Healthcare is one the main concerns of voters in the 2024 elections. Fifty-nine percent of the public think it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage,
The U.S. health system is dead last among high income countries when it comes to “affordability, administrative efficiency, equity, and healthcare outcomes.” Every other “developed” country on the planet provides health coverage for all its citizens. The U.S. has the world’s highest healthcare spending per capita, one of the results of nearly two-thirds of the population being covered by private/corporate insurance.
Cost, coverage and access are major public concerns of the present inadequate health system. Efforts to reduce costs and expand public coverage and access for seniors, those with pre-existing conditions, or individuals needing long-term care, drugs, dental, vision or psychological services have been routinely opposed in Congress.
Kamala Harris has proposed expanding the Democrats’ 2022 drug pricing reform package; expanding Medicare to some home care, vision, and hearing benefits; strengthening the Affordable Care Act; canceling medical debt; and legalizing abortion access. Donald Trump and the GOP have called for further privatization/corporatization of health services. He sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act while President. While he's vowed to preserve Medicare in a second term, his plan to cut taxes would bankrupt the program in a few years.
Privatization/corporatization of healthcare, including Medicare Advantage plans, are peddled as ways to save money and to increase healthcare “efficiency.”
Neither candidate or party support a universal, comprehensive and affordable Medicare for All plan, such as the Medicare for All Act proposed by Pramila Jayapal in the House and Bernie Sanders in the Senate and supported by Physicians for National Health Program, HealthcareNOW and scores of organizations.
Article 25 of the 1948 United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts, "[e]veryone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services." President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called for a Second Bill of Rights in 1944 that identified the "right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health" as one of several fundamental conditions to achieve human happiness and well being.
Why is there so much opposition to a public health system? Massive corporate profits. A dizzying array of corporate interests use their political power to maximize their profits by continuing to make healthcare a commodity for profit rather than a human right.
Pharmaceutical manufacturing and health products corporations, insurance corporations, medical device and supplier corporations, hospital/nursing home corporations, health services/HMO corporations and individual health professionals have been gouging taxpayers and patients for decades.
How have they accomplished this? The granting of First Amendment "free speech rights" to corporations by the Supreme Court in the 1970s and expanded in the 2010 Citizens United ruling has legalized the ability of business corporations to contribute massive sums of funds to corrupt elections and public policies.
What follows are the current totals of the health sector of the 2023-2024 election cycle (which runs through the end of this year).
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First, the major political campaign "contributors" (more like "investors)
Top Contributors, 2023-2024
| Contributor | Total | To Dems | To Repubs | To liberal groups | To conservative groups |
| Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment & Research | $20309100 | $0.00 | $309100 | $0.00 | $20000000 |
| Abbott Laboratories | $4941377 | $477867 | $444636 | $4430 | $4000100 |
| Karla T Jurvetson MD | $3524255 | $964035 | $520.00 | $2559600 | $0.00 |
| Farrington Rocket LLC | $3000000 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $3000000 |
| Cooper House | $2953631 | $1308616 | $0.00 | $1890000 | $0.00 |
| Kaiser Permanente | $2345807 | $1974013 | $246059 | $60768 | $3950.00 |
| Leon Medical Centers | $2199018 | $100415 | $913178 | $0.00 | $1185400 |
| American Hospital Assn | $2048165 | $1106152 | $797889 | $14300 | $0.00 |
| Starkey Hearing Technologies | $2020312 | $248165 | $1772147 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Transcarent | $1989484 | $1269288 | $51.00 | $165000 | $0.00 |
| UnitedHealth Group | $1947844 | $902095 | $907735 | $41743 | $100355 |
| VillageMD | $1840484 | $25917 | $89557 | $0.00 | $1725000 |
| DE Shaw Research | $1690961 | $290609 | $0.00 | $1400000 | $0.00 |
| Blue Cross/Blue Shield | $1622576 | $871676 | $725782 | $102625 | $1000 |
| American Society Of Anesthesiologists | $1613982 | $865456 | $748526 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Pfizer Inc | $1605152 | $1003625 | $563652 | $95596 | $10.00 |
| Massachusetts General Hospital | $1565643 | $1212698 | $9112.00 | $337110 | $0.00 |
| Sterling Medical Group | $1561200 | $0.00 | $1561200 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Greater New York Hospital Assn Management | $1500000 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $1500000 | $0.00 |
| Stiefel Laboratories | $1459951 | $1459951 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
Source: https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib?cycle=2024&ind=H
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Next are the recipients. They include both Democrats and Republicans.
Top 20 Recipients, 2023-2024
Source: https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips?cycle=2024&ind=H
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Lobbying by the Health Industry
Total spent : $378,598,017 / 2024
Number of Clients: 1724
Number of Lobbyists: 3010
Number of Revolvers (48.87%): 1471(number of lobbyists who used to work for the government -- many of the same agencies where they previously worked
|
Industry |
Total |
|
$198,946,907 |
|
|
$62,807,215 |
|
|
$61,741,772 |
|
|
$50,420,976 |
|
|
$4,681,147 |
Source: https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/lobbying?cycle=2024&ind=H
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Health-related corporations are undermining this year’s elections, leading to negative consequences for the affordability, coverage, and access to healthcare — as well as for democracy itself. They are profiting at our expense by exploiting First Amendment free speech rights.
But it doesn't end there. They also avoid public efforts to protect people and families by hijacking other constitutional rights that were originally intended exclusively for human beings.
These include:
√ First Amendment religious rights
The Supreme Court in its Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision prohibited the Department of Health and Human Services from requiring closely held, for-profit secular corporations to provide contraceptive coverage as part of their employer-sponsored health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act if it violated the corporation's First Amendment "religious rights and beliefs." To extend and pretend that private, personal religious rights apply to entities such as business corporations is a breach of a constitutional firewall with potential widespread discriminatory implications.
√ Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights.
Tens of thousands of deaths are annually attributed to occupational disease while several million people report work-related injuries and tens of thousands of workplace fatalities. Corporate Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights, affirmed in cases like Marshall v. Barlow which prevent inspectors from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration onto corporate property, threatens worker health and safety.
Making healthcare a human right and creating an authentic democracy are inextricably connected. We're experience a democracy crisis more than a healthcare crisis that is due to the reality of corporate constitutional rights and money equaling free speech.
Enacting the We the People Amendment (HJR54) would end all corporate constitutional rights, not just free speech rights, AND end the constitutional doctrine that money equals speech.
Onward in creating healthcare and real democracy for all,
Michael, Daniel, Margaret, Jessica, Katie, Keyan, Jason, Alfonso, Cole, Jennie, Tara, Shelly, George & Greg
Move to Amend National Team
