60 years have passed as President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law Medicaid and Medicare, and these programs have created a safe network for US families. Sixty years since supporters, organizers and families came together and refused to let our country of adults when they were old in poverty and low -income workers when they were struggling to afford health care. But after the biggest cut in the history of Medicaid in history, this is not the usual anniversary.
Today, nearly 80 million people are counting on Medicaid for care. From covering 40 percent of all births to almost 70 percent of home care for the elderly and disabled, Medicaid is more than a ruler. This was a promise that regardless of the ups and falls of life, our ability to look after one by one, from generation to generation, would be protected.
In July, in July, which are part of the large -scale budget bill, $ 1 trillion in the law subjected to law, but are assisted by 17 million people. Education, direct care workers, disabled and chronically ill, and families who juggle will have a major severity of pain. This great, ugly bill tells us that our concern and our life is one -off.
Medicaid’s promise collapses. But after that devastation, the dream of something better is taken into account. We have the opportunity to form a future by creating a care system that does not leave behind. From health care to paid family and medical leave, from affordable, quality care for children to aging and disability assistance – a new medical care system, which reflects true realities and pressure on our families, long overdue.
Even before these cuts, these programs were insufficient, under -funded and unavailable too much. Millions of us have already fought for care that we need and deserves. Family caregivers, closed between raising a young child and supporting parents who are aging under the weight of financial and emotional costs. Care workers take second and third work because they cannot afford to support their own families for the salary they earn. More than 700,000 families with the right to the right are stuck in the waiting lists, and the rural houses of the elderly close, without the workforce needed to meet the demand.
With our existing system of nursing at the border and the care of millions hanging on the balance, the question that goes on depends on us. Now it’s time to build in the future when no one is left to orient for illness, disability, aging or paternity. The future when families have time and support they need to take care of each other without harming income and stability. The future where care workers are supported and recognized as significant, with good salary, strong protection and dignity. In this future, care is not expenditure; These are priorities at the heart of a prosperous society.
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But this future does not come to us – we build it together.
Just like generations before us fought for the guarantee of health and economic security, providing us with social security, Medicaid, Medicare and American with disabilities, now our turn. These programs did not only happen; They were built by people who dared to demand more and arrange to make it real. We need to keep track of their presenter and fight more than just keep the minimum.
At the end of July, the care of generations and our partners took hundreds of families at the National Mall for 60 hours, having a vigil to mark 60 years since the creation of Medicaid. We gathered together in our overall fear of what it means to lose Medicaid. We raised our votes to inform our chosen representatives that we would not allow their cruelty unanswered. And we will allow our fury to cause our commitment to ensure that the next 60 -year aid is not like that.
We deserve a policy that allows us to flourish. To get there, we must continue to gather – not only in crisis, but also in everyday life. Each of us must take on the obligations to show and organize others to require changes.
Only we can plant the seeds for what goes on: the future that should be fought.
At this point, the crisis we need the only, progressive opposition to Donald Trump.
We begin to see how we start to develop on the streets and ballots all over the country: from the Candide company in Mary’s New York Mammani, focused on accessibility, community that protect their neighbors from ice, to senators who oppose weapons.
The Democratic Party has an urgent choice: will it accept a policy that is fundamental and popular, or will continue to insist on the loss of elections with the elites and consultants who brought us here?
At NationWe know on which side we are. Every day we are doing the case for a more democratic and equal world, defending progressive leaders, raising movements, fighting for justice, as well as exposing the oligarchs and corporations that make profits at the expense of all of us. Our independent journalism informs and gives the opportunity to progress across the country and helps bring this policy to new readers ready to join the struggle.
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Thank you for helping us take Trump and create a fair society we know.
With respect
Bhaskar Sunkara
President, Nation
