If you have a health coverage that has not gone up, then you are from
another planet.
Part of the Plan is to toss out so many different health plans that
you can't begin to compare them. Part of the game is to stall you by
not returning calls or providing the proper information, and part of
the plan is to simply lie. We common Americans have a hard time
believing that doctors and health care providers lie. Trust me.
Remember back when TV was crawling with tobacco commercials, "Not a
cough in a carload", "So round so firm so fully packed. So free and
easy on the draw", "Lucky Strike means fine tobacco", and on and on
and on.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/9/20, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Capitalist for-profit health industry no better prepared for ‘2nd wave’
of virus
https://themilitant.com/2020/11/07/capitalist-for-profit-health-industry-no-better-prepared-for-2nd-wave-of-virus/
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Vol. 84/No. 45
November 16, 2020
Nurses protest for contract, safety, better care Sept. 18 at NY Albany
Medical Center.
MILITANT/VED DOOKHUN
Nurses protest for contract, safety, better care Sept. 18 at NY Albany
Medical Center.
A new surge of COVID-19, with increased hospitalizations and deaths, is
once again hitting many cities, towns and rural areas in the U.S. and
elsewhere worldwide. The U.S. capitalist rulers and their for-profit
health care industry are no more prepared for this wave than they were
last spring.
Hospitals are filling up, and officials in states run by Democrats and
Republicans alike say they’re not ready. They blame working people for
not being careful, and their only response is to shut things down,
leaving us isolated and out of work.
Rather than pooling resources to prioritize coming up with an effective
vaccine, the pharmaceutical companies, are hell-bent to outdo their
rivals in the race to come out on top to secure government contracts and
the huge profits that follow in the marketing of their product.
Some gains have been made in treatments, but they come with a high price
tag. Immediately after being diagnosed with COVID-19, President Donald
Trump was given the best care developed to date, a three-drug cocktail
of a Regeneron antibody treatment , antiviral remdesivir, and steroid
dexamethasone. But these drugs must be mass produced and made available
to all who fall ill.
Hefty price for COVID-19 drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Oct. 22 approved Gilead Sciences’
remdesivir drug to treat the coronavirus. It comes at a hefty price —
$3,120 for patients with private insurance. The company’s stock jumped
over 4%. The drug is still in short supply.
“Since the pandemic began, the Socialist Workers Party has pointed to
the need to fight for universal, government-guaranteed cradle-to-grave
health care,” said Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for
president. “And our party together with other workers will continue to
demand the most up-to-date care for all who fall ill.”
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 rose to over 46,000 nationwide by the end
of October, about a 50% increase since the start of the month.
Among those hardest hit are working people living in rural areas where
many hospitals were closed before the pandemic, when their owners
decided they weren’t profitable enough. More than 120 shut down over the
past 10 years.
U.S. authorities are fully aware that the 2020-21 flu season is
beginning at the same time coronavirus is spiking. Last year was one of
the worst flu seasons in decades — with up to 56 million cases and
62,000 deaths.
Lockdowns imposed by state and local governments last spring had a
devastating long-term impact on the working class, as well as on
farmers. Over 23 million workers are collecting state or federal
unemployment benefits. But this doesn’t include millions more who aren’t
eligible because they’re immigrant workers without papers or they work
part time.
Many have exhausted their 26 to 39 weeks of benefits. Moratoriums on
evictions are running out. Prices — especially of necessities like food
— are rising.
Many big retailers have gone belly up, throwing thousands of workers on
the street. Government-enforced lockdowns have resulted in the permanent
closure of 100,000 small businesses.
Decisions by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York and politicians elsewhere to
warehouse COVID patients in nursing homes led to a rapid spread of the
disease and deaths — some 40% of the total death count in the U.S.! — as
if being “most vulnerable” meant being “most disposable.”
During the height of the pandemic, other vital medical treatments were
suspended by many doctors and hospitals, including screenings for
cancer, and providing children with basic vaccines.
“The for-profit health industry is a bonanza for the ruling capitalist
families and a death trap for working people,” SWP presidential
candidate Kennedy said. “Workers need to build a working-class movement
of millions to fight to defend ourselves. Nowhere is this clearer than
when it comes to health care.”
Front Page Articles
Join fight to defend political rights in Washington state
Whoever’s in the White House, workers need to fight for jobs
‘Charge cops in killing of Walter Wallace Jr. in Philadelphia!’
SWP campaign to win readers expands reach of the ‘Militant’
Capitalist for-profit health industry no better prepared for ‘2nd wave’
of virus
Feature Articles
Defending the Cuban Revolution, strengthening US working people
Also In This Issue
Canada’s rulers responsible for Native, commercial fisher conflict
Thousands in Belarus keep fighting to topple regime
After new Islamist attacks, Paris responds with repression
‘First Amendment freedoms threatened by disclosures’
Oberlin College aims to crush small store owner
Socialist Workers Party Fund Drive Sept. 26-Nov. 24 (Week 5)
Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and books Sept. 26 - Nov.
24 (week five)
Editorials
A needed correction, worthy of study
On the Picket Line
Dominion strike continues, as workers win solidarity
Laid off NY Remington workers fight for severance, vacation pay
Quebec cement truck drivers fight for equal wages
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Corrections
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York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxxx
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--
___
Sam Harris
“Are you really surprised by the endurance of religion? What ideology is
likely to be more durable than one that conforms, at every turn, to our
powers of wishful thinking? Hope is easy; knowledge is hard. Science is the
one domain in which we human beings make a truly heroic effort to counter
our innate biases and wishful thinking. Science is the one endeavor in which
we have developed a refined methodology for separating what a person hopes
is true from what he has good reason to believe. The methodology isn't
perfect, and the history of science is riddled with abject failures of
scientific objectivity. But that is just the point-these have been failures
of science, discovered and corrected by-what, religion? No, by good
science.”
― Sam Harris
