Healthcare

Health care is a human right, and a humane and effective public health program must include the provision of healthcare for all people, regardless of their ability to pay or documentation status. Public health policy intersects with housing, criminal justice, environmental justice, racial justice, and workers’ rights, and an effective public health program must include advocacy for wrap-around services for patients in addition to the direct public health issues of equitable availability of resources and keeping hospitals and clinics open and operational in underinvested and impoverished areas, especially on the South and West sides. Under state law, community-oriented mental health clinics can be created and funded through a property tax, which is a valuable stopgap measure, but ultimately such clinics should be funded through progressive taxation rather than regressive property taxes. We recognize that there are communities who have been historically mistreated by our healthcare system, including people of color, immigrants, women, and the LGBTQIA+ community, and we must work as a society to address those harms and create affirming, accessible healthcare for all. We believe that reproductive healthcare must be accessible to all, which includes the right to abortion, birth control, and public health education that encompasses all of the above.