The 1619 Project examines the legacy of slavery as the main reason why America doesn’t have universal health care
What do slavery and Jim Crow have to do with the fact that the United States is the only country in the developed world that doesn’t guarantee its citizens access to health care? Turns out, a lot.
Last Sunday, the New York Times Magazine debuted its landmark series commemorating the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans to the shores of America. Called the 1619 Project, the Times dedicated its entire magazine’s pages and a special supplement in the Sunday newspaper to reframe slavery and the contributions of black Americans as central to the founding of the U.S. The series delves into a modern aspect of American life — such as traffic jams, mass incarceration, congressional gridlock, the prevalence of sugar in the American diet — and connects each to this country’s brutal treatment of black people since their arrival at Point Comfort, Virginia, on August 20, 1619.
One modern day problem that the Times explores is the U.S.’s stubborn reluctance to establish a truly universal health care system, such as the kind of system present in every other industrialized country.
In “Why doesn’t the United States have universal health care?”, Times editorial writer Jeneen Interlandi traces this phenomenon to the deliberate denial of health care to formerly enslaved black people as justification to put them back into forced labor. Interlandi also describes the medical apartheid that followed post-Civil War, from segregated hospitals, to the American Medical Association’s early opposition to national health care, to the current fights over the Affordable Care Act. Centuries of white ambivalence to expanding health care access has not only hurt black people and other communities of color, but white people as well, as Times staff writer and 1619 Project leader, Nikole Hannah-Jones, explains on a segment of the PBS NewsHour. “This affects all Americans — no matter if you just got here yesterday, if your family has been here 200 years, no matter what your race,” says Hannah-Jones. “Our inability to deal with this original sin is hurting all of us.”
Years ago, I wrote about the role slavery and racism play at the heart of opposition to universal health care. I am heartened to see a mainstream publication like the New York Times finally acknowledge this fact, so many more Americans will have an understanding of how we got here and how we move forward. So what lessons can activists in the universal health care space take away from this shameful history?
First, Interlandi’s article, and a companion piece by Linda Villarosa about medical racism and health care inequality, should be required reading for every single payer activist (and afterwards, I recommend reading the entire 1619 Project series).
Second, the single payer movement must work to expand its coalition and include more communities of color in its membership and within its leadership ranks. This also means engaging with and offering support to organizations who work to improve health care within marginalized and immigrant communities. Third, the movement should acknowledge and address the criticisms of some social justice activists who say Medicare for All won’t necessarily solve racial inequity.
Single payer advocates must include medical justice and combatting racial bias in health care as platforms within the movement. Just as the wider progressive movement needs a coalition of the new emerging American electoral majority — people of color, white progressives, youth, LGBTQIA+ — to win victories at the ballot box, the universal health care movement can only win by operating within a wholly inclusive and intersectional framework.
–Sylvia Moore
Sylvia Moore is a Medicare-for-All activist and board member of California OneCare from Los Angeles, California.
sylvia@heal-ca.org
—
HEAL California is an independent news and information hub focused on the California Medicare for All movement. We feature non-partisan news, views, podcasts and videos that highlight the continuing failures of our broken healthcare system and elevate the voices of advocates and organizations fighting for change.
Check out our Media page for experts and additional resources including links to legislation, studies, and more.
Keep up with the California Medicare for All movement –
