Why Should You Care?
Unlike many industrial nations, the United States does not provide access to universal healthcare.
Instead, Americans are tasked with navigating a confusing healthcare system by themselves. Each year the average family spends nearly $6500 on employer-sponsored insurance plans, with their employers picking up the rest of the roughly $22,000 bill. In a single year, a family of 4 can spend upwards of $20,000 on insurance premiums and healthcare-related costs —like medications, deductibles, and copays.
The passage of former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, or ACA, made it cheaper and easier for millions of Americans to access quality healthcare coverage.
However, there is still an astronomical amount of Americans that can not afford regular healthcare premiums. Recent estimates report that as many as 31.6 million Americans will remain uninsured for the remained of 2022.
For the other 90% of Americans that do have yearly insurance coverage, the healthcare landscape is strained by extreme wait times, limited staffing, and poor patient outcomes.
These compounding issues become glaringly obvious when you look at our maternal healthcare outcomes. The United States reports several times more pregnancy-related deaths than all other high-income countries. Nearly 700 million women die annually from mostly preventable causes. And the stats are even more harrowing for women of color, who are 3x more likely to experience life-threatening pregnancy-related complications.
But the issues with our healthcare system don’t end there. A record number of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people experience widespread healthcare discrimination. The Harvard Gazette, reports that 1 in 6 LGBTQ+ adults have experienced discrimination when seeking health services. 44% of Black Americans also report the same bias.
Even though attacks to the ACA are introduced by Republican legislators regularly, we must continue to support the measure and campaign for major healthcare reform. Every American should have access to low-cost, quality healthcare like is provided to their peers in other industrial nations.
Our Stance
Every American deserves the right to high-quality universal healthcare. We believe that the United States should implement Medicaid for all. We call on congress to implement legislation capping drug prices so no one has to ration life-saving medications again.
We will also fight to put an end to healthcare discrimination on the basis of gender, sexuality, or race.
What Can We Do?
- Pass legislation to ensure free universal Medicaid
- Increase access to prenatal & postpartum care for all mothers
- Guarantee patient privacy by strengthening HIPPA protections
- Federally cap drug prices
- Erase outstanding medical debt
- End LGBTQ+ & BIPOC healthcare discrimination and inequality
- Expanded no-cost coverage for vision, dental, mental health, long-term care, and substance abuse treatments.