Since the election of Trump, one of the most popular discussions on his policy is health and women’s healthcare. Obama’s Affordable Care Act might be repealed, a program which, though not nearly enough, did provide some subsidies and opportunities for people in need of healthcare coverage to secure it. The plan expands Medicaid and eliminates some bureaucratic steps for health coverage, allows young adults to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26, and even improves access to birth control. However, this system holds up the private practices of insurance companies and pharmaceutical industries geared away from social benefit, which shows the painful financial cost of many on the plan in the form of charges on treatment, drugs promoted by pharmaceutical industries, and gloated cost to use heavy hospital equipment. These problems are not new, and will not become better under the Trump administration if he gets his way. In replace of the Affordable Care Act, Trump will increase tax breaks for the wealthy, and take health insurance away from 20 million Americans, fatal for most who cannot afford treatment out of pocket and do not have a financial safety net. Even if he proposes other solutions better for consumers, most understand that access to healthcare is not going to tangibly improve for the vast majority, under his orders.

Planned parenthood is also under attack, already, threats and calls for defunding coming from Trump, congresspeople, and governors of 10 states or more, including Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Florida. Planned parenthood is an integral resource for especially women and other in poverty who cannot afford other treatment and care. The center performs cancer screenings, pregnancy and STI testing, abortions, and more. Defunding Planned Parenthood would especially disenfranchise women of color and the LGBTQ community, who disproportionately have less access to proper healthcare.

Universal, single-payer healthcare, is widely popular. The system provides coverage for all and is more efficient, and sometimes called single-payer healthcare. Remembering Bernie Sanders’ campaign and call for it, drawing huge crowds, can reenact a feeling of hope, that Americans are on the same side, for the most part, when it come to the core questions around health care accessibility.

Socialist Alternative stands in favor of healthcare for all and safe and accessible access to care for everyone who needs it. We need to form a broad movement to fight for concrete demands to attain the most basic rights possible today, including free, high-quality access to healthcare, education, a green jobs program, and intense reform of the criminal justice system. Since Trump’s election, there have been protests every day all over the world, and these protests can continue to progress in the right direction, but only with the help of the broader working class, students, and anyone else in solidarity against Trump. There are many fighting against a range of issues, all which in some way apply to Trump’s racist, bigoted, and sexist agenda. There is no use in boxing up issues of the environment, criminal justice rights, union rights, etc. In order for these rights to be defended and expanded, they must be fought for by organized actions from broad layers of the working class, under the understanding that the issues are linked as all being a product of the greater capitalist world, the corrupted government stemming from it, and all consequences of capitalism, classism, and inequality. Visit socialistalternative.org for more information!