– Qemal Cicollari, Chairman of the CPA –
For a few days now, there has been a loud political and media uproar regarding a criminal corruption scandal involving some doctors at the Oncology Hospital in Tirana. According to information provided by written and electronic media, several doctors at the state Oncology Hospital in Tirana have abused their duties. They sold expensive medications to cancer patients and treated them in their private hospitals in violation of the law, aiming to secure maximum profits by exploiting the disease and suffering of cancer patients. Public opinion has been deeply shaken by this monstrous crime of the “white coats” with exploitative and inhuman mentality and spirit.
After this inhuman crime came to light, bourgeois politicians and rulers, both in government and opposition, whether socialist or democratic, rushed to treat and exploit this crime for their political interest. The neo-fascist bourgeois Democratic Party of Sali Berisha in opposition accused the neo-Ballist socialist bourgeois government of Edi Rama of being solely responsible for this great crime against humanity due to its misgovernance and corrupt policies in the health care sector. The neo-Ballist socialist bourgeois government of Edi Rama denies this accusation from the opposition and tries to treat this criminal, painful and ugly issue as something coincidental, unrelated to its governance in the health care sector.
In support of this demagogic policy, the neo-Ballist socialist bourgeois Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by the Minister of Health, hastened to organize a meeting with the doctors of the University Hospital Centre of Tirana on July 1, 2024, “distancing and condemning” this criminal and ugly inhuman act. Prime Minister Edi Rama called this monstrous crime of the doctors against cancer patients “a crime against humanity.” However, he declared that this inhuman crime in the health care sector “has nothing to do with his governance, and his government bears no political or moral responsibility!!!”
But who bears political and moral responsibility for this “crime against humanity” under the shadow of the governance of “His Majesty” Edi Rama? Does this irresponsible, unscrupulous and demagogic Prime Minister understand the simple fact that these criminal doctors, as he himself says, did not fall from the sky nor came illegally from another planet, but carried out their illegal and criminal activities precisely under his governmental “estate” in Albania?
According to this absurd and laughable “reasoning” of this irresponsible Prime Minister, the blame and responsibility for this “crime against humanity” lie solely with the criminal doctors who have secured maximum profits and increased their capitals, precisely under the shadow of his “non-criminal” governance!
In such political circumstances, every ordinary citizen of this country has the right to question and hold accountable this anti-people and demagogic Prime Minister as to why he did not discover and take any administrative measures against his officials and government members involved in crimes, even in the health care sector, before these big and numerous criminal scandals exploded in this sector.
The reactionary and thoughtless bourgeois Prime Minister Edi Rama makes such absurd and laughable declarations because he is guided by the reactionary and anti-people bourgeois philosophy which considers the people “a brainless mob” who can be deceived and manipulated whenever and however he wants.
However, before the saliva of the demagogic, absurd and laughable justifications of the bourgeois Prime Minister Edi Rama at the University Hospital Centre of Tirana could dry, yesterday, on July 4, 2024, the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPAK) issued an arrest warrant for Ilir Beqia, the former minister in Edi Rama’s government, accusing him of “abuse of office.” Thus, it becomes very clear in the light of day that the big and numerous scandals and crimes, even in the health care sector, originate in the offices of the bourgeois state led by the bourgeois Prime Minister Edi Rama himself. The numerous and undeniable facts of corruption and crimes in the health care sector during Edi Rama’s governance show that the crime of the Oncology Hospital doctors is just the tip of the iceberg of corruption and crimes in health care. For this, it suffices to recall the accusations of abuse of office, corrupt tenders and concessions such as the hundreds of millions of dollars in “check-ups,” etc., which have also been subject to investigation by justice institutions like SPAK, etc.
To understand the essence of this issue, it should be emphasized that the crime of the Oncology Hospital doctors is not an isolated and coincidental event but an objective negative phenomenon of health care in capitalist Albania.
The history of capitalism in Albania for over 34 years shows with numerous undeniable facts that the people are paying with their lives and health for the many great crimes of the anti-people and inhuman policies of the bourgeois state in the health care sector.
The history of capitalism in Albania for over 34 years shows with numerous undeniable facts that the ruling bourgeois class and its bourgeois state (a handful of capitalists and oligarchs) in the health care sector ruthlessly exploit the working class and working masses, the people, by extracting great profits not only from their toil and blood but also from the life and health of the sick.
Beyond this great hypocritical and demagogic noise of the neo-fascist bourgeois Democratic Party of Sali Berisha in opposition and the neo-Ballist socialist bourgeois party of Prime Minister Edi Rama in government, it is essential to make the people aware of who the real culprits of this tragedy and crime against the people are.
To uncover the main real culprits of the crimes against the people, even in the health care sector, in capitalism, it is necessary to analyse and uncover, based on Marxist-Leninist science, the essence and class exploitative content of health care in capitalism, the causes and objective conditions of the bourgeois exploitation which gives rise to these inhuman crimes against the people and the tragic consequences for life and health.
What Is the Class Exploitative Essence of Capitalist Enterprise (Business) in the Field of Health Care in Capitalism?
Marxist-Leninist science teaches us, and the experience of capitalism has fully proven this lesson, that in the capitalist system, under the conditions of private capitalist ownership over the means of production, every capitalist enterprise (business), including capitalist enterprise in the field of health care, in its essence, aims to secure maximum profits by ruthlessly exploiting the working class (proletariat) and working masses, the people.
