---------- Forwarded message ---------
De: Leigh K. Haynes <lkamoreh@xxxxxxx>
Date: mié., 1 abr. 2020 a las 12:12
Subject: PHM-Exch> PHM-USA response to the coronavirus outbreak
To: <phm-exchange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*For a more equitable society: A just response to coronavirus
<https://phm-na.org/2020/03/for-a-more-equitable-society-a-just-response-to-coronavirus-phm-usa/>*
Every day in the United States, the coronavirus continues to spread. Even
for the strongest of health systems, this health crisis would present a
multitude of challenges. But in the US, where healthcare is primarily
delivered by profit hungry conglomerates and there is a lack of investment
in preventive and preparedness measures, this current outbreak has revealed
the absolute failure of private health care delivery in the United States
and the country’s inability to provide social protection to everyone,
especially to the most vulnerable among us.
*The People’s Health Movement – USA <https://phm-na.org/usa/> demands an
immediate, bold, and just response that prioritizes people’s lives and
protects the people’s health and livelihoods during this crisis, a response
that paves the way for a radical reshaping of not only how health is
delivered, but protects the right to health, healthcare, and social
protection*.
Even before this current crisis, millions of people in the US struggled to
meet basic needs. With legitimate fears of the coronavirus spread, states
have taken strong measures that nonetheless potentially have negative
impacts on people and families. Schools close, but childcare, including
with serious protective measures, is not available in most places or is
unaffordable. As businesses shut their doors, workers face uncertainty
about covering their expenses. Undocumented people face deportation if they
seek help.
Meanwhile, the need for health services increases daily, and our
profit-driven healthcare delivery system is not prepared to respond to such
increasing need. Private interests that dominate the US health system
continue to put profits over people. The cost of diagnosis and treatment
for COVID-19 remains exorbitant, and patients will face exorbitantly high
hospital bills or even bankruptcy on top of the toll of the disease itself.
As people across the US demand action from Congress to increase financial
allocations for health and social protection measures, lobbyists work
behind the scenes to secure huge subsidies for corporations. These
companies continue to profit from people’s suffering, while also wanting a
significant direct share of the money collected from taxpayers.
“Now is not the time to allow large corporations to take advantage of this
horrific crisis by ripping off U.S. taxpayers and profiteering off of the
pandemic.” -Bernie Sanders
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/22/sanders-calls-unprecedented-legislative-response-coronavirus-crisis-not-corporate>
A just response to the current crisis…
People’s health and well-being must be placed over the interests of the
rich and powerful. This moment of crisis has been exacerbated by an
inadequate and unprepared healthcare delivery system, weak social
protections, and poor and irrational leadership from the Trump
administration. We must immediately take action to protect people’s health
and livelihoods.
Our public health systems have been weakened by millions of dollars of
budget cuts, an opposition to regulation of both pollution and greed, and
the refusal to build or maintain common infrastructure. If we are going to
survive coronavirus with a minimum of deaths, we need to replace our
health-for-profit system with one that recognizes that health is a human
right. -Hesperian <https://hesperian.org/2020/03/05/coronavirus/>
This pandemic calls for swift action to mitigate the sickness and death it
will bring. The People’s Health Movement – USA calls for:
- *Protections* for frontline health and service workers, including
sufficient protective and medical supplies
- *Free access to testing*, treatment and auxiliary care for those
affected by the virus
- *Guaranteed income* while businesses and other services close to
protect public health
- *Cancellation* of student loan debt
- *A moratorium* on rent and mortgages payments and utility shutoffs
- *Health* *services* and protections for people experiencing
homelessness
- *Health protections or release* for incarcerated people, especially
the release of those being detained by ICE
Envisioning the possible…
This crisis has ripped the veil from the constructs of our society that
prioritize big business and monied interests over the health and lives of
people, especially those who actually make up the bedrock of our
society–workers, families, local communities. Constructs that insist on
capitalism, consumerism and perpetual growth rather than people’s physical
and mental health as well as the environment. We must recognize the
underlying, root causes that put so many of us at risk everyday and
perpetuate the ever-growing inequality in our country. As our government
responds to this immediate threat the people must organize to demand
systemic and structural changes to create a just society in which everyone
can realize the right to health.
