Would you go to Wal-Mart and expect to be able to walk in and pick something out for free? was the response Randy Power heard from a nurse at a local clinic to his request for follow-up medical care for his broken arm, after the nurse discovered he had neither insurance nor cash in hand.
While Randy and 46 million Americans are experiencing the wrenching reality of no access to healthcare, the healthcare industries are experiencing an altogether different reality soaring profits!
The 13 largest drug companies in the world, nine of which are based in the U.S., recorded $62 billion in profits in 2004! In 2005, the 20 largest HMOs made $10.8 billion in profits. The drug companies and HMOs have achieved their goal, and it is not to provide quality healthcare for all.
Decent healthcare for everybody is clearly not the priority of the politicians either. Currently, the U.S. Government is spending $465 billion a year on defense, which is almost as much as the rest of the world combined, and $6 billion per month on its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Throughout the past six years the corporations and the rich have enjoyed robust tax cuts in excess of $1.5 trillion. There can be no argument that the money does not exist to fund a national healthcare system and it is desperately needed.
We demand the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; bring the troops home now! Repeal the tax cuts for the bosses and the rich! We need to build a mass movement to say that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. The big corporations should be forced to cough up the money to provide quality healthcare for all.