Certainly, there is a need to occupy healthcare. Healthcare is
essential, and the prevention and treatment that happens in
clinics and hospitals, emergency rooms and community health
centers, is integral to improving and saving lives. Yet, while
medical care is essential, it accounts for only an estimated
10-15% of preventable mortality in the U.S. The true causes of
our country’s poor health outcomes and health inequities – and
thereby the real solutions to improving health – are not rooted
in the provision of healthcare. They are rooted in communities:
in sidewalks and parks, in access to healthy food and adequate
housing, in clean air and safe neighborhoods. What does this
mean? It means that to alter health outcomes and inequities, we
must go beyond occupying healthcare. We must occupy the junk
food and fast food industries, whose marketing power and
lobbying power (leading to the maintenance of skewed
agricultural subsidies) impact what we eat and what is available
for us to eat. We must occupy the crimi