3. It’s bringing significant issues to light.  A blog post on Ascenta Health argues the healthcare system, “is an issue of equal concern,” compared to the Occupy Wall Street movement. According to the post, the system suffers from the same corporate and political “schemes” that undermine the notion of democracy and create social injustice. “Our healthcare system is actually a ‘profit-care’ system,” the post reads. “Big Pharma, ‘un-healthy’ food corporations, privatized healthcare providers, and insurance companies all stand to lose a lot of business in a society that values health over disease.” The post continued by claiming governments spend very little on health education, the dietary recommendations of federal agencies are largely funded by corporations, and if an American is ill, he/she is more likely to go into debt. “This debt burden gives governments and corrupt corporations more power over you,” the blog concluded. 

4. It’s demanding more attention. According to the blog Collaborative Care, it’s time for healthcare to have an “Occupy Wall Street moment.” “Would anyone argue that healthcare it not broken?” the author wrote. “At the heart of this brokenness lies fragmentation that perpetuates this brokenness.” The post continues by questioning why the public isn’t more outraged about the broken healthcare system.  “Maybe healthcare has not had it’s ‘Wall Street’ moment because there is no one place the national community can gather to express their outrage,” the author wrote. “Yes, we advocate in our own unique ways – write letters to our legislators, visit them and speak up in town hall meetings, but is this sufficient? Even if we had a special street corner to meet to talk about healthcare, would we?” 

5. It has noteworthy ties to the insurance industry.  Lisa Patrick-Mudd, blog post author at the site Single Payer Now, compared today’s Occupy Healthcare movement to a similar organized movement two years ago, when demonstrations took place across the country at 15 health insurance company offices. “October 2009 was in the heat of the health reform debate, and long-time universal healthcare activists were encouraging a single payer solution, or at the very least, a public option. Neither of these ideas were taken seriously, due to the fact that the legislation was basically written by insurance company executives,” she wrote. Coincidentally, she continued, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is now under threat of being ruled unconstitutional for including an individual mandate, the “primary mechanism” for cost savings and the real “meat” of the bill, Patrick-Mudd wrote. “Activists, including myself, were very disappointed and frustrated that our message was not being heard…fast forward two years later, mass protests on Wall Street and across the globe. Demonstrators calling for an end to corporate person-hood, egregious tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, and an end to the billions of dollars that get funneled into Washington and control politicians.” 

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