In capitalism, as history and the current objective reality show, health care services exist in two forms:
1. In the form of private health care services (private business);
2. In the form of state or public health care services (state business).
1 — Private health care services, as history and the current objective reality show, are private capitalist property of individual capitalists or joint-stock companies (groups of capitalists). This private capitalist health care service in capitalism is created and run by individual capitalists (doctors or non-doctors) or joint-stock companies (groups of capitalists), with the aim of extracting maximum profits by exploiting the working class (proletariat) and working masses, the people, directly in the productive activity in the health care sector or in the non-productive sector (trade of medicines and health care service fees, etc.), but also by exploiting workers, peasants, the unemployed, etc., in other words, the people, who need health care services.
This is the capitalist exploitative essence of private capitalist enterprise (business) in the health care sector in capitalism.
2 — State or public health care services in capitalism, as history and the current objective reality show, are private capitalist property of the capitalist state, as a representative of the bourgeois class as a whole. This state health care service in capitalism is created and run by the capitalist state with the aim of extracting maximum profits by exploiting the working class (proletariat) and working masses, the people, through the collection of taxes and levies at the expense of the people. This capitalist exploitation of the working class and working masses, the people, by the capitalist class through its capitalist state is an additional exploitation.
This is the class exploitative capitalist essence of state capitalist health care services (business) in capitalism.
In capitalism, as the objective reality shows, the capitalist state is not interested in the health of the people. The state budget for health care is almost the smallest among all its indicators. State health care services for the people are in a miserable state, even though the people pay large taxes and levies for this health care service, etc., etc. The capitalist state allocates part of its health care budget to capitalists and oligarchs involved in health care business, thus showing that the state in capitalism is a servant of the ruling bourgeois class.
In capitalism, as the objective reality shows, the aim of capitalists and oligarchs in the health care service is maximum profit.
In capitalism, as objective reality shows, the products of the health care service (medicines, etc.) are commodities, the property of capitalists and oligarchs involved in this capitalist enterprise (business) or of the capitalist state. This health care commodity is sold in the living market of the sick at prices determined by the will of the capitalists only if it brings them profits.
In capitalism, as objective reality shows, these health care commodities and services cannot be bought by poor people who do not have money, i.e., workers, peasants, the unemployed, pensioners, etc. The poor sick, workers, peasants, the unemployed, pensioners, etc., who do not have money or health insurance, cannot buy or secure medicines and health care services, consequently they cannot treat their illnesses, which often leads to the disability of the sick, or worse, to a quick and certain death. Thus, in capitalism, those without money die from diseases. According to information from electronic and written media, and declarations from domestic and foreign state institutions, hundreds and thousands of sick people die in capitalism every year because they do not have money to buy health care services, i.e., medicines and medical services.
In capitalism, as objective reality shows, to avoid this situation and to mask its class capitalist nature, capitalists and oligarchs in the health care business, as well as the capitalist state, introduce various health care insurances and policies that are nothing more than the same class capitalist exploitation in the health care sector.
What Are the Main Causes and Objective Conditions Which Give Rise to Crimes and Negative Phenomena in the Field of Health Care in Capitalism?
As stated above, Marxist-Leninist science teaches us, and the experience of capitalism has fully proven this lesson, that in the capitalist system, under the conditions of private capitalist ownership over the means of production, every capitalist enterprise (business), including the capitalist enterprise in the field of health care, in its essence, aims to secure maximum profits by ruthlessly exploiting the working class (proletariat) and working masses, the people.
In capitalism, as the objective reality shows, under the conditions of private capitalist ownership over the means of production, health care institutions are transformed into profit-making enterprises (businesses) by individual capitalists or joint-stock companies (groups of capitalists) or by the capitalist state. Health care, as a result, becomes a lucrative commodity that capitalists sell in the market at the highest possible price to the people in need of health care services. This situation leads to the ruthless exploitation of the working class and working masses, the people, through the health care service, and thus increases the profits of capitalists.
This profit-driven capitalist health care service, in its essence, does not serve the health of the people but serves the capitalists and oligarchs to increase their profits at the expense of the people.
This is the essence and the main cause of the crimes and negative phenomena in the field of health care in capitalism, and it is an inherent feature of the capitalist system.
What Is the Alternative Solution to the Crimes and Negative Phenomena in the Field of Health Care in Capitalism?
Marxist-Leninist science teaches us that the alternative to the crimes and negative phenomena in the field of health care in capitalism lies in the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of socialism.
In socialism, as objective reality shows, health care services are public property and serve the health of the working class and working masses, the people. In socialism, health care services are provided free of charge to the people, and the state allocates significant funds to ensure the health of the people. The aim of the socialist state is to ensure the health of the people, not to extract profits from their diseases. In socialism, health care services are a fundamental human right, guaranteed by the state.
In socialism, the state plans and organizes health care services in such a way as to prevent and treat diseases, ensuring the health of the people and increasing their life expectancy. In socialism, there is no place for private profit-driven health care services which exploit the people. Health care services are managed by the socialist state and are oriented towards the well-being and health of the people.
Thus, the solution to crimes and negative phenomena in the field of health care in capitalism lies in the establishment of socialism, which serves the health and well-being of the working class and working masses, the people.
(Translated from the Albanian original)
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