If I had been told ten years ago about a disaster within the US healthcare industry, I would have found it shocking, but it would also have felt pretty distant. Ten years ago, with the NHS still functioning, many of us felt cocooned from the problems that millions of patients face in America day to day.
I started to pay proper attention to what was going on over there about 5 years ago, when I watched the extraordinary documentary Knock Down The House. Iād recommend this to anyone - itās the film I watch (in the bath, drinking wine!) whenever I feel hopeless about what can be achieved in political campaigning in the UK. It always buoys me up, not because campaigning is easy (itās not), but because activism is the only option if we want to fight for democracy and fairness in a society increasingly stacked against everyone but the most privileged.
The story follows political candidates (including AOC) as they go through election season for the first time. One of the political candidates has a painful and traumatic past; she tells us how her daughter, a young adult at the time, had died of a completely preventable, and easily diagnosed heart attack after being turned away from hospital because she didnāt have personal health insurance. Stories like this are not uncommon in America, and the situation has been covered in several excellent documentaries in recent years - Iād really recommend John Pilgerās āThe Dirty War on the NHSā, and Dr Bob Gillās āThe Great NHS Heistā.
Research from 2019 showed that over half a million American families go bankrupt every single year because of issues relating to healthcare costs. Even for those who have taken out health insurance, many donāt realise its limitations; it might only cover certain medical interventions, or a course of treatment for a set period of time. When the cover runs out, the treatment stops, and things can quickly become catastrophic for the sick person and their family.