Healthcare is a Human Right: a 4-Part Healthcare Teach-In
Start: 2025-02-20 19:30:00 UTC Eastern Standard Time (US & Canada) (GMT-05:00)
End: 2025-02-20 20:45:00 UTC Eastern Standard Time (US & Canada) (GMT-05:00)
A link to attend this virtual event will be emailed upon RSVP
Host Contact Info: info@capitaldistrictdsa.org
The New York Health Act (NYHA), a longstanding bill in front of the state legislature, which would create a universal, single-payer health system for the state of New York, remains stuck in the Health Committee despite mass support for its passage.
CDDSA’s Poli Ed group will be holding a 4-session Healthcare Teach-In during the month of February aimed at providing the basics of US healthcare policy. The goal of the teach-in is to train DSA members in advocacy and strategy around organizing for single-payer, Medicare for All health care in New York State and beyond. The teach-in will provide the basics on how and why our current privatized health care system treats health as a commodity, subject to profit-maximization, and what it will take to overthrow the private, corporatized healthcare system and install Medicare for All. Participants in the teach-in will develop a deeper understanding of American healthcare system under capitalism and how push NYHA over the finish line.If you are interested in attending the teach-in, please RSVP for the 4 sessions using the form on the right. Attending all 4 sessions is recommended but each can stand alone.
Week 1: Thursday, 2/6, 7:30-8:45pm
Week 2: Thursday, 2/13, 7:30-8:45pm
Week 3: Thursday, 2/20, 7:30-8:45pm
Week 4: Thursday, 2/27, 7:30-8:45pm
*Please note that the Zoom link you receive upon registering is the Zoom link you will use for all 4 sessions.*
*Check out the syllabus below for what each session will cover and recommended readings!*
Teach-In: US Healthcare 101
Intended Audience: DSA members in Capital District, Troy & NYC Healthcare Working Group
Purpose:
Provide the basics about our health system and why policy change doesn’t happen (and why it occasionally does).
Give participants enough background information on the issues facing our health system so they have foundation to understand healthcare policy bills/debates and why Medicare for All/NYHA is the policy solution we should be advocating for.
Give participants a deeper understanding of the political economy of health reform that can be applied to develop improved strategies for advocating for Medicare for All.
Participants in the teach-in will develop a deeper understanding of American healthcare system under capitalism and what it will take to push the New York Health Act and Medicare for All over the finish line.
Week 1: Overview of US Health “System”: Drivers of Poor Outcomes and Rising Costs
Cost, access and quality
Drivers of poor health outcomes
Basic structure and sources of insurance coverage (the primacy of employer-sponsored coverage)
Uninsured versus underinsured
Out of pocket payments and medical debt
Fundamental issues driving high costs/cost inflation
Recommended Reading:
Ryan Zickgraf. “America’s Working Class Is Struggling to Survive the Gauntlet of Middle Age,” Jacobin, Oct 9, 2023.
Aron, L., & Woolf, S. H. (Eds.). (2013). US health in international perspective: Shorter lives, poorer health. The National Academies. Summary.
Optional Supplementary Readings:
Bodenheimer, T. 2005. High and Rising Health Care Costs, Part 1: Seeking an Explanation. Annals of Internal Medicine 142(10): 847-854.
David Blumenthal, Evan D. Gumas, Arnav Shah, Munira Z. Gunja, Reginald D. Williams II. Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System: Comparing Performance in 10 Nations. Commonwealth fund.
Scruggs, L., Reynolds, M., Fox, A.M. (2024). "Is Redistribution Good for Our Health? Examining the Macro-Correlation between Welfare Generosity and Health across EU Nations Over the Last 40 years," Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.
Gerard F. Anderson, Uwe E. Reinhardt, Peter S. Hussey, and Varduhi Petrosyan. (2003). “It’s The Prices, Stupid: Why the United States Is So Different From Other Countries,” Health Affairs; 22(3): 89-105
Week 2: Models of Universal Health Coverage: Why Medicare for All?
Models of Universal Health Coverage: National Health Service; National Health Insurance and Regulated Multi-Payer
Degree of “socialization” and trade-offs
What is health insurance? Why insurance?
Contribution of insurance, hospitals and providers to rising health care costs
Rise of Employer-Sponsored Coverage: Tax deductibility of employer sponsored coverage and rise of managed care
Public Funding, Private Provision: Rise of Medicaid Managed Care & Medicare Advantage (the “contracted out” state)
Hill Burton Act and growth of tertiary care
What is driving hospital closures, provider shortages and health care ‘deserts’
Rise of private equity and consolidation in the hospital sector
Recommended Readings:
Andrew Perez. “Health Care Providers Constantly Pass the Buck to Deny Patients Needed Care,” Jacobin, Dec 15, 2021.
