Arizona has begun denying transplants
to working-class patients because they are too expensive to insure. On Oct. 1,
2010, under its Medicaid program, the Health Care Cost Containment System,
Arizona decided to reduce coverage for transplants. This has caused pain to
many families throughout the state—but to two families in particular, a pain
that cannot be repaired.
On Nov. 28, 2010, Mark Price was the
first person to die because of the Medicaid cuts. A month later, a second
person died from being denied a transplant. Jan Brewer, the governor of
Arizona, has doubled down on her defense of the cuts but is beginning to show a
willingness to review the policy. If the policy is continued, 250,000 people
could be dropped from AHCCS enrollment.
The capitalists care nothing about the
health of their workers, and the for-profit system is proving unable to even
meet the basic demands of health care for workers.
