COVID-19: Social Work’s Opportunity to Revitalize Advocacy for a Universal, Single-Payer Healthcare System

Yingling, Marissa E.

The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing failures of the for-profit health insurance system in the USA. This social commentary briefly reviews short-term policies that have been enacted to address immediate health insurance needs during the pandemic as well as long-term policies that have been implemented and proposed to solve the shortcomings of this system. Prior to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the National Association of Social Workers advocated for a single-payer health care system. The author argues that the COVID-19 pandemic is a watershed moment offering social work an ideal opportunity to revitalize its advocacy and commitment to a single-payer health care system grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which asserts that health care is a human right.