Ellison to champion 'Medicare for All' in House

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison won unanimous consent from his colleagues to assume leadership of a single-payer health care bill, The Expanded And Improved Medicare For All Act.

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The bill, first introduced in 2003 with 25 cosponsors, would expand Medicare to become a publicly-financed national health care system that guarantees coverage to every single American through a modest new payroll tax, a financial transaction tax and tax increases on the wealthiest households.

H.R. 676, as of March 13, had the support of 121 cosponsors and a similar bill in the Senate, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was backed by 17 senators.

Ellison, D-Minn., said every year, more Americans question why the United States spends so much more on health care than any other industrialized nation in the world, yet still forces people to choose between paying health care bills and putting food on the table.

Medicare for All, he said, “is an idea whose time has come, and it is a crucial lynchpin in our fight for fairness and economic justice.”

Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Madison, said Ellison is the right choice. Pocan added, “Along with the millions of Americans calling on Congress to fix our nation’s broken health care system, we can make Medicare for All a reality and ensure that health care is a right for all Americans, not just the privileged few.”

On the Senate side, Sanders said with Ellison’s leadership, “I know that we will be able to take on the greed of the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries and finally join every other major country in guaranteeing health care as a right, not a privilege.”

Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit research and education organization of more than 22,000 doctors and health professionals, supports the legislation.

So do good civil rights organizations and good government groups.

“We know that the richest country in history can afford to provide guaranteed health care to all of its people because every other wealthy country already does so,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “It’s long past time for the United States to adopt a single-payer, Medicare-for-All system that will cover every American as a matter of right.