All Roads Lead to Healthcare

 Like most toddlers and children, I had ear infections growing up and goddamn did they hurt (or maybe I just have a low threshold for pain tolerance). During one of these infections my dad took me to the hospital in the middle of the night and got an x-ray to confirm that it really was just an ear infection. This was in my hometown, Calgary, a Canadian city with the Rocky Mountains serving as the view from just about every window. The entire hospital visit, including the x-ray, was covered by the Alberta Provincial Healthcare system, which was, and still is, subsidized by the Federal Canadian government.

And then there's my experience with the drip-by-drip dispensation of health care services in the US. After suffering a concussion in the fall of 2023, my GP advised me to get an MRI, sound medical advice. But the medical office that does the MRI needs prior authorization from Aetna that, yes, they'll pay the cost of an MRI, and for a neuro specialist to look over the image and let me know if anything of concern from my brain being slammed into my skull really hard is visible. There was some confusion as to who would get in touch with Aetna regarding the money, so prior authorisation was not sought, not granted, and I never got an MRI.  I'm just choosing to believe that I'm fine. 

 Certainly single payer/universal healthcare systems are not without issues, but I think sometimes it’s lost on people both outside and inside the United States just how bad it is. Decoupling medical debt, which is a thing that only happens on a wide scale basis in America,  from an individual’s credit score came into effect in January 2025. Literally less than 30 days ago. Oh, and also, the Biden administration considered it a 

BIG WIN

And I guess I’ll let them have that, because truth be told it kind of is. 

The college I work for is considering a tenure-track freeze. The rate of retirement has considerably slowed. Tenured faculty are staying on much longer past the age of 65. Good for them, I suppose, but not all of them are making that choice because they love teaching so much. It’s the only way they'll keep their current health insurance. 

My department also needs an instructor to teach 2 credits next year. 2 credits isn't considered full-time, so it wouldn't come with benefits (such a weird way to think about health care in the first place). We’ve made an offer, but the candidate is hesitant about accepting, because: no health insurance for a year.

     I am burdened/blessed with an overactive imagination; sometimes, to disassociate during a department meeting, I like to imagine what it would be like if health care wasn't a for-profit industry, and private health insurance didn't have us in a death grip. It could be wildly liberating:

     Maybe my neurosparkly ass could work part time, letting me keep some mental energy for the things that bring me joy instead of burning me out after 8 hours, five days a week, necessitating that I take literally 12 hours to sleep on the weekend. Maybe my friend would have successfully staffed his restaurant with mature adults with a good work ethic because he didn't need to offer health insurance to make working in the kitchen/waiting tables a competitive job option with a full-time office job that is ultimately 3 hours of meaningful work and 4.5 hours of busy work in an attempt to justify the existence of that position. Maybe decoupling health insurance from full time employment would allow for a flexible schedule and parents could be present for, and participate in activities with their children. Maybe there would be more artists, writers, and artisans because they could create without the anxiety of what happens when they become injured or sick. Maybe there would be an overall alleviation of depression, anxiety, resentment, and ennui. Maybe we could find time for each other again.

     Did I just conjure Project 2025's worst fears: People enjoying life and not cranking out maximum profit for their Capitalist Overlords? What will incentivize the peasants to labour and be industrious???? 

Recent public opinion of private health care insurance has been like the Titanic one hour after bumping into that iceberg.

 

In January 2025 The Hill reported on a recently released Gallup Poll claiming that only 30% of people polled view private health insurance favourably (I swear, I didn’t cherry pick this article, it genuinely was the most recent article on the matter). 

The podcast, Factually! with Adam Conover has a great episode detailing just how health insurance companies view customers as assets or risks to their investors stock portfolio, and not as, ahem, actual people who will live or die at their whim:

Health care in the US is a business, and we are simultaneously the customer and the product.

        “Radical” progressive socialist AOC noted in 2020: every Democratic candidate who publicly supported Medicare For All was reelected as opposed to some of their more moderate colleagues. This was in response to remarks like the one from Emmanuel Rahm that this kind of radicalism made the 2020 presidential election for Biden a close one. But this point actually goes back way further than 2020:

• Healthcare reform was a cornerstone of Bill Clinton’s very successful 1992 presidential campaign. When he was inaugurated, 70% of Americans approved of universal healthcare. He was elected to 2 terms as President.

• Obama won his 2008 election with the healthcare act with the moniker Obamacare. The most recent poll shows 6 out of 10 American adults not only like the ACA, but feel it’s the government’s job to provide access to healthcare and insurance. He won reelection in 2012.

• In Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, she moved left on the issue of healthcare throughout the campaign season. She proposed a series of tax-credits, fixing the “family-glitch,” reducing the maximum premium contribution, permitting residents to purchase insurance through the ACA marketplace regardless of immigration status, and restoring the public option to the ACA. While Hilary ultimately did not win the votes necessary to win the presidency, she did win the overall popular vote. By a lot.

• Since 2007 Bernie Sanders has been re-elected to the senate from the state of Vermont, running as an independent/socialist each time, and stating the obvious: Healthcare is a human right, and advocates for a Medicare For All system. He has the highest home-state approval ratings of any US senator.

• Joe Biden ran for president in the 2020 election with a campaign that promised to expand the ACA, including capping insulin prescriptions at $35, and the ever-unattainable public option to the ACA, as well as permitting Medicare to negotiate prescription drug costs.

There’s one big election result, about 4 years after Joe Biden, that proves AOC’s point:

    Kamala Harris, as presidential candidate in the 2024 election, started out strong, backing Medicare-For-All.

And then later told the BBC she wouldn’t push for single-payer healthcare if elected. 

She punted by saying there would be an effort to erase billions of dollars in medical debt and would “work with states on the issue.” She. Lost. She lost the electoral college, and she lost the popular vote. 

I’m genuinely not sure how to make it more clear, more obvious for Democrats running for office. One would have thought the public reaction, at large, to the arrest of Luigi Mangione for the execution of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson seemed to speak VOLUMES. Media pundits reminded us that Brian Thompson had a family mourning his death; we pointed out that the insurance company he ran was responsible for the deaths of thousands through denied care, but no one was arrested in connection with that. 

But since that apparently didn’t get through, let me put it this way:

You LOST being moderate. Why not try being Leftist for a fucking change?