In the United States of America, it costs 30,000 dollars to give birth if you are uninsured.

Need a hip replacement? That will be $40,000.

Skin cancer treatment? $50,000.

If you think that sounds insane, or that I am lying to you, I promise I am not. If you do not have health insurance, healthcare in the US is crazy expensive. Yes, most people have health insurance. But did you know that American health insurance is mainly supplied to you by your employer? That means that if you get laid off, you no longer have coverage. Aside from that, 8% of the population (That’s 26 million Americans) don’t have insurance of any kind (US Census Bureau). That means that their employer doesn’t supply it, they can’t pay for it themselves, and they aren’t covered by medicare or medicaid (The public health insurance programs). 8% of the population being uninsured is far too many people. That number should be 0%.

The American healthcare system, to put it plainly, is a nightmare. Private health insurance companies supply the majority of Americans with their healthcare. These companies are for-profit, meaning that they will benefit from denying claims. The very institutions that are meant to supply people with healthcare profit off of doing the complete opposite. Healthcare should be for-patient, not for-profit.

That is the purpose of this petition. I would like to advocate for the US getting a universal, for-patient, government-funded healthcare system.

Let’s start by taking a look at the facts.

Going back to the cost of births, in the US it is $30,000 on average without insurance. With insurance, it is $3,400 on average. In Canada, it is completely free. The government pays for it. In the United Kingdom, it’s also free. In Germany, it is free if you have insurance. Without insurance, it’s still only €3000 ($3200 USD) on average. You can see a pattern here. This pattern holds true when you compare the US to most other developed countries. It isn’t just giving birth that’s expensive, the US has the developed world’s highest bills for nearly all medical procedures. (Wise)

In the US, healthcare isn’t just expensive. It is also less effective than other developed countries’ systems. In 2019, the US experienced 273 avoidable deaths per 100,000 people. That was by far the largest amount compared to any other first-world country, with the second highest being the UK at 194. The US also has the highest amount of infant and maternal deaths, with 5.4 infants per 1,000 dying at birth, and 23.8 mothers per 100,000 dying during birth. (The Commonwealth Fund)

The most damning fact about US healthcare is that the US government spends more money on healthcare than any other developed country, spending 4.4 trillion USD or 17.3% of the GDP. All that spending for a system which is objectively worse in nearly all ways to other developed countries.

The US healthcare problem is not just facts and statistics. It represents real people and real families who were wronged by the system.

 In 2017, Anamaria Markle of New Jersey was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer. According to her family, she was laid off from her job following the diagnosis with one year’s severance and health coverage. When that one year of coverage ended, Anamaria began to struggle with paying for her treatments. She tried using an insurance program called Cobra, which is intended for employees who lose their jobs, but not everything was covered and Cobra demanded high fees. Eventually the cost of treatment got too high, and Anamaria made the decision to stop receiving care and died in September 2018 at the age of 52. According to her daughter Valderrama, Anamaria was “constantly doing the math of treatment costs while she was on the decline.” Valderrama also said “I really miss my mom. She shouldn’t have had to make the decision to stop her treatment based on financial costs.” (The Guardian)

 The story of Anamaria Markle is not an isolated or cherry picked example. Susan Finley was found dead in her apartment in 2016 only a few months after losing her job at Walmart. She had gotten what appeared to her as the common cold or flu, and didn’t see a doctor because she was already barely scraping by and didn’t want to risk the potential costs. (The Guardian) Healthcare should never be out-of-budget. Every American should have the right to freely visit a doctor without worrying about the cost. It is extremely heartbreaking to learn about these stories of people who didn’t get the care they needed because of financial barriers.

What is being done?

 Unfortunately, the current US government is not one that is interested in making major healthcare reforms. In fact, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has been actively cutting costs and firing employees, including in the healthcare sector of the government (CBS News). However, we must not give up in the fight to bring universal healthcare to the only developed nation which hasn’t implemented it yet.

There are a multitude of groups dedicated to advocating for free public healthcare in the US, for example:

Healthcare-NOW: A group who is fighting to bring single-payer (public, government-funded) healthcare to the US. Healthcare-NOW advocates by giving people a platform to share their healthcare stories. They also contact government officials directly, and promote bills which step towards universal healthcare.
Better Medicare Alliance (BMA): A group who is advocating for expansions to medicare so that more people are covered, and less slip through the cracks. BMA puts together fact-based reports which highlight the shortcomings of the US healthcare system. They also send letters to members of congress and work directly with government officials in order to move healthcare in the right direction. 
Doctors for America (DFA): An organization of doctors and medical students who want to put “patients over politics.” They believe that all Americans should have the right to equitable, high-quality, and affordable healthcare. DFA organizes marches and protests, and also testifies directly to members of congress. They also empower doctors to speak up about the healthcare system in any way they can.

 

What Can YOU Do?

 You can do a lot more to help than you think, even if you aren’t American. I’m not, and look at this wonderful petition that I was able to put together!

What you can do to help:

• Sign this petition. This is a simple contribution, and you should do it regardless of if you plan on taking your advocacy further or not. By signing this petition, you make more people aware of the issue, and you get more people on board with the American universal healthcare movement.
• Donate to universal healthcare advocacy groups, such as the ones listed above.

If you live in the United States, you could also:

• Join an advocacy group, and attend local protests and rallies.
• When elections come, vote for candidates who have expressed support for the universal healthcare movement.
• Send a letter or make a phone call to your local member of congress, expressing your desire to see universal healthcare come to the US. Better Medicare Alliance offers an extremely simple way to do this. On their website, click the “Advocate!” button and you can send off a premade letter to congress in your name in as little as 5 minutes.

 

My name is Braden Schneider, and I am a high school student at Warman High School, Saskatchewan, Canada. I urge you to sign this petition, and advocate further in any way you can. As someone who lives in a country with a universal healthcare system, I cannot stress enough how important this issue is, and how many lives would improve and be saved if universal healthcare were to be introduced in the USA.