Privatized Health Care Is Modern Feudalism
Luigi Mangione’s Marxist Manifesto on the Tyranny of Capitalist Medicine
The private health care system in capitalist societies is nothing short of a modern feudal order. Instead of lords owning land and extracting wealth from peasants, we have corporate elites who monopolize access to health care, siphoning money from the working class through premiums, deductibles, and denials of coverage. From my perspective as a Marxist, this system is not only unjust—it is unsustainable and must be dismantled.
The Neo-Feudal Lords of Health Insurance
In today’s world, health insurance executives are the aristocrats of misery. They sit atop gilded towers, amassing billions in profits while denying care to those in need. Take the case of CEOs like Brian Thompson, whose company’s profits soar on the backs of denied claims and unrelenting exploitation. These figures are no different from feudal barons, leveraging their control over essential resources—health care, in this case—to maintain power over the masses.
Every worker knows the sting of this exploitation. You pay into a system that promises security but delivers only anxiety. Every denied claim is a reminder that your life has a price tag, and that price is set by someone who values their yacht more than your survival.
The Marxist Analysis of Health Care Feudalism
Marx taught us that capitalism thrives on the exploitation of the proletariat. Nowhere is this clearer than in the health care industry. Private insurance companies are designed to maximize profit by minimizing the care they provide. They prey on the sick and injured, creating a cycle of dependence and debt that ensures the working class remains subservient.
Under this system, the proletariat is bound to their employers—not by chains, but by health insurance. Employer-based health care ties workers to jobs they despise, ensuring a steady stream of labor for the ruling class. This is a sophisticated form of wage slavery, perpetuated under the guise of “benefits.”
The Bourgeois Narrative
Proponents of private health insurance claim that it offers “choice” and “efficiency.” But what kind of choice is it when workers must pick between coverage they can’t afford and medical care they can’t access? What efficiency exists in a system where administrative costs in the U.S. health care system dwarf those of single-payer models worldwide?
The bourgeois narrative is a carefully constructed lie, meant to obscure the exploitative nature of private health insurance. These myths are disseminated through corporate media, think tanks, and political lobbying, all of which work tirelessly to protect the profits of the neo-feudal health care lords.
The Revolutionary Path Forward
If we are to break free from this modern feudalism, the proletariat must seize control of health care. The following steps are essential:
- Expropriation of Private Insurers: Just as feudal lands were reclaimed for the commons, the assets of health insurance companies must be nationalized. These corporations have no right to profit from human suffering.
- Universal Health Care as a Right: Health care must be free and accessible to all, funded through progressive taxation. This would eliminate the parasitic role of private insurers.
- Worker-Led Health Councils: To ensure that health care serves the people, it should be managed democratically by workers and patients, not corporate boards.
- Global Solidarity: The fight for health care justice is not confined to one nation. Workers worldwide must unite to challenge the transnational corporations that profit from illness and despair.
The Legacy of Resistance
Throughout history, Marxist revolutions have sought to dismantle oppressive systems and replace them with structures that serve the people. Health care is no different. It is time to reject the capitalist framing of health as a commodity and embrace the Marxist vision of health care as a universal right.
Privatized health care is the chains that bind the modern worker to capitalist oppression. It is a feudal system in all but name, perpetuated by the greed of a ruling class that thrives on human suffering. As workers, we must break these chains and reclaim health care as a public good. In the words of Marx, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world, unite!”
