Health Care was the #1 Issue, and then came COVID…

Update: A Mayo Clinic doctor has advised the Minnesota Legislature that 2.2 million COVID-19 survivors are disabled severely enough that they will be unable to return to work. That’s around a percent and a half of the workforce, and probably accounts for much of the current worker shortage. Here’a the link to the article at MPR: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/02/14/doctor-on-longhaul-covid

Long ago in 2019 health care was the #1 issue in almost every poll. Even after we passed Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, the 2019 stats from the Social Security Administration were an indictment- About 99% of babies born here survive to working age, but 13% of workers have died before they’re eligible to collect their first Social Security Retirement check at 62. It gets worse- Another 20% of workers have left the workforce on Social Security Disability by age 62. Then promptly at age 62 30% of workers start collecting Social Security retirement… Yup, over half our workers are dead, disabled, or retired by age 62! That’s what happens when you’re the only industrialized country that hasn’t made health care a right and entrusts “health care” to a bizarre “system” of insurance companies, big pharma, mega hospital providers, and vulturous “middle men”.

Then came COVID…

Piled upon and feeding off of this national epidemic of human suffering we have a virus that in but 2 years has killed more of us than 2 centuries of wars. A virus that while slowly burning almost freely through our population puts 5% of those afflicted in the hospital at an average cost of $50,000 each and whose “Long COVID” disability will bring down 10% to 30% of the infected. No wonder experts predicted that COVID would cost our nation 14 trillion dollars, and that prediction was made over a year ago!

So add a couple million and a couple percent more disabled workers to the 2019 stats- That “labor shortage” issue is really a health care issue. Same with inflation- The pandemic strengthened monopolies, reduced the labor supply’ and delayed materials… Making a health care issue look like an “inflation” issue. And the national debt and federal budget… Remember how a little war in Afganistan got expanded into Iraq and has cost us 4 trillion dollars and counting? COVID has killed over 100 times as many Americans and the costs calculated in trillions will grow for decades as the disabled survivors of COVID have to leave the work force and require labor intensive lifetime care. So not only is health care issue #1, numbers 2 through 5 at least are driven by health care and will only be solved by bringing American health care up to world standards.

Health care is THE issue, and while the republicans devolve into a death cult we democrats need to boldly stand up and become the party of health!