But this is not the whole story. In the United States, we have also seen
organizing at the city and state levels win important victories to suspend
evictions during the pandemic. Ireland has announced six weeks of emergency
unemployment payments for all workers who suddenly find themselves out of
work, including self-employed workers. And despite U.S. presidential
candidate Joe Biden’s claims during the recent debate that the pandemic has
nothing to do with Medicare for All, many Americans are suddenly realizing
that the absence of a functioning safety net exacerbates vulnerabilities to
the virus on many fronts. –Naomi Klein
<https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/coronavirus-capitalism/>
*Meaningful response to the current climate emergency*
Climate change and environmental degradation is one of the biggest threats
facing our world. The response to climate change also demands a
fundamental change in the global economy’s thirst for increased consumerism
and infinite growth. It demands putting an end to fossil fuel use and
extraction, including fracking. The worst health and economic effects of
the practices of the fossil fuel industry and climate change have been
borne by indigenous communities as well as low-income communities that are
usually majority people of color. Sovereignty of traditional lands should
be returned to indigineous peoples, and communities that have been ravaged
by environmental injustices should be made whole through investments that
revitalize them, prioritizing racial, economic, and health justice.
*A strong public health system that guarantees access to health care *
A health system driven by profit cannot achieve its intended goals. What we
need is not only free, accessible *health insurance* for everyone but also
a strong public health system that can meet the needs of people where they
are when their need arises. All clinics and hospitals should provide the
necessary level of care to all people at no charge, and medicines should be
provided at no cost. People who live in urban and rural areas should have
equal access to health services, from primary to critical care. Local,
state, and federal public health authorities should continually have the
human and financial resources they need to coordinate to protect population
health, not only in times of crisis.
*Social protection for all*
This pandemic has illuminated the equity gap that exists in the US. In a
country as wealthy as the US, poverty should not exist. People should not
go hungry, remain without a place to live, struggle to make ends meet or
suffer psychological stress related to any of those things. Indeed, it is
these very populations that are most at risk for COVID-19 and the least
likely to have access to prevention or care services. Workers should earn a
living wage based on their cost of living and receive paid time off by
right. Education should be free at all levels, and student debt should not
exist. Everyone should have access to free or affordable housing. Social
security and pensions should be well-funded so people can retire at a
comfortable age. People with disabilities should receive all of the
protections they need for home and work. And all social protections should
extend to everyone in the US, not only citizens.
A just society based on solidarity that strives for equity…
As we move forward, beyond this moment, we must challenge the current
structure of our society that has led to unprecedented wealth and income
inequality, political and class division, racism, and xenophobia. A society
based on arbitrary rules
<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/coronavirus-tsa-liquid-purell-paid-leave-rules.html?>
that impose hardship and punishment of the most vulnerable of us in order
to sustain the wealth of a very few is an unjust society. If we are to
achieve our vision of “health for all”, our path must be one of solidarity
rather than one of rugged individualism.
We must demand that our institutions and policies pursue equity and
prioritize the health and well-being of all people. We must urgently
implore lawmakers to pass and implement policies that invest in local
communities to support each other not only during hard times and times of
crisis, but at all times to promote social cohesion and mental and physical
well-being. And we must confront historical and structural injustices,
which have denied human rights and dignity to so many people, in order to
truly stand in solidarity with and fight for each other.
The path we are currently on is not sustainable, and the COVID-19 outbreak
has shone a bright light on not only the faults in our current system, but
also what a more just world can look like. The time is now to organize and
demand the society we envision.
Health is a social, economic and political issue and above all a
fundamental human right. Inequality, poverty, exploitation, violence and
injustice are at the root of ill‐health and the deaths of poor and
marginalised people. Health for all means that powerful interests have to
be challenged, that globalisation has to be opposed, and that political and
economic priorities have to be drastically changed. –People’s Charter for
Health
<https://phmovement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/phm-pch-english.pdf>
*Coronavirus Capitalism – and How to Beat It, from Naomi Klein
<https://youtu.be/niwNTI9Nqd8>*
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