Free, quality healthcare for all

By Marylou Cabral

Marylou Cabral believes that healthcare is a right for everyone. The residents of Los Angeles County deserve the best care possible. LA County is the world's 17th largest economy. Healthcare must be free for all!

A Commonwealth Fund study released Jan. 8 ranked the U.S. healthcare system as the worst among 19 industrialized countries. And access to mental healthcare is so limited and elitist that the largest mental health facility in the United States is the Los Angeles County Jail.

The LA County Board of Supervisors is responsible for the residents of the county - all of them; not only the rich and the corporate owners. It is the responsibility of the Supervisors to ensure that healthcare is provided to everyone. Primary care centers should not be closed. All public hospitals should be fully funded and improved. More hospitals should be build and healthcare must be free and available to all on demand, regardless of immigration status.

To deny the right to heath care is to deny the right to live. Even other imperialist governments, like Canada, Britain and France, provide universal health care. So, why can't the U.S. government do the same? It can. A militant, working-class movement must demand it.

The Cabral campaign believes that free, quality health care must be free and available to all people. Capitalist insurance companies and providers must be dismantled and replaced with publicly-owned entities that provide health care for all.