(search bar didn't give me anything on this)

Hey! I'm pretty new to Marxism and I'm trying to think of healthcare labor in the terms of commodity production, but I don't know if it even applies. I tried googling, but I couldn't find anything relevant.

The way I'm starting is: how much of the total labor time of a given society is dedicated to:

a) preventing or ameliorating the reduction of labor force by

  • preventing diseases, specific or in general;

  • shortening the duration and/or reducing the damage of stablished diseases;

  • rehabilitating the patients who end up with some form of disability due to a disease;

(These are called prevention stages)

b) increasing the labor force with better mother/child health conditions

c) caring for those in need

  • with direct repercussions on labor force and/or demand for healthcare labor e.g. someone leaving their job so they have time to care for a son with a genetic disability; an elderly person needing constant, high cost treatments and interventions due to a diabetic foot and kidney failure;

  • without direct repercussions on labor, or care for care's sake.

Can you guys help me navigate this by providing sources, giving directions or expanding on something? Thanks!

  • Llituro [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Value is equivalent to socially necessary labor time. Healthcare labor requires this amount of time. The only odd thing about it is the human to human element, in large part, service labor is produced on demand and consumed at the same time. The fact that it's wage labor means that it's still largely a commodity though.