Health Care by Kafka, Groucho and Trump

Jim Hightower
Tue, 09 Dec 2025 23:00:00 -0800
Opinion

What a mess.

I mean America's corporatized, bureaucratic, profiteering medical system. It's as though the Marx Brothers and Franz Kafka conspired to create it.

Yet, in the midst of that mess, there is one saving grace — namely the everyday workforce of dedicated nurses, therapists, hygienists and other skilled, hands-on professionals who are the true heart of health care.
Updated: Wed Dec 10, 2025

What a mess.

I mean America's corporatized, bureaucratic, profiteering medical system. It's as though the Marx Brothers and Franz Kafka conspired to create it.

Yet, in the midst of that mess, there is one saving grace — namely the everyday workforce of dedicated nurses, therapists, hygienists and other skilled, hands-on professionals who are the true heart of health care.

Astonishingly, though, when Trump & Co. bellowed this year that they intended to reform the medical system and slash costs, guess who they targeted for cuts? Certainly not the lavishly-paid CEOs and corporate price gougers who donate billions to Trump. Instead, they're going after our frontline caregivers, the one segment of the system that prioritizes patient health over corporate profits.

Yet, channeling Kafka's surrealism and Groucho's slapstick, President Donald Trump and his GOP Congress are not only downgrading this vital workforce but also denigrating it. They've directed the U.S. Education Department to decree that nurses are no longer "professionals."

One immediate impact is that many young people who want to pursue careers in patient care will no longer be eligible for the government's student loans for advanced medical courses. This means that non-rich students will effectively be blocked from earning specialized degrees ... and higher salaries. In the bigger picture, Trump's insult to these essential medical professionals amounts to government-enforced plutocracy, mandating inequality, as well as inferior health care.

Moreover, three-fourths of the health-provider jobs Trump wants to degrade are filled by women. Apparently, it's part of his increasing attempts to belittle and bully women. As one nurse says of his attack on her profession: "It's just a smack in the face." For information and action, go to NationalNursesUnited.org.

INSTEAD OF MONOPOLISTIC, PROFITEERING CORPORATIONS, LET'S TRY FREE ENTERPRISE

Having grown up in a small-business family, I'm a big proponent of free enterprise. But I detest corporatism.

The corporate powers try to co-opt the enterprise label, but in fact they are direct opposites and opponents. Indeed, the word "free" in free enterprise is not a benign adjective, but a fiery verb. It expresses the constant struggle by families like mine — Main Street businesses, farmers, artists, co-ops and others — to "free up" their enterprises from the monopoly control and raw political force of domineering financial elites.

That's why I admire the spunk of Azalea Fresh Market in Atlanta, Ga. It's a new supermarket offering high-quality fresh foods at affordable prices to the people in a poor, inner-city neighborhood. Until Azalea opened, a few sad convenience store bananas were the only "fresh" grocery items sold in the area. City officials kept trying to entice major corporate grocery chains to open a store to serve that community. But it was always "no." Mayor Andre Dickens says, "That totally burned me up." So, "Screw it," he declared, "We're gonna do it ourselves."

And they have! Partnering with a small local chain of enterprising grocers, Atlanta's public development fund financed Azalea, which is now providing good food at good prices for customers long disdained by corporatists.

Corporate ideologues mindlessly bark that the public should not be involved in business. Hogwash! When the corporate establishment fails to deliver such basic needs as healthy food, housing and health care — the public can — and must — step into the void. To learn more about the benefits and potential of public enterprises, go to Institute for Local Self-Reliance: ilsr.org.