Press Release: Medicare for All is Only Systemic Solution to the Healthcare Crisis, COVID-19 and Beyond
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: March 26, 2021
Contact:
Parker Breza, (612) 383-9555, parker@progressivecaucuscenter.org or
Jessica Juarez Scruggs, (206) 321-0803, jessica@progressivecaucuscenter.org
Medicare for All is Only Systemic Solution to the Healthcare Crisis, COVID-19 and Beyond say Health Practitioners and Policymakers
WASHINGTON – Last night, the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center, Social Security Works, and Act.TV hosted A Remedy for Recovery: Medicare for All During COVID-19, a tele-town hall viewed by more than 10,000 people, discussing how COVID-19 has made even more clear the need to put our collective healthcare over corporate profits for a few greedy insurance executives. The discussion featured special guests Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Dr. Micah Johnson, Dr. Donald Berwick, Dr. Sanjeev Sriram, Melinda St. Louis of Public Citizen, and Sofia Sepulveda of the Texas Organizing Project.
Over the past year more than 27 million people across the country were kicked off their health insurance after losing their job due to the pandemic, which led to a shocking 40% of COVID infections and 30% of deaths tied to people without health insurance according to a new report from Public Citizen. This tragedy is the result of policy decisions. Medicare for All is the solution to recovering from the pandemic while ensuring guaranteed, quality healthcare for all––no exceptions.
For more information on the Medicare for All Act of 2021 and what it would mean for the future of healthcare in the U.S. read the CPC Center’s new report, “We Are All in This Together: COVID-19 and the Case for Medicare for All.”
The full livestream broadcast is available on the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center’s Facebook page.
“In a country where we tie health care to jobs, a mass unemployment crisis because of a pandemic turned into a mass uninsured crisis during one,” said Congresswoman Jayapal (WA-07). “This devastating crisis has only underscored how our broken, for-profit, employment-based health care system leaves millions of people behind. It is undeniable that Medicare for All would’ve strengthened our response to the pandemic, and would have allowed everyone across America to seek necessary health service with the security they deserve.”
“Everybody has a place in this. In the past, conversations were almost always about how we provide healthcare for low-income people. And don’t get me wrong, that should be enough! But even people who have private insurance in our system are not well served by it. Too many people are failed by this system and we could do better,” said Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, physician, educator, and author of the book Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide. “[Medicare for All] is coming, and what we do right now, how we choose to make use of this moment, will dictate when and if we get it, and so I hope we make the right decisions.”
“We know that grassroots organizing can defeat the healthcare industry for health reform because it’s happened before, and that’s why we have Medicare. It was the organizing by seniors, and the labor movement, that when the political window opened they were ready. Just like Medicare for All is going through the process of committee hearings and markups, and getting more sponsors onto the bill, so that it is ready when the moment comes,” said Dr. Micah Johnson, physician, policy advisor, and author of the book Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide. “Universal healthcare is one of the pieces of great unfinished business in our society and it will be a historic achievement when universal healthcare is passed in this country.
“Right now, healthcare is a repair shop, and although we should do every organ transplant that can help, and every cardiac surgery that can help, and every chemotherapy that can help, we need to understand the causes of illness don’t lie inside healthcare, they must be worked on in communities––the social determinants of health. And right now healthcare is confiscating resources from so many other areas––early childhood education, food security, housing security, that create the illnesses,” said Dr. Donald Berwick President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement and former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Obama Administration.
“With Medicare for All, your humanity is your eligibility. Our healthcare system splits people into so many fragments of deserving and undeserving, with people of color churning in and out of coverage,” said Dr. Sanjeev Sririam, pediatrician, health justice commentator, and co-founder of the All Means All campaign at Social Security Works. “Rather than scrutinize a person's worthiness in healthcare, Medicare for All keeps it simple––if you are a person living in America you’re covered.”
“Medicare for All is the solution to our inequitable, expensive, and inefficient healthcare system. The facts and the moral imperatives are on our side––this is a political challenge that we face. We can’t outspend the private insurance companies and big Pharma, but we can mobilize a massive grassroots movement powerful enough to overcome their influence,” said Melinda St. Louis, Director of Public Citizen’s Medicare for All campaign. “For instance, hundreds of efforts are underway in red, blue and purple districts to build local coalitions and win municipal resolutions in support of Medicare for All. Already, more than 55 cities and counties as diverse as Los Angeles, Knoxville, Philadelphia, South Bend, New Orleans, Tampa, Putney, Vt., Bethlehem, PA and Kalamazoo County, MI have passed resolutions in support of Medicare for All.”
“During the beginning of the pandemic we saw how hospital workers, frontline workers, grocery workers, teachers, and delivery drivers were deemed ‘heroes’ and ‘essential.’ We also saw the insistence to keep our economy going, and thus, putting our community in danger. We have prioritized jobs rather than people, and prioritized protecting wealth instead of protecting the most vulnerable,” said Sofia Sepulveda, healthcare organizer for the Texas Organizing Project, a Center for Popular Democracy affiliate organization.“Our representatives need to support Medicare for All in order for our population to continue thriving, not just surviving.”
“COVID-19 has made even more clear the need to put our collective healthcare over corporate profits for a few greedy insurance executives. These are policy choices, and we can and must choose differently,” said Hebah Kassem (MPH), organizing and policy associate at the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center. “When we come together across race and place, we can build a truly universal healthcare system that guarantees high quality care for everyone––no exceptions.”
The full livestream broadcast is available on the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center’s Facebook page.
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The Congressional Progressive Caucus Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that identifies and develops solutions to build a more just, equitable, and resilient nation.