Letters | Coronavirus outbreak shows why America needs ‘Medicare for All’

My friends, these are critical and trying times for North America, yet let be it noted that neither the coronavirus pandemic nor Donald Trump has damaged American peace and the exceptionalism of government by consent “of the people, by the people, for the people”.

Since its foundation, the global intelligentsia has remained amazed and enthralled by the economic development of this rebellious country of “no taxation without representation”.

The debate is materially appropriate: Mr Biden speaks of emergency solutions to the Covid-19 crisis, whereas Senator Sanders speaks to the same, and yet is able to highlight how “Medicare for All”, or universal government-run health insurance, can give equal protection in such a crisis and other medical situations.

In the long run, such a system benefits one and all: the rich, the poor, and everyone in between. In Britain, there is a private alternative to the public health system, but it is used mainly by the wealthy, and foreigners who can afford to visit Harley Street doctors and specialists in London.

In the US, health insurance corporations are in competition with each other for profits. Should health care and equal medical protection against imminent threats of rampant infection be matters of profit? Britain, Canada and New Zealand are all doing splendidly with single-payer health care systems without competition and profiteering.