rESOURCES
Healthcare access and debt:
Access to healthcare in America is deeply unequal, with under-priveleged individuals often unable to afford or access the same quality of healthcare as the wealthy. Rising costs, lack of insurance and limited access to medical facilities disproportionately affect low-income communities, leaving many without preventative care or treatment for chronic conditions. Meanwhile, wealthier Americans can afford comprehensive coverage and cutting-edge treatments highlighting a system where income often detemines health outcomes. Healthcare reform aims to bridge this gap by making care affordable,accessible, and equitable for everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
"Despite over 90% of the United States population having some form of health insurance, medical debt remains a persistent problem. For people and families with limited assets, even a relatively small unexpected medical expense can be unaffordable. For people with significant medical needs, medical debt may build up over time. People living with cancer, for example, have higher levels of debt than individuals who have never had cancer." -healthsystemtracker.org
source:
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/the-burden-of-medical-debt-in-the-united-states/
"In the past five years, more than half of U.S. adults report they've gone into debt because of medical or dental bills, the KFF poll found. A quarter of adults with health care debt owe more than $5,000. And about 1 in 5 with any amount of debt said they don't expect to ever pay it off.
'Debt is no longer just a bug in our system. It is one of the main products," said Dr. Rishi Manchanda, who has worked with low-income patients in California for more than a decade and served on the board of the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt. "We have a health care system almost perfectly designed to create debt.'" -NPR.org
source:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/16/1104679219/medical-bills-debt-investigation
'Debt is no longer just a bug in our system. It is one of the main products," said Dr. Rishi Manchanda, who has worked with low-income patients in California for more than a decade and served on the board of the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt. "We have a health care system almost perfectly designed to create debt.'" -NPR.org
source:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/16/1104679219/medical-bills-debt-investigation
For-Profit Healthcare:
"UnitedHealth Group reported $22 billion in 2023 profits including $5.5 billion in the fourth quarter as its portfolio of health insurance and provider services grew by double-digit percentages.
UnitedHealth Group, a nationwide provider of medical care services under the Optum umbrella and a company that pays for benefits through its UnitedHealthcare health insurance plans, said 2023 revenue jumped 14.6%, or $47.5 billion, to $371.6 billion, “driven by serving more people, more comprehensively across its offerings,” the company said Friday. For the fourth quarter, UnitedHealth reported nearly $5.5 billion in profits as revenue increased to $94.4 billion from $82.7 billion in the year-ago period." -Forbes.com
source:
Current state of healthcare:
"The Affordable Care Act (ACA1) was jammed through Congress in 2010 with several enticing promises. Fourteen years later, we look back at the very different real-world results: At least a dozen significant promises were broken.
The ACA was supposed to “bend the cost curve” downward, but health care costs increased instead.
Premiums for individual market plans doubled.
Although touted as a means of reducing the deficit, the ACA has added hundreds of billions to cumulative deficits and is a significant contributor to the growing national debt. The most famous broken promise was that people would not lose preferred insurance plans and doctors.
Seven million consumers had their plans canceled already by the end of 2013.
Medicaid was supposed to be the cheaper way of expanding insurance coverage. In the real world, the per enrollee cost of Medicaid expansion is nearly 60 percent greater than what experts projected." -Paragonhealthinstitute.org
source:
https://paragoninstitute.org/private-health/the-falsehoods-of-obamacare-a-dozen-broken-promises-
seven-million-canceled-plans-and-hundreds-of-billion-in-debt/
Medicare for all:
"Medicare for All would transform the program into a single-payer health insurance program that would provide all Americans with healthcare coverage. Single-payer healthcare systems, also called universal healthcare, are currently in place in various countries worldwide. These healthcare systems can have differing elements, such as:
how the health insurance is paid for
how the healthcare is delivered
how the health facilities are owned and operated" - Healthline.com
source:
https://www.healthline.com/health/medicare/medicare-for-all#what-it-is
"This bill establishes a national health insurance program that is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Among other requirements, the program must (1) cover all U.S. residents; (2) provide for automatic
enrollment of individuals upon birth or residency in the United States; and (3) cover items and services that are medically necessary or appropriate to maintain health or to diagnose, treat, or rehabilitate a health condition, including hospital services, prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse treatment, dental and vision services, and home- and community-based long-term care." - Congress.gov
source:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1129
The Medicare for All Act:
Universal Health Care
"This bill establishes a federally administered Medicare-for-all national health insurance program that will be implemented over a four year period" -sanders.senate.gov
source:
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Exec-Summary_Medicare-for-All-2023.pdf
Jury Nullification:
"Jury What is Jury Nullification?
Other terms you may hear are conscientious acquittal, juror veto, or jury pardon
Jury nullification occurs when a jury returns a Not Guilty verdict even though jurors believe beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant has broken the law.
"If you have a conscientious belief that acquitting the defendant is a just verdict, even if you believe he or she has technically violated the law, there are only two words you need to know: Not Guilty.
It is illegal for a judge to direct a jury that it must deliver a guilty verdict, jurors cannot be punished for their verdicts whatever their reasons may be, and a jury's verdict of not guilty cannot be overturned.
Jurors may wish to nullify for a number of reasons, including a belief that the law is unjust or unjustly applied, belief that the penalty for violating the law is too harsh, or belief that there are mitigating circumstances that would make strict enforcement of the law unjust in a particular case. We recommend not openly discussing jury nullification during deliberations. Courts have decided that they can remove jurors for considering their option to conscientiously acquit. This applies anytime until the verdict is officially rendered". -Fija.org
source:
Additional info can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/jury_nullification
https://legaldictionary.net/jury-nullification/
https://ir.law.utk.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=rgsj
Right to due process:
The fifth amendment of the United States Constitution states:
"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-5/right-to-due-process-overview
The right to due process is a constitutional right that guarantees fair procedures and a fair trial:
"Due Process Clause: The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment states that no one can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
Procedural due process requires that the government give a person notice, the opportunity to be heard, and a decision by a neutral decision-maker before taking action that denies them life, liberty, or property.
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has used the Due Process Clause to:
Protect rights that are not specifically listed in the Constitution, such as the right to privacy
Extend the Bill of Rights to the states through a practice known as “incorporation”
Due Process Defined and How It Works, With Examples and Types
The Fifth Amendment also includes a Due Process Clause, which applies to the federal government.
The Due Process Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States states:
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is the source of an array of constitutional rights, including many of our most cherished—and most controversial. Consider the following rights that the Clause guarantees against the states: procedural protections, such as notice and a hearing before termination of entitlements such as publicly funded medical insurance; individual rights listed in the Bill of Rights, including freedom of speech, free exercise of religion,the right to bear arms, and a variety of criminal procedure protections;fundamental rights that are not specifically enumerated elsewhere in the Constitution, includingthe right to marry, the right to use contraception, and the right to abortion.
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment echoes that of the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth
Amendment, however, applies only against the federal government. After the Civil War, Congress adopted a number of measures to protect individual rights from interference by the states. Among them was the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits the states from depriving 'any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.'” -constitutioncenter.org
source:
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/articles/amendment-xiv/clauses/701
Contact your local representatives:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/
Know your rights:
https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights
https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/what-can-the-police-arrest-you-for-at-a-protest.html
https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/first-amendment