National Single Payer Condemns Acts of U.S. Foreign Aggression, Including Plans for Military Actions Against Venezuela, and the Use of Unilateral Coercive Measures the U.S. Currently Has in Place Against 40 Countries

Summary: National Single Payer, a national, grassroots organization that believes health care is a human right, must be free from profit, and will be achieved through national legislation, opposes the use of tax-payer dollars to fund a military campaign targeting Venezuela and firmly stands against all unilateral coercive measures that cause hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, mostly children’s, every year in 40 countries. We call on the nation to demand our government use our resources to support life and wellbeing at home and abroad.

Tag headlines: U.S. militarism, unilateral coercive measures, Venezuela, national single payer free from profit health care system

Plans for military actions against Venezuela:

National Single Payer condemns the unilateral, unprovoked build-up of military troops and warships in the Caribbean as the Trump administration considers a broad military campaign against Venezuela. Through an undeclared war, the military has already carried out attacks destroying 26 vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, killing almost 100 civilians. The U.S. is spending $18 million per day to deploy U.S. navy warships under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking.  These actions place U.S. service members and civilians in danger when there is limited evidence to support significant Venezuelan participation in illegal drug trade.

Instead of using our resources to support life and wellbeing, the President has instead chosen to put U.S. service members, civilians, and the world in immediate danger.  The use of our collective tax-payer resources to plan unauthorized, unprovoked  military strikes on Venezuela violates domestic law (the War Powers Resolution of the Constitution) and international law ( UN Charter Article 2 (4), Geneva Convention Common Article 3, Geneva Convention Additional Protocol Article 48 (jus in bellies), The Hague Convention Article 5 (2), The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights  Article 6, and the UNCLOS (Law of the Sea). In a dereliction of duty, the House of Representatives voted 213 to 211 against a resolution directing the President to remove U.S. forces in Venezuela without Congressional approval. Earlier this year, Congress passed massive budget cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP food assistance to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Unilateral Coercive Measures:

National Single Payer condemns the practice of imposing unilateral economic sanctions, defined as economic acts of a hostile nature taken by one State to compel a change in the policy of another State. New research demonstrates that this policy tool, used extensively by the U.S. government, is causing half a million deaths around the world every year, including the deaths of over a quarter million children under the age of five. This study, published in The Lancet, examined increased mortality caused by economic sanctions in 152 countries from 1971 to 2021.  Over the course of 50 years, the percentage of the world’s economy subject to unilateral coercive measures increased from 5.4% to 24.7% — primarily imposed by the U.S. government.  This study is not alone, but rather cements a clear consensus in the economic literature that broad unilateral coercive measures, also called economic sanctions, have devastating health and humanitarian consequences for civilian populations.

Unilateral coercive measures impair the procurement of safe drinking water leading to water-borne disease mortality, restrict the import of life-saving drugs, medical equipment and treatments, and can trigger an economic crisis in targeted countries, all contributing to deaths around the world. The practice of imposing unilateral coercive measures, such as those the U.S. currently has in place against some 40 countries, must stop in light of this evidence.

National Single Payer demands that the U.S. government:

1. Immediately cease all hostile and aggressive actions against Venezuela.
2. Resolve its disputes through diplomatic dialogue and peaceful negotiations.
3. Redirect the massive military spending to health and human services, including food assistance, education, and the human right to health care.
4. Remove all unilateral coercive measures and allow affected countries the right to economic self-determination and support of the human rights of their populations.
5. Cease military, diplomatic, financial, corporate, and all other forms of backing for Israel’s military occupation and apartheid system toward the Palestinian people and ensure the immediate unrestricted passage of all humanitarian aid (food, water, medicine, shelter, and electricity) into Gaza.
6. Enact a publicly financed, national, single payer health care program that would provide comprehensive coverage to everyone, eliminate private health insurance, ban for-profit delivery of care, and transform our system from profit-seeking ventures into services organized to serve the people of our country, a system in which all caregivers are freed from corporate control.

By eliminating the administrative burden and profit in our health care system, we could fund a national, single payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all free from profit. Americans understand this and  support such a system. Our tax dollars should be funding care for our communities, like housing, health care, and climate justice, instead of systems of violence like police, prisons, militarism, and immigration detention.

We call on our nation to:

Flood Congress with calls to support the War Powers Resolutions and call the White House to express your support for peace (202-456-1111).

For more information about the humanitarian crisis caused by unilateral coercive measures, please go to https://sanctionskill.org/ and read this article that describes the campaign and includes the webinar, “Blockades and Coercive Measures: Stop the War on Children!”

We encourage all health care professionals to sign the “Sanctions Kill” letter urging the U.S. government to stop killing children with sanctions.

National Single Payer Steering Committee

Dr. Judy Albert is a retired physician. She is a member of the steering committee of National Single Payer.

Dr. Claire Cohen is an African American child and adolescent psychiatrist who has been active in multiple community social justice organizations. She is a member of the steering committee of the Western PA Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare and National Single Payer.

Ed Grystar is co-founder of the Western PA Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare, former Central Labor Council president and labor union representative and a member of the steering committee of National Single Payer.

Ana Malinow, MD worked as a pediatrician with immigrant, refugee, and underserved children before retiring as Clinical Professor of Pediatrics from the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. She is a member of the steering committee of National Single Payer.

Julie Noh-Smith is a healthcare advocate with pharmaceutical industry experience in international healthcare policy.

Kay Tillow is Coordinator of the All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care and a member of the steering committee of National Single Payer.

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