On Monday, December 17, 2018, the letter below was delivered to Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal requesting her to share a draft text of HR 676 with the single payer movement for review and input.
We urge you to take action – use the letter to draft your own letter to Congresswoman Jayapal and/or use this simple tool to call Congresswoman Jayapal’s office today and every day until the text is released.
Click here to call.
Letter:
The Honorable Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
319 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Ms. Jayapal:
We write to you as longtime advocates for National Improved Medicare for All as embodied in the current version of HR 676. We have championed HR 676 for the past fifteen years, working with Congressman John Conyers and his staff.
We have a deep appreciation for your willingness to not only take on the lead sponsorship of HR 676 but also to create a Medicare for All Caucus. We believe we share a common vision of a national, universal, publicly-funded, comprehensive and high-quality healthcare system in the United States.
We understand that you are rewriting HR 676 before you introduce it in 2019. It is important to us that HR 676 not be weakened in this process, but be made stronger. We ask that you release a draft of the text of the revised HR 676 so that longtime single payer advocates can read it and share our views with you before the bill is introduced.
Transparency matters greatly to us as does getting the policy right. HR 676 must be strong from the outset so that as it goes through the legislative process, we can be sure the final bill will solve the healthcare crisis in the United States.
We know you have met with representatives of some groups. Opening up the process will ensure that the best information on expanded and improved Medicare for all is contained in the bill. And, it will ensure that the whole single payer movement is in support of the bill.
Some of your public statements recently have caused concern. In particular, statements about your desire to align the text with the Senate bill, S 1804, which is inferior to HR 676. Indeed, the Senate Bill is so deficient that many in the single payer movement cannot support it unless it is significantly revised. We want the House Bill to remain strong and fully supported by the entire single payer movement as the gold standard that the Senate must measure up to.
We are committed to winning National Improved Medicare for All and believe the movement is capable of winning this issue in the near future. It will be a historic victory for the United States. We want to help you succeed in leading this effort.
We urge you to release a draft copy of the new legislation before the end of the year so people can have input before it is made final. We are being asked to mobilize support for the new HR 676, but we cannot support a bill we have not seen.
Please let us know as soon as possible if you are willing to release a draft copy of the new legislation for input and when we can expect to receive it.
Kind regards,
Margaret Flowers, MD, coordinator, Health Over Profit for Everyone campaign
Kip Sullivan, Health Care for All Minnesota
Leigh K. Haynes – People’s Health Movement-USA*
Eric Naumburg, M.D., M.P.H., Healthcare is a Human Right Maryland
Kevin Zeese, co-director, Popular Resistance
Kay Tillow, Coordinator, All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care–HR 676
Sumitra Joy, National Consumer Voice Leadership Council-member elect*
Health Care for All Minnesota
Bill Moyer, Backbone Campaign
James Squire, MD United for Single Payer
Lee Stanfield, HOPE Steering Committee, Founder of Single-Payer NOW Tucson*
Jody Coss and Ed Klein, Co-directors, HOPE in the Midwest
Vanessa Beck, MSW, Coordinating Committee, Black Alliance for Peace*
Anne Scheetz, MD, Physicians for a National Health Program, Illinois Single-Payer Coalition, Chicago ADAPT, HOPE
Donna M. Ellington, M.Ed., EdS, Social Media Influencer
Ethel Long-Scott, Executive Director, Women’s Economic Agenda Project*
Bruce G Trigg, MD, Addiction Medicine Consultant
Dena Draskovich, HOPE steering committee, founder Indivisible Omaha, disabled citizen
Richard Bruno, MD, MPH, HOPE steering committee
Sue Saltmarsh, Executive Director, Demand Universal Healthcare (DUH)
Terry Flowers, retired pharmacist
George L Pauk M.D, HOPE Steering Committee
Ed Grystar, Western PA Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare
Garrett Adams, M.D., M.P.H. Past President, Physicians for a National Health Program*
Michael McKinley, Chair, Improved Medicare for All Task Force of the Polk County Democrats
*For identification purposes only.
