Will this be the event that finally convinces people that the United States needs Universal Healthcare. All around us, in the Greater New York community, people and businesses are making sacrifices, pledging to self isolate and cancelling events. The hard truth is that we are only as healthy as the sickest among us. And, this time, neither neighborhood or wealth will lend protection. The argument that people who can afford good insurance will be fine rings a bit hollow now, since even that person isn’t guaranteed to get a test. “It’s a small small world” is truer than ever. And this virus doesn’t discriminate. You can be rich and famous like Tom Hanks or a virtual unknown hourly worker. You just have to touch the same item and there go your six degrees of separation.
There’s a lot of worry that Universal Healthcare is too expensive. There are people in this world who could help get things started. If we reframe “socialism” as doing things for the greater good; if we understand that by helping others, billionaires will also be helping themselves and their loved ones, maybe we can win the argument that taxing billionaires a bit more is worth it – even for them.
Looking at the presidential campaigns of Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, we know that they spent over $500 million and $200 million respectively. They have also given to charities. Clearly, this amount of spending doesn’t impact their quality of life. Surely, they could afford to spend 1% of their wealth to improve other people’s quality of life in terms of health and still live the life they’ve grown accustomed to. There are other very wealthy people in the world who give a lot to charities – which is a great thing. But, it also means that they could help to get Universal Health Care off the ground. The longer we wait, the more it will cost. And, the longer we wait, the sooner another pandemic could touch them as well as us.
It is interesting timing that COVID-19 came during a presidential election. We had candidates speak not only of Universal Health Care, but of a Freedom Dividend. Right now, when people are told that to flatten the curve of this virus they need to stay home, both of these measures would provide great relief. There is a real danger of stores and restaurants goings out of business because people will be staying at home. In a high rent area, even 2 weeks of no activity could destroy a business. If there is a stimulus package in the works, it better come soon.
We are interconnected. The wealthy are as much at risk as those in an inner city. Goosing the stock market will not stop the virus. What could, is recognizing that we all need to take care of each other.
