NEA Today - The Education Case for Single-Payer Healthcare Systems

Key Takeaways

The cost of healthcare in the U.S. is rising dramatically, putting it out of reach for too many Americans, including educators and students.

It’s also eating up school district budgets, making it difficult for school boards to spend money on class-size reductions, educator salaries, etc.

The answer, many NEA members believe, is a single-payer healthcare system that would operate without CEO bonuses and huge overhead costs, putting more money into actual healthcare.

Supporting Single-Payer, Supporting Students

Los Angeles social studies teacher Bryant Odega knows the numbers—he also sees the faces in his classroom. “Our students get sick and they still come to school. Their parents get sick and they still go to work,” says Odega, a social-studies teacher in Los Angeles.

In his community, where families work multiple low-wage jobs and often go without insurance, the “emergency room is our healthcare plan,” he says. Research shows that low-income and people of color are more likely to have asthma, to be diabetic, to have chronic illnesses and it’s not because their bodies are different—“this is the result of policy choices,” says Odega. These choices have consequences in his classroom, where “it’s hard to be imaginative when you’re in pain. It’s hard to be a critical thinker when your nose is congested and you feel miserable,” he notes.

Odega’s support for single-payer systems is inextricable from his support for his students. “This is definitely an education issue,” he promises. “My students aren’t just bodies on the seat, but actual human beings who live in a society that claims, on surface, to care about children, but in practice really [doesn’t]. Because if [society] did, [it] would make sure they’d have universal access to healthcare.”

Read more at NEA Today