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WelshSOCIETAL & ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
SOCIAL ADVANCEMENTS
Single-Payer not only guarantees individuals comprehensive, high quality health care but also revitalizes our public health system, thus creating healthier and more productive communities.
In addition, because Single Payer removes insurance from employment, it abolishes “job lock,” where people stay in dead-end jobs solely for health insurance. The end of job lock frees the labor market by supporting employee engagement, self-employment, and entrepreneurship, the cornerstone of American innovation.
With people gaining job, health care, and housing security, public safety increases, as does innovations in technology, science, engineering, and the arts.
As a result, we will become a more educated, creative, thoughtful, and caring society.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
A healthy environment is integral to individual and public health. Many diseases and health conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), allergies, eczema, cancer, and more are directly linked to environmental hazards such as polluted air, water, and soil. Most of those who suffer from such diseases of pollution are found in working, low-income, and communities of color, who are then twice victimized by high medical costs for treatment of their often chronic conditions. By adopting a single-payer healthcare system, we can end medical bankruptcy, while addressing environmental racism and health equity through healthcare justice.
RACIAL EQUITY
Medical apartheid and systemic racism in the United States have resulted in Black, Brown, Indigenous and communities of color being the most negatively impacted by our for-profit healthcare system. This disproportionate impact can be seen across many health indicators, and the result has been persisting disparities across many domains. Greater mortality for Black women and their babies, higher overdose deaths amongst Native people, and greater risks of being uninsured or underinsured for Latino communities are just a few. The COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed and highlighted racial inequities in our current healthcare system. The time has never been more urgent for a single-payer health care for all.
While we have a long way to go to eliminate the racial inequities in health care, a necessary first step toward health care justice is single-payer Medicare for All.
UNHOUSED CRISIS
Lack of comprehensive health care is an underlying structural cause of homelessness. Over 50% of personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills, making it the leading cause of financial calamities that often precede homelessness.
In addition, any long-term disabling condition or acute physical or behavioral health crisis may lead to homelessness. Being unhoused can exacerbate chronic medical and mental health conditions, and our current healthcare system presents severe barriers to treatment.
Single-payer health care can halt this vicious cycle by getting people the medical and mental health care they need, which will significantly aid in preventing homelessness and helping them back on the pathway to housing.
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