This article first appeared in Wellesley's Calderwood Seminar: Economic Journalism.
Despite being one of the richest countries in the world, the United States ranks 24th globally in achieving health goals set by the United Nations. The critical issue is that the people who need the most help often don’t get it due to financial reasons. The solution? Universal healthcare.
Written by Sarah Chu and Maya Weber
The relentless spread of the coronavirus has poked holes in the fragile U.S. healthcare system. Undercurrent healthcare policies, 27.5 million Americans are left uninsured due to high healthcare costs and a volatile labor market. It is these Americans that are bearing the brunt of the pandemic: in New York City, the highest counts of COVID-19 are concentrated in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx boroughs, which are predominantly Black and Hispanic lower-income communities. Now, those low-income workers -- many of whom are undocumented immigrants -- are now essential, providing necessary goods and services to the economy. This pandemic sheds light on the vast inequalities between Americans who have the luxury to “stay at home” compared to those that work in jobs that involve high contact with people, making them incapable of limiting their exposure to coronavirus.
It is critical to understand that “diseases do not respect the barriers that separate rich from poor, health inequality is a problem for everyone...If there’s one person who can’t get treatment, that person is posing a risk to everyone, ” Dr. Nicole Errett, a public health expert at the University of Washington emphasizes. In the face of this pandemic, it is more critical than ever to ensure that health is a right, not a privilege. Congress must consider universal healthcare as a solution to our failing system, and the coronavirus outbreak has opened the door for reform.
Universal healthcare (UHC) is a system that provides medical services to all citizens under a single-payer national system. Under the proposed plan, Congress would be responsible for paying healthcare claims along with allocating the necessary resources to maintain the utmost quality and care. A national healthcare system would allow Congress to address public health crises like COVID-19 swiftly, rather than our current fractured collection of private and public systems that leave millions of Americans and dozens of state governors scrambling for provisions.
Originally considered a far-left idea, forms of universal healthcare were proposed by President Truman after World War II, President Clinton in 1993, and President Obama in the form of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 (also known as ObamaCare). While healthcare coverage for all citizens was the aspirational goal of ObamaCare, these efforts were met with heavy opposition from conservatives and libertarians. Many people felt that they were being forced to pay out of pocket for a service that they did not need and were not benefitting from. The issue remains with current progressive leaders, like Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders, of how to fund an overhaul of such magnitude. Governments in countries that have existing universal healthcare programs, such as Scandinavian nations, Canada, and the United Kingdom, rely on taxpayer revenue in order to cover healthcare costs. The U.S. should borrow successful aspects of their systems to build a program that works for all Americans.
In the past, outbreaks have driven governments to make improvements in healthcare and infrastructure to provide for the well-being of its citizens. For instance, the United Kingdom’s National Health System (NHS) is a result of a devastating tuberculosis outbreak during the late 19th century that eliminated a large proportion of the workforce. It took the tuberculosis epidemic to build sufficient healthcare policy, such as the Department of Human Health and Human Services (HHS), and infrastructure, like unemployment insurance and sick leave. The influenza outbreak in 1918, which is the most severe pandemic in recent history, took the lives of 675,000 Americans. However, despite the shortage of nurses and an ill-equipped healthcare system, there were no policy changes to help mitigate future crises. During the H1N1 outbreak in the late 2000s, a study found that “spotty access to healthcare and the economics of part-time employment led three in 10 workers with H1N1 symptoms to continue going to work.” Even into the 21st century, our government has not taken public health threats seriously or used them as an opportunity to solve critical problems.
Americans should not have to rely on contributions from celebrities, billionaires, and private corporations to save us from this pandemic. Nor should it be our responsibility to sew cloth masks and donate gloves because healthcare providers are struggling to find unused ones. Congress needs to implement real, long-lasting change to our healthcare system to deliver better outcomes. This unusual standstill offers a unique window of opportunity for change; if we take anything away from this pandemic, let it be that everyone deserves access to healthcare.
About the co-author: Maya Weber is a recent graduate from Wellesley College, where she studied economics with a concentration in public health. She is passionate about advocating for equal access to healthcare and is currently working at a healthcare consulting firm.