The Worker, Vol. 36, Number 7
Contents:
I. Get the Profit-Seekers Out of Health Care!
II. Source of War Danger Opposed at NATO Summit
I. Get the Profit-Seekers Out of Health Care!
II. Source of War Danger Opposed at NATO Summit
Get the Profit-Seekers Out of Health Care!
Based on statistics published by the March of Dimes, in the United States the percentage of uninsured women between 15 and 44 years old in the time range of 2010-2020 was 15.43%. It means that this year, an estimated 9-11 million women between 15 and 44 years old do not have health insurance.
Very often, uninsured women receive late or entirely absent pre-natal care. However, many 15-44 year-old women who do have health insurance and become pregnant also receive less than adequate pre-natal care due to out-of-pocket expenses. Out-of-pocket expense are those which are not paid by the insurance company and have to instead be paid by the insured consumer of the health care service. The different kinds include deductibles, co-insurance, and co-payments.
The distribution of out-of-pocket expenses during pregnancy for insured women in the U.S. today ranges widely. According to a study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in Volume 148, Issue 1 of Pediatrics entitled Out-of-Pocket Spending for Deliveries and Newborn Hospitalizations Among the Privately Insured, "During 2016–2019, privately insured families paid ∼$3000 out-of-pocket for maternal and newborn hospitalizations. For 1 in 6 families, out-of-pocket spending exceeded $5,000. Out-of-pocket spending was driven by deductibles and coinsurance and was higher when cesarean birth occurred. When neonatal intensive care was required, out-of-pocket spending averaged $5,000 and exceeded $10,000 for ∼1 in 11 families."
Prenatal care, which greatly reduces risk factors associated with poor birth outcomes, is medical care provided after a patient receives a formal diagnosis of pregnancy. Among women who receive late or no pre-natal care there is a far greater chance for the mother and baby to experience health outcomes that are the reverse of well-being – including low birthweight, preterm births and infant mortality.
Another return from this situation is the fact that the U.S. maternal mortality rate is going up instead of down. From 1990-2015, the number of women who experienced death caused by childbirth or pregnancy increased by more than 16% – from 12 to 14 deaths per 100,000 live births.
The people of our country have created the facilities, technology, an advanced army of health care workers and educational institutions that are more than capable of providing us with a modern health care system. Yet tens of millions are denied such elementary necessities as adequate pre-natal care.
It is a disgrace and condemnation of the political and economic system that our country fails to guarantee comprehensive health care to all without charge.
The roadblock is the profit-motive in health care. We must eliminate it as the organizing principle of health care in the United States and demand that the government and society make all the investments needed to guarantee everybody's inalienable right to health care.
The health care infrastructure must be taken out of the hands of the profiteers and instead organized on the basis of meeting the needs of the people. The health care capitalists must be entirely removed from the equation. Health care as a human right must be recognized and guaranteed.
There is no way to find solutions to the health care crisis in our country without independent working class politics. In order to claim the right to health care for all, we must come out together and join in the struggle of the working class to bring a new agenda – a genuinely pro-social agenda – to center-stage in the life of our country. It is only by organizing ourselves independent of and in opposition to the parties of the capitalist that we can find common solutions to our collective problems and achieve our goals. The struggle for recognition of health care as a right is a component part of the over-all program for economic rights and against the anti-social offensive of the capitalist class for shifting the burden of their economic crisis onto the working class.
Very often, uninsured women receive late or entirely absent pre-natal care. However, many 15-44 year-old women who do have health insurance and become pregnant also receive less than adequate pre-natal care due to out-of-pocket expenses. Out-of-pocket expense are those which are not paid by the insurance company and have to instead be paid by the insured consumer of the health care service. The different kinds include deductibles, co-insurance, and co-payments.
The distribution of out-of-pocket expenses during pregnancy for insured women in the U.S. today ranges widely. According to a study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in Volume 148, Issue 1 of Pediatrics entitled Out-of-Pocket Spending for Deliveries and Newborn Hospitalizations Among the Privately Insured, "During 2016–2019, privately insured families paid ∼$3000 out-of-pocket for maternal and newborn hospitalizations. For 1 in 6 families, out-of-pocket spending exceeded $5,000. Out-of-pocket spending was driven by deductibles and coinsurance and was higher when cesarean birth occurred. When neonatal intensive care was required, out-of-pocket spending averaged $5,000 and exceeded $10,000 for ∼1 in 11 families."
Prenatal care, which greatly reduces risk factors associated with poor birth outcomes, is medical care provided after a patient receives a formal diagnosis of pregnancy. Among women who receive late or no pre-natal care there is a far greater chance for the mother and baby to experience health outcomes that are the reverse of well-being – including low birthweight, preterm births and infant mortality.
Another return from this situation is the fact that the U.S. maternal mortality rate is going up instead of down. From 1990-2015, the number of women who experienced death caused by childbirth or pregnancy increased by more than 16% – from 12 to 14 deaths per 100,000 live births.
The people of our country have created the facilities, technology, an advanced army of health care workers and educational institutions that are more than capable of providing us with a modern health care system. Yet tens of millions are denied such elementary necessities as adequate pre-natal care.
It is a disgrace and condemnation of the political and economic system that our country fails to guarantee comprehensive health care to all without charge.
The roadblock is the profit-motive in health care. We must eliminate it as the organizing principle of health care in the United States and demand that the government and society make all the investments needed to guarantee everybody's inalienable right to health care.
The health care infrastructure must be taken out of the hands of the profiteers and instead organized on the basis of meeting the needs of the people. The health care capitalists must be entirely removed from the equation. Health care as a human right must be recognized and guaranteed.
There is no way to find solutions to the health care crisis in our country without independent working class politics. In order to claim the right to health care for all, we must come out together and join in the struggle of the working class to bring a new agenda – a genuinely pro-social agenda – to center-stage in the life of our country. It is only by organizing ourselves independent of and in opposition to the parties of the capitalist that we can find common solutions to our collective problems and achieve our goals. The struggle for recognition of health care as a right is a component part of the over-all program for economic rights and against the anti-social offensive of the capitalist class for shifting the burden of their economic crisis onto the working class.
Source of War Danger Opposed at NATO Summit
Demands were raised in opposition to new plans for even greater military deployments against the Russian Federation at large-scale protests in Madrid in late June. Thousands of protestors took up the slogan, "No NATO! Bases Out!" and opposed the sanctions during the events which were organized in response to the NATO summit in Spain. Prior to the summit, which took place from June 28 to June 30, several thousand people marched in Madrid shouting "Down with Imperialism!, "U.S. Is a War Criminal!" and condemning the fomenting of tensions orchestrated by Washington which take place on a daily basis. Other large-scale protests demanding the abolition of NATO took place outside of Spain, including in Germany, the United States and Canada.
Today, the Western imperialist powers, hanging on to the coat-tails of U.S. imperialism, declare that every country in the world must embrace the so-called "free market" system and that those which do not accept the dictates of imperialism are "pariah states." Any country which resists the dictates of imperialism or in which the people refuse to abandon their national independence and economic sovereignty becomes the target of the U.S. war program.
Today, the Western imperialist powers, hanging on to the coat-tails of U.S. imperialism, declare that every country in the world must embrace the so-called "free market" system and that those which do not accept the dictates of imperialism are "pariah states." Any country which resists the dictates of imperialism or in which the people refuse to abandon their national independence and economic sovereignty becomes the target of the U.S. war program.