Corporate Power and the American Dream: Just Health Care
© 2001 Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute

The United States spends more than twice as much on health care than any other country, yet ours is the only country without universal health care. The United States spends almost $4,500 per person per year on health care and still has over 42 million uninsured, and most of those with insurance are underinsured. Canada only spends around $2,300 per person and yet guarantees quality health care for all its residents.

Why is the delivery of health care so different in the United States? A big part of the reason is that health care in the United States is dominated and run by corporations. This means that health care is not considered a right for all citizens. Health care is treated like any other commodity in the market – those who have the most money get the most and best of it. Corporations, in the form of managed care companies, increase their profits, not by increasing quality, but by passing their costs on to us through a long list of profit-making tactics, such as denying quality care, increasing the cost of premiums and deductibles and avoiding the sickest altogether.

“The best treatment for the diseased U.S. health care system is for all workers to read - and discuss in local groups - the exciting new workbook, Just Health Care. Similar to an effort over 30 years ago by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union that led to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, such a mass educating/organizing drive will lead to a Single Payer Health Care System to stop corporate power from destroying the American dream for Just Health Care.”

Sidney M. Wolfe MD
Director, Public Citizen Health Research Group

“This is the best program I have seen on explaining the need for a national health care system. I believe it will be an effective tool to help union members and other citizens understand what is wrong with our current health care system, why national health care is a just system and how we can bring forth this system for all Americans.”

Boyd Young, International President
Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC

Corporate Power and the American Dream: Just Health Care is a 138-page curriculum which supports a fundamental change in America’s health care and advocates for a national health insurance program similar to the Canadian system.

Contents
Introduction
How To Use this Workbook
Activity 1: Problems of Health Care: The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Health Care
Activity 2: Health Care in the United States
Activity 3: The Canadian Health Care System: What Is It, How Does It Work?
Activity 4: What Do We Do About Our Health Care System?
Activity 5: Just Health Care: Is It Good For Working People?
Glossary

For information about reproducing Corporate Power and the American Dream: Just Health Care, contact us at:
Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute
1532 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-234-0040
info@djdinstitute.org