In America, one medical emergency can change your life — or end it — depending on what’s in your wallet.
I learned that two days after my son was born, when a doctor sat us down and told us our newborn would need urgent open-heart surgery. It was the start of a journey that would include four more surgeries, multiple stents and a valve replacement before he went off to college. We were lucky — my insurance eventually covered every procedure. Today, he’s a healthy adult. But I’ve never forgotten the quiet terror of that moment, or how different his story could have been had we not successfully fought for coverage.
But too many Americans, and too many New Yorkers, still live in fear of what one rogue medical episode could do to them. Right now, there are almost 60,000 people in Westchester, Rockland and Dutchess counties who are uninsured. That is frightening and unacceptable.
Even before Donald Trump came down that golden escalator 10 years ago, the state of health care in this country was in shambles. It had been five years since the Affordable Care Act passed and while that was an important step in the right direction, millions of Americans remained uninsured.
Could the Democratic majority have done more? For healthcare, and across other major policy areas, the consensus was that incremental change, such as the Affordable Care Act, would be most likely to succeed and endure. Rather than fundamentally altering what was clearly a broken system, tweaking it in a way that would benefit both everyday Americans and insurance companies would defy Republicans’ ability to demonize it.
Unfortunately, that did not work. Since the Affordable Care Act became law, Republicans have used every opportunity to lie about the bill, attempt to overturn it, and vilify any elected official who simply wanted to guarantee their constituents would not lose health care because of a preexisting condition.
With Republicans now controlling every branch of government in D.C., and operating with open contempt for our laws, the situation is even more dire. Trump and his cronies in Congress have slashed Medicaid and limited our access to the Affordable Care Act. As many as 15 million Americans will lose coverage. It’s estimated there will be 51,000 preventable deaths a year. On top of this, RFK Jr, an anti-vaxer who could not be less qualified to be our nation’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, is cancelling nearly half a billion dollars of research into vaccines while using his official platform to promote wildly unscientific remedies instead. This amounts to a broad, unrelenting attack on our already patchy system of healthcare, where one unlucky event or a serious medical condition could financially destroy a family. Medical debt remains the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in our country.
Fortunately, Democrats will retake power one day, and soon, given how recklessly these clowns in Washington are screwing up everything. Democrats need to think about how we can use that power to boldly fight for an alternate version of America that truly meets the needs of all its people. On health care, I know where I stand: we must deliver universal health care coverage for every single American. We are one country and we must be united by the idea that everyone deserves guaranteed medical coverage. One system, whether you are elderly, poor, unemployed or disabled. The current patchwork of separate programs creates multiple angles for Republicans and their backers to chip away at coverage piece by piece.
There are countless reasons why universal coverage will make us a healthier, happier society. Studies have shown that a universal system would actually be less expensive than our current system, saving 13 percent or $450 billion annually, on national healthcare spending. More importantly, it would save as many as 68,000 lives annually and give tens of millions of Americans the ability to better care for themselves and their loved ones.
All Americans deserve a healthcare system that saves money and saves lives. But voters don’t believe anyone is willing to take on this fight.
I am but one Democrat running for Congress, but I am ready to fight and I am calling on Democrats across the country to join me. If we collectively call for bold, transformative policies, including universal healthcare, then we will demonstrate to Americans that we are serious about using the immense power of the federal government not to serve ourselves as Trump does, but to serve the people.
When the time comes to rebuild our governing institutions, we can’t just patch the cracks — we have to build something stronger and designed for everyone. That starts with health care. No American should fear losing their home, their savings or their dreams because they get sick.
Universal coverage isn’t a radical idea — it’s a moral obligation, an economic necessity and a promise we owe each other as one nation. The longer we wait, the more lives we lose. Let’s start now and let’s finish the job.
Peter Chatzky, a Democrat, is a candidate for U.S. Congress in New York’s 17th district.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: It’s time to take our healthcare system off life support. NY deserves better | Opinion
Reporting by Peter Chatzky / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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