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Thursday, March 12th, 2020

Coronavirus Will Spread Faster Because We Lack Universal Health Care

Author:     Joel Segal & Harvey Wasserman,
Source:     truthout
Publication Date:     March 11, 2020
 Link: Coronavirus Will Spread Faster Because We Lack Universal Health Care
Stephan:   For me, the big takeaway of the coronavirus pandemic so far is the irrefutable comparison it presents us with comparing the healthcare systems of other developed nations with the failure of the illness profit system in America to really cope with pandemics. And from everything I hear and read it is going to get worse, much worse. So these stressors are going to make this inadequacy all the more obvious. So perhaps the silver lining is that in the upcoming election voters will finally get the point of birthright universal single payer healthcare.

Medical personnel stand next to tents on the dock next to the Princess Cruises’ Grand Princess in the Port of Oakland on March 9, 2020, in Oakland, California.
Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty

A critical factor accelerating the spread of coronavirus in the United States is our lack of universal health care.

As we debate the costs of providing medical treatment for all, and as the virus tears through the fabric of our society, it’s become clear that many of the factors accelerating the spread of illness and death associated with this new plague are associated with the for-profit nature of our health care system.

Because we have a patchwork medical system whose primary motivating engine is corporate profit, rather than a unified public medical system whose motivating engine is the health of the public, communicable diseases are treated in a mindset of individual outcome. Our system focuses on the immediate needs of insured patients rather than treating the overall disease as a public emergency, thus hampering the containment and treatment of epidemics like these.

Because they have […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 6:15 am

    It is a shame everyone cannot understand these things so they could be better making decisions about voting.