care. It’s stupid and wasteful. It’s expensive.
Michael Moore and many others have asked us to look around the world for countries that have better health care systems with better results for less money. It wasn’t hard to find. They are everywhere. None of the countries have perfect programs. There are long waits for some procedures. There are problems with funding. But none of these issues are unsolvable. They all have one thing in common: everyone is included. Because in their nations every human has a right to healthcare. Not a privilege or a benefit or a perk. A right.
When Russia launched “Sputnik” we took it as challenge. When a hockey team challenges us for the Stanley Cup, we get physical and fix it. And we are Olympic fanatics. Go for the gold! Why won’t we compete in the game of life and death? Where is our national pride when it comes to our health results?
You don’t have to watch the documentary to get the message. Just look at the charts. It should make you feel sick. Women and babies are doing worse living (or dying) in the Good Ole US of A. Much worse.
Apparently, American Exceptionalism knows no bounds. We are willing to accept the needless suffering and deaths of our fellow citizens. Isn’t that more bullshit? Where is our national outrage?
Universal Healthcare is a human right. Say it. Or consider our less fortunate fellow citizens - mothers and babies - to be disposable. Or accept the fact that EVERY other developed nation cares more about health results for its residents than we do. I can’t do that. That’s not the America I was taught to love.
Finding the money to save the lives of mothers and babies is my kind of “choice”. That shouldn’t be too hard. The chart below is average wealth - as if it were distributed equally. Ha. But here is where the money resides to save lives in America the Exceptional.
We are the richest nation to have ever existed on this planet. But 400 morbidly rich people own as much wealth as about 200,000,000 of us in this “land of opportunity”. I think that qualifies as extreme hoarding.
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/infant-mortality-u-s-compare-countries/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2017/11/09/the-3-richest-americans-hold-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-of-country-study-finds/?sh=3200a72f3cf8
https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/
Dig deeper if you wish:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28363132/
We are only collateral damage to the greed monsters. Privatize it all, say the whores of Wallstreet. If the disease doesn't kill you first, the bill will. We don't value life in this country. We value money.
Ever since I had kids and learning about other developed countries' healthcare, childcare and employee treatment, I have been appalled by how backwards the US is, how much we have lost beginning with Nixon's changes to hospitals' profitability options.
So so depressing and getting worse, as incomes fall except for the very wealthy.