Frances Gill. (2018). Single Payer Could Solve the Rural Hospital Crisis. Jacobin.
Heather Rust. “Hospitals Are Using the Nursing Shortage to Stiff Health Care Workers,” Jacobin, Dec 15, 2021
Optional Supplementary Readings:
Fox, A., & Poirier, R. (2018). How single-payer stacks up: evaluating different models of universal health coverage on cost, access, and quality. International Journal of Health Services, 48(3), 568-585.
Galvani, Alison P., Alyssa S. Parpia, Eric M. Foster, Burton H. Singer, and Meagan C. Fitzpatrick. "Improving the prognosis of health care in the USA." The Lancet 395, no. 10223 (2020): 524-533.
Galvani, A. P., Parpia, A. S., Pandey, A., Sah, P., Colón, K., Friedman, G., ... & Fitzpatrick, M. C. (2022). Universal healthcare as pandemic preparedness: the lives and costs that could have been saved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(25), e2200536119.
Fitzpatrick, M. C., & Galvani, A. P. (2020). The effect of Medicare for All on rural hospitals–Authors' reply. The Lancet, 396(10260), 1392-1393.
Video resources:
What UnitedHealthcare doesn’t want you to know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frr4wuvAB6U
Week 3: Political Economy of US Health Reform 1: History and Causes of Failed Attempts
Failed attempts at universal coverage
Evolving stance of the American Medical Association
Labor’s position/role on universal health coverage
Adoption of Medicare and Medicaid (1965)
Adoption of the ACA
Unfinished Business and the Re-Emergence of Medicare for All
Recommended Readings:
Luke Savage. “The Disingenuous Defense of For-Profit Health Care Hasn’t Changed in Decades.” Jacobin, July 9, 2021.
Bird, Kai. (2021). How the US lost national healthcare. Institute for New Economic Thinking.
Adereth, Maya. (2022). Unions Must Fight for a Universal Welfare State, Jacobin. https://jacobin.com/2022/04/us-unions-weak-welfare-state-universal-programs-health-care
Optional Additional Background Reading
Luke Savage. “Making Health Care ‘Accessible and Affordable’ Isn’t the Same as Making It Universal and Free.” Jacobin, Dec 1, 2021
Griffin, Jeff. (2020). History of Healthcare: https://www.griffinbenefits.com/blog/history-of-healthcare
Hacker, J. S. (1998). The historical logic of national health insurance: Structure and sequence in the development of British, Canadian, and US medical policy. Studies in American Political Development, 12(1), 57-130.
Peterson, M. A. (2001). From trust to political power: interest groups, public choice, and health care. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 26(5), 1145-1163.
Hoffman B. Health care reform and social movements in the United States. Am J Public Health. 2003 Jan;93(1):75-85. doi: 10.2105/ajph.93.1.75. PMID: 12511390; PMCID: PMC1447696.
Week 4: Political Economy of US Health Reform 2: State-Based Health Reform and Deficiencies in Incremental Solutions
Why is Medicare for All necessary?
State-based reform versus federal reform- trade-offs
State attempts at single-payer
Vermont
California
New York
Public Option (Hacker)
Universal Basic Plan (Einev & Finkelstein)
Medicaid/care for More
Deficiencies in incremental solutions and why continue to push for NYHA
Recommended Readings:
Liza Featherstone. New York State Could Finally Get Single-Payer Health Care. Jacobin, May 2, 2021.
Casey Buchholz, Stephanie Attar, Gerald Friedman. The State Road to Universal Single-Payer Health Care. Jacobin, Oct 15, 2021.
New York Health Act Political Landscape Analysis
Optional Additional Background Reading
Fox, A.M., & Choi, Y. (2019). Political economy of reform under US federalism: adopting single-payer health coverage in New York State. Health Systems & Reform, 5(3), 209-223.
Meagan Day. Medicare for All Is Better Than Union Health Care. Jacobin, Aug 17, 2020.
Aditi Ramaswami Andrew Perez. “Joe Biden Promised a Public Option for Health Care. What Happened to It?,” Jacobin. Aug 20, 2021.
Nina Turner. For-Profit Health Care Is Immoral, Jacobin, Dec 12, 2021
Hacker, J. S. (2021). Medicare for more—why we still need a public option and how to get there. New England J Med, 385(12), 1060-1065.
Sparer, M. (2020). Redefining the “public option”: lessons from Washington State and New Mexico. The Milbank Quarterly, 98(2), 260.
Jacobin. US Health Care Sucks, Even If You Have Health Insurance: An interview with Amy Finkelstein.
Fox, A. M., & Blanchet, N. J. (2015). The little state that Couldn't Could? The politics of “Single-Payer” health coverage in Vermont. Journal of health politics, policy and law, 40(3), 447-485.