Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Healthcare in the USA.

                                                 USA

As the rising young star of the Democrat party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is known for her adept use of social media, sending off impassioned tweets to her 3.9 million followers.

Always Welcome, Laura Theresa Epps Alma-Tadema (1852-1909)

Photo Credit: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum [CC BY-NC-ND]

However, she is scaling back her use of all social media, including giving up Facebook, calling it a public health risk that can lead to “increased isolation, depression, anxiety, addiction, escapism”.

…She added that she was confining her use of social media to the working week.

…Ms Ocasio-Cortez appears to be following a decision taken by many young users. Roughly 50 per cent of US teenagers now say they use Facebook; in 2015 it was 71 percent, Pew Research Center found.

Brian Acton, 47, the co-founder of Whatsapp who sold his company to Facebook in 2014, and Steve Wozniak, 68, Apple’s co-founder, also ditched the platform in the wake of a series of data-harvesting scandals.

(The Times, 2019)

Scaling back to five days a week on Facebook doesn't seem much. However, it's a start. 

*…It was a town hall meeting – essentially a campaign-stop with a live audience – organised by Fox News. The would-be Democratic candidate Bernie Saunders, defying his party’s disapproval of Fox debates, faced the audience and the network interviewers.

The anchors pressed Saunders on his plan to offer a government healthcare insurance option open to all Americans. Then they turned to the audience.

“Raise your hands if you have private insurance.” Most hands were raised. “And how many are willing to transition to a government-run system?” Almost all the hands stayed up. And there was whooping. And applause. And jaws dropping around the nation.

The Good Samaritan, William Small (1843-1931)

Photo Credit: Leicester Arts and Museums Service [CC BY-NC-SA]

…Bethlehem [Pennsylvania] may mark the start of something new: the politics of state-backed healthcare for all Americans supported by voters from across the political spectrum. It’s the second part of the sentence that matters so much.

It was President Truman who first proposed, in 1945, a national health insurance fund run by the federal government. “Communism!” cried opponents, who accused Truman’s supporters of being “followers of the Moscow party line.” The effect of the campaign against universal health coverage was to entrench a post-war divide in American society: on the right you could not support it; on the left you might but had to keep quiet about it or be accused of treacherous leftism.

Until now. What was fascinating about the Fox debate is that many members of the studio audience and those watching at home are willing to contemplate Saunders’ healthcare plans because the existing system is so broken for so many of them. If a Democratic candidate can convince America that universal healthcare is affordable, the deal could be sealed.

…Could this maverick president co-opt the liberal dream of universal healthcare provided by the state? If he wants to be re-elected he might have to. And after Bethlehem, no Democratic candidate will be able to prevaricate…

(Justin Webb, The Times, 2019)

It doesn’t matter who reforms the healthcare system. Just get it done.