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The healthcare bill, hated by the Republicans and coddled by the Democrats, has spurred much heated debate in the past few years. Bloggers argue about its contents; teachers lecture about its advantages; Rush Limbaugh rants about its evils. However, I wish to set up a new area for discussion; my proposition is that the healthcare bill has Marxist elements.

Marxism originated with and was named after Karl Marx, a German philosopher (1818-1883), whose Communist Manifesto became the manual for communism, or socialism. Communism in history has had interest in communal societies for the betterment of the community as a whole. The system is an economic, social and political one “based on a collective society with land, property, and economic activities controlled by the state” (Lansford 9). Lansford goes on to say that “the ultimate goal of communism is to create a society in which everyone is equal and there are no social or economic classes” (9). The two theories of Marx that were chosen for this essay, the theory of social classes and the theory of private property, are the foundational theories of Marx.

The first theory I will examine is the theory of social classes. Marx calls the two classes the “bourgeoisie” and the “proletariat”. The different classes demonstrate the inequality of society. The bourgeoisie are the capitalist factory owners who force the proletariat to work long hours for low wages while the owner lines his pocket with profit. The proletariat on the other hand “instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class” (Marx 15). Marx calls the lower class to unite and overthrow the oppression of the bourgeoisie. The two classes would combine, after the bourgeoisie had been stripped of their excess wealth, to form a one-class communal society.
Marx also adamantly desired to abolish private property. He was sure this theory would diminish the reign of the bourgeoisie as the regulators of economy. Private property, Marx believed, further caused inequality in societies. The proper way to eradicate it would be to nationalize the “factories and means of production” (Marx 53) and other normally private businesses.

Over the years in America, Marx’s theories have shown undertones in different legislation. Perhaps the most well-known is Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Social Security Act of 1935, a bill that has both plagued and blessed later American generations. This common concern for the common well-being is and has been a prevalent issue in American politics. The healthcare bill of 2010, also known as “Obamacare”, is perhaps the hottest issue in debates today. According to its website, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, H.R. 3590 has “given Americans new rights and benefits, by helping more children get health coverage, ending lifetime and most annual limits on care, allowing young adults under 26 to stay on their parent’s health insurance, and giving patients access to recommended preventive services without cost.”

First, the question to be addressed is how this bill proposes to equalize society. Section 152 of the bill states that everyone will be equally provided for under the bill whether they be citizens or illegal immigrants. The government further seeks to equalize how much each person gets and who gets it. Another way to call this portioning of the wealth is “rationing”. Section 203 points out that the government will indeed be in charge of rationing the benefits, and Section 1145 rations cancer treatments. No matter how much is paid in taxes or if taxes are paid at all, no matter how ill or how needy a patient is, everyone will receive equal care.
Second, since private enterprise is the backbone of capitalism, Marx desperately tried to find a way to abolish it. In the healthcare bill, the government tries to do away with privatization of healthcare. Not only will the government regulate and ration healthcare, they will mandate coverage and involvement in the government-run programs. Section 205 d3 automatically enrolls Medicare and Medicaid patients in government healthcare, and Section 1131 controls all private healthcare services. The government will also regulate and mandate Planned Parenthood and living will conferences (Sec. 1308 and Sec. 1233 Fiii).

For Marx this way of caring for the basic needs of people is not only permissible but perfectly acceptable. Although Marx did not specifically consider healthcare in his Communist Manifesto, he did consider public and free education, and it is certainly not hard to imagine where his sentiments would lie had healthcare been an issue during his lifetime. Like all earned property or capital, healthcare would be “transformed into collective property, into property that belongs to all members of society . . . the social character of the property, . . . loses its class characteristics” (Marx 44).

In conclusion, the two foundational theories of Marx—a single-class society and abolition of private property—can be found in the healthcare bill. Marx’s philosophy has made its way into American society. Each citizen must study history to see what socialism can do and whether it will be tolerated, even in healthcare.