If you went back in time - say, 20 or 25 years ago - and you picked up a progressive, left leaning magazine - say, adbusters or mother jones - you would very regularly read warnings about the manufactured needs of medicine and healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
Barely an issue of such a periodical could pass without dire warnings of a future in which big pharma and insurance interests would convince us, through advertising, that we were foremost consumers of "healthcare".
What happened ?
The progressive left is now fully, fervently convinced that "healthcare" is a basic priority of human life. It is a rampant consumerism that reaches far beyond - and profoundly deeper - than the fears that good people have always had.
Healthcare has long been seen as a basic right in many places and even the Republican Party in the U.S. now supports health insurance for everyone.
The parent seems to conflate healthcare with pharmaceuticals and other specific forms of healthcare. IIRC, the warnings were that big pharma was pushing pills on people, something that has some evidence behind it. As an analogy, I think an effective military also is essential, but that doesn't mean I don't think big military contractors don't push needless or dangerous products on the public.
Barely an issue of such a periodical could pass without dire warnings of a future in which big pharma and insurance interests would convince us, through advertising, that we were foremost consumers of "healthcare".
What happened ?
The progressive left is now fully, fervently convinced that "healthcare" is a basic priority of human life. It is a rampant consumerism that reaches far beyond - and profoundly deeper - than the fears that good people have always had.
It didn't have to be this way.