T
he U.S. healthcare system is rooted in racism and our current healthcare policies perpetuate systemic inequity by creating and maintaining conditions that lead to adverse health outcomes for communities of color. The growing power of the financial sector in the healthcare industry has fundamentally changed the healthcare business model to center profits rather than patients. This has come at the expense of BIPOC communities in particular, who have been most harmed by cuts to emergency services, rising drug costs, disinvestment in public health programs, and Wall Street buyouts of healthcare facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how our financialized healthcare system is set up to treat communities of color as sacrifice zones.
ACRE is fighting for a system of free, comprehensive healthcare for all that enshrines healthcare as a fundamental human right rather than a source of profit.
Related reports & projects:
- Read our August 2020 report on how the high costs of prescription drugs extract wealth from communities of color: Poi$on: How Big Pharma’s Racist Price Gouging Kills Black and Brown Folks
- Read our April 2020 report demanding that corporations swiftly and publicly support the Defense Production Act, which sought to speed and coordinate the production of PPE, tests, ventilators and other medical equipment urgently needed in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: Unmasked: The Corporations Backing a Lobbying Campaign Against the Use of the Defense Production Act