In a New York Times article published last week, health care workers around the country detailed the crisis they are still facing, even in places that have had sharp declines in coronavirus infections and deaths.1
Doctors and nurses are overworked due to chronic failures by the hospital industry to safely staff units — calculated practices that worsened the pandemic by driving thousands from the field. Employers inflicted moral distress and injury upon health care workers by withholding the staffing, resources, protections, and equipment they needed to do their jobs. As a result, many are struggling with depression and post-traumatic stress.
Our fragmented healthcare system was vastly unprepared to deal with a crisis of this magnitude – and our healthcare workers paid the price.
It’s not a coincidence that most hospitals were vastly unprepared and lacking “surge capacity” for moments of crisis like this one. Our current for-profit health care system is designed to make money by cutting corners and skimping on necessary supplies, which comes at the expense of preparedness.
Most hospitals practice a supply-chain model called “just-in-time” production that is patterned after the automotive and manufacturing industries. It keeps costs low, but it also means that they only have stocked supplies to get through 72 hours of normal demand.
We need a health care system in which hospitals are incentivized to keep plenty of necessary supplies for patients and workers on hand for times of crisis. The only system that will do that, the only system that will put people over profits, is Medicare for All.
Will you take 3 minutes to call your representative today and urge them to sign on as a Medicare for All cosponsor? If your rep is already a co-sponsor, you’ll be directed to Speaker Pelosi’s office to ask her to support.
Right now, hospitals see maintaining a stockpile of extra supplies as “having too many dollars tied up in inventory.” Under Medicare for All, hospitals would receive lump-sum payments to cover the entirety of their operating expenses. That means they wouldn’t have to keep PPE, bed, or ventilator capacity low to stay afloat and could stock up on equipment to prepare for crises like this.
While we must take immediate action to protect nurses, we must also make sure that the world we’re building in the wake of this crisis is better than the one we left behind. That means transforming our health care system once and for all.
Thank you for taking the time.
Jasmine Ruddy
Organizer
Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All
P.S. Please read and share the New York Times article here to help us publicize stories about our essential health care workers.
1 - New York Times
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