Name: House Democrats to Revive Medicare for All Bill One Year After COVID Reached Every State
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House Democrats to Revive Medicare for All Bill One Year After COVID Reached Every State

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SharePolitics &amp; ElectionsRacial JusticePolitics &amp; ElectionsEnvironment &amp; HealthPolitics &amp; ElectionsWar &amp; PeaceAmid a deadly pandemic that has further exposed the of tying health insurance to employment, Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell are planning to introduce the Medicare for All Act of 2021 this coming Wednesday — after the first coronavirus cases were confirmed in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.The bill’s official introduction, set for March 17, “is an attempt to link the cause of universal care with the devastation wrought by the pandemic,” Politico .“Mark your calendars!” Jayapal (D-Wash.), a longtime single-payer advocate who was the lead House sponsor of the , which experts at the time as the gold standard for universal healthcare legislation. The bill proposed a two-year transition to a Medicare for All system that would provide comprehensive healthcare to everyone in the U.S. for free at the point of service.Since the coronavirus crisis began last year, have been thrown off their employer-provided health insurance — the nation’s most common form of coverage — due to pandemic-induced mass layoffs that have in recent weeks. Last week, an additional in the U.S. filed for unemployment insurance.“This past year makes it incredibly clear why we must pass Medicare for All,” Nina Turner, a Democratic congressional candidate in Ohio’s 11th District.Mark your calendars!— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal)While progressives such as (I-Vt.) have called for an expansion of Medicare to cover the newly uninsured — and everyone else — for the duration of the pandemic, congressional Democrats went a different route in the newly passed American Rescue Plan, which eligibility for Affordable Care Act subsidies and private premiums under COBRA, an expensive program that lets laid-off workers stay on their employer-provided insurance.Speaking to the New York Times last week, Jayapal — the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus — made clear her disagreement with that approach.“I don’t think this was the most efficient way to do this,” Jayapal of the American Rescue Plan’s expansion of private insurance.The nearly $2 trillion relief package, which President Joe Biden — a — signed into law on Thursday, also to incentivize states to expand Medicaid, an offer that’s by Republican governors.Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy organization, in response to the coming introduction of the latest iteration of the Medicare for All Act that “tying healthcare to employment was ridiculous and cruel before the pandemic.”“And now, with millions more Americans unemployed, it’s horrific,” the group said. “We must guarantee healthcare as a human right — not as an employment benefit. We need Medicare for All.”This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.RelatedBiden’s American Rescue Plan, like the Affordable Care Act, does not move us any closer toward a single-payer system.Will the Biden administration really listen to science if that requires putting people’s needs above corporate profits?Progressives must demand that Biden govern for the 99 percent and not the 1 percent.Get daily news, in-depth reporting and critical analysis from the journalists, activists and thinkers who are working to improve our world..

SharePolitics &amp; ElectionsRacial JusticePolitics &amp; ElectionsEnvironment &amp; HealthPolitics &amp; ElectionsWar &amp; PeaceAmid a deadly pandemic that has further exposed the of tying health insurance to employment, Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell are planning to introduce the Medicare for All Act of 2021 this coming Wednesday — after the first coronavirus cases were confirmed in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.The bill’s official introduction, set for March 17, “is an attempt to link the cause of universal care with the devastation wrought by the...

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Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

https://www.commondreams.org/author/jake-johnson-staff-writer

Jake Johnson

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House Democrats to Revive Medicare for All Bill One Year After COVID Reached Every State

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