As Americans endure the high prices of food, gasoline, housing, medication, and more under President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, a coalition of over 325 organizations argued Monday that “now is the time for Medicare for All.”
“Our democracy is struggling, and the status quo is not working. Too many corporate-backed politicians continue to push for a ‘business as usual’ approach while wages stagnate, public goods and services erode, and billionaires amass grotesque amounts of wealth,” says the coalition’s open letter.
“How can one feel optimism for our future when over 40% of us are carrying around the burden of medical debt?” the letter asks, citing data from KFF. “How can we plan for our futures when we can’t afford to go to the doctor or cover rent?”
According to the coalition:
We need an agenda that working-class people and everyday Americans can rally behind. Without one, far-right, fascist politicians are filling that void. This fascist agenda redirects people’s rightful anger at our system’s failures to unjustly place blame on immigrants, low-income people, and people of color. It’s time to acknowledge that failing to provide transformational policies and hope to the working class has allowed fascism to rise and hold on to power. It’s time to challenge the corrupt CEOs who profit off despair. To show people real solutions that can work.
No one can fix our rigged economy overnight. Our structural inequality is decades in the making. But one piece of the solution is to take on one of the largest industries in our country: healthcare.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) have repeatedly introduced the Medicare for All Act. While support for the bill among elected Democrats and the US public has grown, the legislation hasn’t progressed in either chamber, which are both narrowly controlled by the GOP.
However, “we may face a once-in-a-generation opportunity to legislate on healthcare in 2029,” notes the letter. While the midterms are less than five months away, enacting a federal Medicare for All system would likely require electing more members of Congress and a new president who would support such legislation in the November 2028 election.
“We need to rally behind the boldest possible reform, Medicare for All, that brings together the broadest possible movement, not overly complex incremental measures that prop up the same systems we’re seeing fail under the weight of attacks by Trump and Republicans,” the groups argued. “The American people are hungry for bold ideas that reform fundamental institutions that have failed them for too long. And they are looking for leaders who will take on powerful interests and fight for working people.”
“Now is the time to organize and inspire!” the coalition stressed. “A small minority of skeptical healthcare policy wonks may try to convince us to scale back, that structural change isn’t winnable. The reality is that alternative proposals don’t move us towards Medicare for All and complicate our already broken system. Halfway measures allow corporations to continue profiting off the sick.”
The letter urges members of Congress “to stop listening to the political consultants and start listening to the people,” and Americans nationwide to “join us in dreaming of an economy that works for all of us. Where workers get paid a living wage and have expanded and enforced rights. A future where people can afford safe, healthy, and affordable housing and utilities. Where schools are robustly funded.”
“A core part of that vision is making healthcare a human right,” the letter emphasizes. “Americans understand we must get corporate greed out of our healthcare system once and for all.”
The letter was circulated Monday by the consumer watchdog Public Citizen, whose healthcare policy advocate, Eagan Kemp, said in a statement that “the massive momentum for Medicare for All should serve as a wake-up call to all who profit from our broken healthcare system and those who do their bidding.”
“Everyday Americans are tired of watching the pigs at the healthcare trough gorge themselves day after day while hundreds of millions of people in the wealthiest country in the world suffer from inadequate access to care, delays and denials, and crushing medical debt,” Kemp argued. “Medicare for All would end the ability of corporations to put greed ahead of people’s needs and would finally guarantee that everyone in the US can get the care they require.”
“The movement for Medicare for All is growing by leaps and bounds because the people are demanding change,” he added. “It is time those in power meet the moment and fight for the healthcare system we need and that the people are demanding, Medicare for All.”
Coalition members include the Democratic Socialists of America, Indivisible, MoveOn, National Nurses United, National Organization for Women, One Fair Wage, Our Revolution, People’s Action Institute, Physicians for a National Health Program, Progressive Democrats of America, RootsAction, Sunrise Movement, United We Dream Action, and other organizations that advocate for people with disabilities, seniors, women’s rights, workers, and more.
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