For-Profit Healthcare Exacerbates Public Health Crises

Sean Siberio – Healthcare worker – Minnesota

In the past week people have been surprised to see the number of healthcare workers laid off. How could this possibly happen, as other healthcare workers are overwhelmed and burnt out under the strain of treating pandemic patients?  

Because our for-profit healthcare system is a mish mash of independent practices, clinics, and hospital chains that do not coordinate and in many cases are in active competition with each other for patients and insurance money. 

The layoffs that are happening in healthcare are on the outpatient side and elective surgeries; with clinics shuttered and elective surgeries cancelled, there has been a revenue crash. The profit motive in healthcare has designed a system focused primarily on the most lucrative surgical procedures, to the detriment of being able to react quickly in a public health emergency.

Ironically many of these laid off workers are being encouraged to apply to hospitals that are seeking a reserve of workers to handle the stress that is coming. Functionally employees are left in a lurch while other systems are frantically trying to onboard staff, creating an uncoordinated mess. Further still, due to our employer-based health insurance system, individuals providing care may be in between plans as most employers require you to work a month or two before your health insurance kicks in, and they are left without care themselves.

The demands of unions must include the continued employment of individuals in the healthcare sector, with an understanding that they provide a ready reserve to hospital systems that may eventually see their staff overworked or sick due to exposure. Employees who cannot be redeployed should not lose their wages or health benefits, and should be recalled as soon as possible for work.

And in the long term, America needs a publicly run, centralized healthcare system addressing health needs, not profit.