Healthcare Reform - Live Free and Die

March 27, 2023

Mar 27, 2023

Happy Monday Healthcare Advocates

I am so thankful for all of you and for the actions you take to move us towards a universal healthcare system. I want to remind all of you to use the comment button at the bottom to send research topics (or helpful suggestions).

Good News

In January, Rep. Pressley (MA-07) and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) led their colleagues in unveiling a bicameral, joint resolution to affirm the ratification of the ERA and take a critical step toward enshrining gender equality in the United States Constitution. Here is a link to the story.

More Good News (Sort Of)

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a woman has a right to an abortion if a doctor decides that continuing the pregnancy is a risk to her life. Previously it had to be an emergency situation. It is a small victory but it will save women’s lives.

Live Free and Die

While life expectancy in our industrialized peer countries dipped due to the pandemic, and here as well, theirs are now increasing and ours continue to decline. We have now fallen to 76 years while they are back up to over 82 years.

We reported a little while ago that maternal mortality reached a high in 2021 and is significantly worse for black women and significantly worse in states that have denied abortion care to women.

Now a recent Journal of the American Medical Association paper found that mortality rates are rising for US children and adolescents. Lead author Steven Wolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, said "Now, it's increasing at a magnitude that has not occurred at least for half a century”.

I want to draw your attention to an article, called “Live Free and Die” I read last week. This is a story from National Public Radio. You can listen to the story at the link as well.

The article describes a report done 10 years ago for the National Institutes of Health called “Shorter Lives, Poorer Health”. That report documented what is called the US Health Disadvantage. The results showed that the US was not progressing to better health for its population. That despite the fact that we do such a good job of cancer screening, measuring blood pressure, and have some of the most advanced discoveries in healthcare anywhere.

There are many contributors to the US Health Disadvantage. Many of them are poor choices and seem embedded in the phrase “You can’t tell me what to do”.

We choose to not have health insurance, we choose to be under insured. We chose to not believe that public health initiatives (such as for COVID-19) need to be followed (that one was responsible for 1.2M excess deaths over 2 years). We drive too fast and have too many traffic fatalities, we insist on having assault weapons and killing each other.

Instead of “You Can’t Tell Me What to Do”, I would prefer we focus on “How Do We Make it Better For All of Us. That will lead to improvement, the other just leads to a continual decline.

Anyway, Steven Wolf, the lead author of “Shorter Lives, Poorer Health” thought it would be worthwhile to examine what other countries did better than we do that have a positive impact on life expectancy and he found these include universal, better coordinated healthcare, strong health and safety protections, broad access to education, and more investments to help kids get off to a healthy start.

Did you catch that? Universal coordinated healthcare.

Mid May is when Representative Pramila Jayapal will reintroduce her Universal Single Payer Healthcare Bill. It will be an uphill battle because there are so many people in Congress who believe “You Can’t Tell Me What To Do” , but we can tell them that as constituents this is what we want. Let’s do that.

Take Action

Use RESISTBOT

Text SIGN POASSZ to 50409 to send the message below to your Congressperson and Senators and President Biden.

Life expectancy in the US is continuing to decline - we are at 76 years. Our peer industrialized countries, who by the way, all have universal health care, have life expectancies that are again increasing after COVID-19 and are at about 82 years. Maternal mortality is rising and so is infant and adolescent mortality.

One of the main contributors is the lack of a coordinated Universal Healthcare System. YOU CAN FIX THAT.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA) will be reintroducing her Universal Health care Bill in Mid May. I want you to actively support/co-sponsor and get it done.