(Game on, I suppose. – promoted by Bob Brigham)
I hate to be melodramatic, but that’s pretty much what it comes down to.
At least according to today’s report finding that America is last among industrialized democracies in terms of infant mortality. Because our healthcare system is set up to guarantee billions of dollars of profit to unnecessary insurance corporations, kids born here are more likely to die than they are in countries with guaranteed healthcare through the single-payer model.
…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize for GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.
One place this hits hard is Memphis, along with other cities with predominantly African-American populations. African-American kids are two and a half times more likely than white kids to die in infancy. Racism starts early, I guess.
This is the context in which Rudy Giuliani stated his big lie about cancer patients being better of in America than Europe. He’s been proven wrong but refuses to apologize. Kids are being killed on a daily basis by this system and he refuses to admit it because it doesn’t square with his bid for President. Ezra Klein takes a look.
One of the real flashpoints for the battle over healthcare is in Kentucky and West Virginia, where nurses across the country are traveling to support their striking colleagues in the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System. ARH is trying to bump up their profits by slashing the number of nurses caring for patients. Profits over patients indeed.
In California, we’re working hard to stop a fake reform plan that includes an individual mandate, e.g. a requirement that every person purchase expensive, wasteful insurance products. Fortunately, public opinion is turning against this nasty little brew cooked up by Arnold Schwarzenegger. If we can break it here, we can break it anywhere!