New York City, January 9, 2023. Nurses strike at Mount Sinai hospital demanded better staffing, a demand still raised/Photo nurses across the U.S. Source: Shutterstock
The private-insurance-driven healthcare system in the United States is a disaster for the working class. Instead of guaranteeing care for all, this system is designed to generate profits for corporations. Health insurance companies rake in billions while millions of Americans are left uninsured or under-insured. Families are crushed by medical debt, denied care, or forced to choose between paying for medicine and meeting basic needs. This is a system that treats human lives as expendable.
This profit-driven approach to healthcare reflects a deeper problem: a society built on private ownership of wealth. Under this system, the ruling class and their corporations will not pay for quality healthcare for workers they no longer need. The rise of automation and artificial intelligence has pushed millions of workers into poverty. Displaced workers, who can no longer generate profits for the ruling class, are abandoned to fend for themselves. These part-time, low-wage, and unemployed workers—many of whom are women, people of color, and youth—are the face of a growing revolutionary class that has no choice but to fight back.
Healthcare is not just a personal issue. The movement for quality, universal healthcare is part of a larger fight for a government that puts people over profits. A system of public, cooperative ownership is the only way to ensure that healthcare is a human right. This means dismantling the stranglehold of private insurance companies and building a society where resources are distributed based on need, not wealth.
The fight for quality healthcare for all is gaining momentum, fueled by the organizing and activism of nurses, doctors, and patients who witness firsthand the failures of the private-insurance-driven system. Healthcare workers are on the front lines advocating for a system that prioritizes care over corporate profit. Unions for nurses tried to win to win staffing ratio laws in Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, and Washington.
Nurses have also led strikes to demand safe staffing ratios, equitable pay, and fair treatment, while doctors have organized campaigns to expose the inefficiencies and cruelty of a system that denies care to the most vulnerable. On January 10 5,000 nurses, doctors, midwives, and nurse practitioners launched a strike against under staffing at Providence Health and Services, the largest hospital chain in the Pacific Northwest.
Patients, too, are taking a stand, joining grassroots movements to demand an end to medical debt and for universal healthcare legislation like Medicare for All. From community forums to mass protests, these groups are building alliances with labor unions, student organizations, and other activist networks to fight for a fundamental change in how healthcare is delivered and financed. Their efforts highlight the shared belief that healthcare is a human right, not a commodity.
Last December, United Healthcare’s CEO was assassinated on a street in New York by a man outraged over the company’s mistreatment of patients, shocking the nation. But the movement against the company’s denial of care began before this act and has continued, with a group of doctors and patients standing outside the New York Stock Exchange on January 16 demanding an end to United Healthcare’s betrayals of policy holders.
This growing movement is not just about fixing a broken healthcare system; it’s about dismantling the root cause of the crisis—private ownership of the resources and wealth that sustain life. Healthcare, housing, education, and food must be public goods, owned and managed by the people. The failure of the current system to provide care for all is a symptom of a society where corporations dictate the terms of survival, extracting profits from human suffering while abandoning those who no longer serve their interests.
The movement for universal healthcare is a powerful example of how collective action can challenge corporate power and inspire hope. From successful campaigns to eliminate medical debt to state-level pushes for universal healthcare programs, these fighters are showing what is possible when people come together. They are laying the groundwork for a system where healthcare is not a privilege for the wealthy but a guaranteed right for everyone.
Nurses, doctors, and patients are proving that the fight for healthcare is inseparable from the fight for a just, equitable society. By standing together, we can demand an end to the exploitation of human need and build a future where everyone has access to the care they deserve. This is not just a call for reform; it is a revolutionary demand for a society that values every life.
Published on January 29, 2025
This article originated in Rally!
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