Thread by @LolaMotz

THREAD:
Forgive me, I am no expert on #MedicareForAll, but it hurts me to see Biden, Klobuchar, ABC, etc. DISINFORM the American people to this extent! Until I was 26 years old I lived in countries with UHC and it looks like this makes me kind of an expert. 1/?

First thing that many Americans don't know is that UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE, that is a system in which society treats healthcare as a right and therefore EVERYONE in the country is covered, exists in every other developed CAPITALIST country in the world. 2/?

Yet many Americans associate UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE with socialism. Why is that? US once was a PIONEER of worker's rights. FDR's New Deal was COPIED by other developed capitalist countries, mostly as a way as a reaction to Russian Revolution, to PREVENT the rise of communism. 3/?

And indeed, after WWII, developed CAPITALIST countries, such as those in Western Europe, Israel, Canada, Australia and New Zealand SUCCESSFULLY prevented rise of communism by offering 1.decent standard of living for everyone 2. reasonable social mobility. 4/?

It is important to know, especially for understanding that what Bernie is proposing is not "far left" nor "far fetched," that besides being in general CAPITALIST states with well developed welfare, these states are not adverse to SOME state ownership of industries. 5/?

There was a moment after WWII when America seemed to be heading in the same direction. Many notice how Republican Pres. Eisenhower was more to the left on issues than current Democrats are. Universal healthcare as well as free college seemed where we were going.6/?

Again, I'm no expert, but it seems to me that after WWII America might have been a victim of its prosperity. While other countries were copying our New Deal and BUILDING on it, the combination of the New Deal and prosperity caused by WWII seemed enough to build middle class.7/?

It seems to me a bad timing matter- other countries made the changes to create a more euitable society, that includes healthcare as a right, BEFORE the neoliberal philosophy took hold of the global society and started applying pressure to reverse those achievements.8/?

There is a common misconception that US "chose a different route" altogether, but it's not true. Not only did we pioneer workers' rights before the war, after the war we achieved #Medicare which was supposed to be 1st step to UHC, we just ran out of time 9/?

We "missed the boat" when all the other developed CAPITALIST countries were doing universal healthcare and we also did something despicable- we had McCarthyism take hold for a while , which forever wiped out the teaching of workers' movements from our education curricula. 10/?

In the void private health insurance companies rose to power and they don't want to let go. They are using the fact that American public is:
1. not educated about other countries
2. not educated about history of our own country, ESPECIALLY the fight for workers' rights 11/?

So not only do the insurance companies have endless cash to spend on misleading ads, donations to politicians who fight AGAINST universal healthcare etc., they also have an audience mostly unprepared to recognize the lies.
12/?

I suggest therefore that we start with basics by asking WHAT IS HEALTHCARE?
Short answer is doctors + hospitals.
Long answer: doctors+nurses+technicians+medical schools(buildings, teaching staff)+treatments&drugs(people+facilities)+researchers(+facilities)+hospital buildings 13/?

PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES CONTRIBUTE NOTHING TO HEALTHCARE.
Their sole purpose is to make profit! They make profit by DENYING CARE. Look up the thread how they entered our society. U.S. didn't guarantee healthcare to all our citizens, so private companies filled in a void.14/?

In the absence of government guaranteed healthcare those private insurance companies seem to offer security.
But it's FALSE SECURITY.
Every year millions of people LOSE their private health insurance, when they lose their job, move, and worse of all, are too sick to work! 15/?

In contrast to private insurance companies #MedicareForAll offers TRUE SECURITY.
Everyone has healthcare, throughout their life!
Everyone gets a Medicare Card at birth and will forever be able to go to the doctor anywhere in the country FOR FREE.
(It's paid for with taxes)16/?

Not only does it mean getting healthcare when one needs it which means MUCH BETTER SURVIVAL RATES. As a person who lived under universal healthcare until26 I can tell you that this security also translates to FREEDOM.
NOBODY is making life decisions based on health insurance.17/?

I identified these lies:
1. Private Health Insurance Companies (PHICs)are a valuable part of our healthcare system(they are superfluous)
2. PHICs offer security (they don't, millions lose it every year)
3. UHC is socialist (all other CAPITALIST developed countries have it) 18/?

4. A lie that Private Health Insurance Companies offer "freedom of choice" (they don't, you get what ever PHIC your employer choses, moreover having your insurance tied to your employer you have NO FREEDOM to change your job, move, start a business etc.)
19/?

5. A lie that Universal Healthcare leads to communism (in fact it was SUCCESFULLY adopted by other developed CAPITALIST countries to PREVENT workers' discontent, a revolution and RISE of communism).
20/?

6. Opponents of #MedicareForAll also routinely lie that it will cost more than the current system when even the Koch brothers' funded study found that #M4All will SAVE us trillions of dollars in the future.
21/?

7. Particularly misleading are the ads showing regular people looking exasperated at their rising taxes. Implementing #MedicareForAll will mean SAVINGS, not ADDED COSTS. Tax $$ will be going directly to HEALTHCARE, as defined above, not for yachts for private insurance CEOs. 22/?

8. A lie is that getting #MedicareForAll (Biden's ad, Rahm Emanuel interview) means LOSING INSURANCE. Not at all, unless SAME WORDS are used when millions of people a year get different insurance when their employer changes their PHIC or because they get #Medicare at 65. 23/?