With Medicare for All reaching record levels of support among both members of Congress and the American public — where support for single-payer is spreading “like wildfire” — policy platforms demanding that the US ditch its wasteful and deeply immoral for-profit system in favor of guaranteed healthcare for every American are also proving to be winners in Democratic primary fights across the country.
In red and blue states alike, candidates backing Medicare for All have emerged victorious in Democratic primary battles where, in some cases, their opponents had the backing of the party establishment.
“In Nebraska’s 2nd district, Kara Eastman, who supports ‘Medicare for All,’ beat a former congressman backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,” Axios’s Caitlin Owens reported on Tuesday. “Two ‘Medicare for All’ backers, Scott Wallace and Susan Wild, won House primaries in Pennsylvania. Gina Ortiz Jones, competing to unseat GOP Rep. Will Hurd in Texas’s 23rd district, ‘supports a single-payer system,’ per her campaign website.”
Over the next few months, candidates who support Medicare for All “are also running in Minnesota, New Jersey, Iowa, New York, Maine, and Washington state,” Owens added.
This growing support for single-payer among Democratic congressional candidates come amid an upsurge of activism at the grassroots level from nurses, doctors, progressive activists, and democratic socialists.
Being able to go to the doctor for any reason and not worry about paying for it? That sounds pretty good tbh. We should do that.
— DSA for Medicare for All (@dsam4a) May 28, 2018
It doesn’t have to be this way. #SinglePayer #Medicare4All pic.twitter.com/F07al41r1z
— NationalNursesUnited (@NationalNurses) May 28, 2018
Further demonstrating the American public’s hunger for a system that guarantees healthcare as a right regardless of one’s ability to pay, a town hall hosted by Sanders and other Medicare for All advocates earlier this year drew 1.6 million viewers despite a complete blackout by the corporate media.
“It ain’t gonna be on CBS. It ain’t gonna be on NBC. What astounds me is we already have a pretty good majority of the American people who already believe in universal healthcare, believe that it is the government’s responsibility to make sure that health care is a right,” Sanders said. “And we have reached that stage with media not talking about the issue at all.”
“Together we will successfully move the United States to a Medicare-for-All, single-payer healthcare system and guarantee healthcare to all,” Sanders concluded.
Join us in defending the truth before it’s too late
The future of independent journalism is uncertain, and the consequences of losing it are too grave to ignore. To ensure Truthout remains safe, strong, and free, we need to raise $50,000 in the next 9 days. Every dollar raised goes directly toward the costs of producing news you can trust.
Please give what you can — because by supporting us with a tax-deductible donation, you’re not just preserving a source of news, you’re helping to safeguard what’s left of our democracy.