Eighth Grade Humanities                

The Life Tax                

Marilyn Cortez, a former Houston cafeteria staff member without health care, spent most of July in the hospital with Covid-19. When she finally got home, she was slammed with a $36,000 bill, which put a massive weight on her shoulders only added to the burden of her sickness. The hospital, Houston Methodist, also called to tell her that she didn't have to panic and that President Trump had covered it. But then came a second bill, this time for twice as much. Ms. Cortez's medical expenses are expected to be compensated by a government grant. Mr. Trump made the announcement in the spring of 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was gaining traction — at a time when millions of people were losing their health insurance and the government was trying to do everything they could to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, which had extended coverage to over 20 million people. In April, Trump made a statement about the program. “This should alleviate any concern uninsured Americans may have about seeking the coronavirus treatment,”, which is funded by the federal coronavirus relief program enacted by Congress which is intended to cover and provide care to uninsured individuals with Covid-19.

Healthcare in general is a large issue in America since it isn’t available for free like everywhere else. Healthcare itself in the U.S. is not bad, it is actually decent. But only if you are lucky enough to be able to pay for it. What is bad is the method of PAYING for healthcare, which means millions don’t have access to healthcare. We have a convoluted system where some people get most or all of their healthcare paid for by government insurance programs, everyone else has to have private health insurance or pay for healthcare themselves. Some people work for companies that pay for most of their health insurance, but those that don’t work for those companies, and don’t qualify for government insurance is in trouble unless they are rich. According to the US Census Bureau, in 2007 almost 46 million people in America didn't have health insurance.

It’s a hard system to reform because there are powerful people and companies that benefit from the existing system and there are people that feel they have worked hard to become rich enough or to be employed by a company that pays for insurance, that don’t want to give the same benefits to people that don’t have the same job opportunities and amount of money. Those people justify everyone not getting healthcare by saying that they should benefit from their hard work and others shouldn’t have a free handout. These people stand by the belief that healthcare is not a basic human right, it must be earned and paid for, or you don’t get it. That is the essence of the disagreement and the fundamental divide in the US over healthcare.

How can we help? How can you make a difference? How can we make sure that every person and family in poverty will receive the healthcare they need without the debt that comes along with it? Some things you can do to bring awareness are; bringing awareness to the issue, make sure to bring attention to this issue so that people can come together and challenge the government. We are  stronger together than we are apart. Sign petitions; online petitions are an early stage political tactic that help build a broader campaign and serve a number of purposes: They can send a signal of public opinion to a decision maker, they tell the media there is enough public attention to do a story, they build a list of people who are interested in an issue, and they can spur additional action and raise money.

American people in poverty are treated as if a medical bill is worth more than a life.