National Nurses United

10 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J A N U A R Y | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 A mid-february CNN town hall debate between sena- tors Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz offered a case study of the competing visions of social justice and the market approach to healthcare. The ostensible frame of the debate was on the expected repeal of the Affordable Care Act. But the presence of Sanders on the stage changed the discourse to a broader contrast of a compassionate or a ruthless, you're-on- your-own society. What Sanders articulated so well is the vision of humanism and hope that animated his presidential campaign. That healthcare must be a fundamental human right, "that when you hurt, when your children hurt, I hurt," as he said in a South Carolina town hall during his campaign. That we live in a country with too many architects of our healthcare policy—and the corporate donors who fund them and policy wonks who arm them—who elevate privi- lege and greed to a moral imperative. This is nowhere more evident than in healthcare, a system of money over care, of profiting off human suffering and pain, and that is a death sentence for so many. Speaking on behalf of that ideology, Cruz glorified the notion of "freedom" from "government" mandates accompanied by the misleading mythology that with private insurance you have the "freedom" to choose your doctor, to design the health plan you want, and to pay what you want. Truth at this stage seems to be of margin- al value in a country where "alternative facts" have become a political norm. The backdrop is the effort, orchestrated by the American Legislative Exchange Coun- cil (ALEC) and others, to convince working people across the country that government— not Wall Street, not corporations—is to blame for a country that fails them. Thus the false narrative that government programs, including safety net measures that are essential to maintaining a civil society, and that regulations and public protections, such as clean air and water and food safety, are an impediment to jobs and economic security. It's especially a fraud in healthcare, which remains in the grip of corporations, which accumulate massive profits by deny- ing care or setting prices so high, with virtu- ally no limits on what they can charge, that have created a cruel system based on ability to pay. Thus, a highlight of the debate was Bernie calling out Cruz on whether healthcare is a RoseAnn DeMoro Executive Director, National Nurses United Which Side Are You On? Providing healthcare for humans or healthcare for profit leads to vastly different solutions for our crisis

• Cover