House Democrats plan to hold hearings on Medicare for All

By David Weigel for Washington Post The new Democratic majority in the House will hold the first hearings on Medicare-for-All legislation, a longtime goal of the party’s left, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi lent her support for the process. “It’s a huge step forward to have the speaker’s support,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who will […]

CBO Will Score All Health Reform Plans as Nationalization

By Jon Walker for People’s Policy Project Opponents of Medicare for All say that the cost will scare people away, but the truth is that, because of the way the CBO scores health care policy, any significant effort to reform health care in a progressive way is going to suffer from the exact same “big […]

Democrats Don’t Just Support Medicare for All, 84% in New Poll Want Party Leaders to Make It ‘Extremely Important Priority’

“Are you listening?” party Leaders asked as new Politico/Harvard survey shows more than 8 in 10 Democrats think covering everyone “through taxpayer-fund national plan” should be urgent pursued By John Queally for Common Dreams ‘Are you listening?’ That was the question posed by healthcare justice advocates to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of […]

25 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better than Obamacare

By Ralph Nader on his blog Dear America: Costly complexity is baked into Obamacare. No health insurance system is without problems but Canadian-style single-payer— full Medicare for all— is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal. In the early 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson enrolled 20 million elderly Americans into Medicare in six months. There were no websites. […]

Two Medicare for All Plans: HR676 and S1804

By Lambert Strether for Naked Capitalism The other day I was trying to find out why Beto O’Rourke, who claims to support Medicare for All, hasn’t signed on to HR676, the single payer bill before the House. On the Twitter, I was provided this link (from The Ringer, an affiliate site of Markos Moulitsas’ SB […]

Why Are These Labor Unions Opposing Medicare for All?

NOTE: This article points out that healthcare industry and business groups are using unions to oppose single payer. Union groups that do support single payer need to speak out and out-organize these industry-backed unions. We can expect this tactic to be used to subvert other single payer supporters and be ready to neutralize them. By […]

Incoming Dem chairman open to hearing on ‘Medicare for all’

NOTE: We will need to push for hearings on HR 676. It’s good to keep track of the committee chairs’ positions. We will need to pressure them for fair hearings. By Peter Sullivan for The Hill The incoming chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), said Tuesday that he is […]

Establishment looks to crush liberals on Medicare for All

The coalition that fought Obamacare repeal has fragmented as the party tries to follow through on campaign promises. By Adam Cancryn for Politico The united front that helped Democrats save Obamacare just a year ago is falling apart over single-payer health care. Deep-pocketed hospital, insurance and other lobbies are plotting to crush progressives’ hopes of […]

If you want Medicare-for-all, prepare for a long and bloody fight

By Paul Waldman for The Washington Post Over the last two years, the idea of government-guaranteed universal health coverage, often shorthanded as Medicare-for-all (I’ll refer to it as M4A from here) has grown from a minority belief within the Democratic Party to a majority belief, and one that is on its way to becoming consensus. […]