Mayday: A Health Care System In Crisis

Our US Health Care System is not well. It is in a state of crisis. Today is May 1st, or "May Day" in many cultures. However, the term "mayday" is more applicable to our situation -- an international signal for distress.

While the ACA tried to patch things up, it didn't solve many core problems, and our path of unsustainability and irrational injustice continues unabated.

For this reason, for the month of May, we plan to bring you daily thoughts of how our current system is failing us and how a truly egalitarian, universal, public single payer system is the only system proven to solve our problems.

• This MAYDAY is for all the people without insurance.
• This MAYDAY is for all the people with underinsurance that leaves them facing catastrophic medical bills.
• This MAYDAY is for the businesses that cannot continue to absorb premium increases by cutting back on wage increases.
• This MAYDAY is for the providers that spend more time fighting with insurance companies for payment than seeing patients.
• This MAYDAY is for the patients that are denied necessary and life-saving treatments.
• This MAYDAY is for the companies that cannot compete globally with countries that have lower health spending due to their high-functioning universal health care systems.
• This MAYDAY is for the people struggling without access to adequate mental health care. (FYI, May is also National Mental Health Month.)
• This MAYDAY is for the millions of people who will find new coverage under the ACA to be unaffordable and inadequate.
• This MAYDAY is for everyone. This MAYDAY is for you.

So, join us on this journey through May. We promise you will learn something. Share our posts on Facebook and Twitter. Comment and share. Share and comment. Let others know that you are thinking of them, just as those of us fighting for health care justice are thinking of you.