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An old friend gave me a call the other day. It was right after the election. He had a question and didn’t know who to ask, so he thought he’d give me a try. After the election he was wondering how the US ever got to the point where we are one of few countries in the world – and the only wealthy one – to not have Universal health Care? Why doesn’t the US have universal health care?

“Geez” I said, “that’s and easy one. First it is because of racism. The old lie that we’d be given something to someone who doesn’t deserve it {wink, wink}. That is the big reason plus some longstanding lies about health habits and morality among minorities. Reason number two is the huge amount of wealth that is extracted through the insurance system. You think those folks are going to give up a cash cow where they get extremely wealthy just by denying use of the health care system to average folks. What a great system they got. And all they have to do is buy – I mean ‘donate’ to political candidates.”

“I knew you’d have a different answer.” he said. “Why did you say race?”

I am a little bit older than he is. So I said “I grew up in a different era than you. The racism was very blatant in those days. ’They don’t deserve it’ and such stuff was heard many times daily. BTW do you know when universal health care was first proposed in the US?” I asked feeling pretty sure he had no idea. And he did have no idea.

So I told him it was back when Teddy Roosevelt was president. “Teddy Roosevelt?!” he said. “Holy smokes!” And I said “think of the racial climate back then. Many folks haven’t moved on from there.”

He simply said that what I said made sense and he would need to think hard about it.

Then I hit him with one more. “Did you know that Mexico will begin universal health care for its citizens in January 2027? You know Trump thinks of Mexico as one of his ’shithole’ countries. I think the universal healthcare is one sign that a country is pretty high up on the civilization chart. So that should be a real embarrassment for the US vis-a-vis Mexico.”

“I’ve never heard that” he said. ‘Yeah” I replied, “I can bet there is a lot of things you have never heard. I can bet when Mexico transistions that if we hear anything about their new system it will be portrayed as bad by our news media.” I said. “After all they are like the insurance companies where thay are making a bundle on the current system where they lie to you.”

He then started listing his outrageous insurance bills, and co-pays and deductibles. He has a diabetic daughter so his insurance and co-pays etc are a huge burden. “Well” I said, ”join me in fighting for universal health care. You got nothing to lose.”