HCACF Board members Michele Swenson and Tom Gottlieb wrote a letter to the House Ways and Means committee in response to the recent Hearing on Pathways to Universal Health Coverage. 

Employers have provided private health insurance as remuneration (fringe benefit) for workers since WWII.  Beyond 1980, this benefit has become more destructive than beneficial.  (See the New York times article written by Matt Bruenig on April 29, 2019).

Two new Medicare-for-All Acts have been proposed in Congress:  H.R.1384 - Medicare for All Act of 2019 is sponsored by Representative Pramila Jayapal and S.1129 - Medicare for All Act of 2019 is sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders. Both bills have co-sponsors from colleagues in both the House and the Senate.

Understanding current Medicare structure and law leads to a logical extension of Medicare that includes all Americans. HealthCare for All Colorado Foundation provides a summary that defines implementation of a financial plan for an Extended Medicare (aka Medicare-for-All). 

Libby Watson from Splinter News, reported on a recent Gallup Poll which showed that millions of Americans have to borrow money in order to pay their healthcare bills.  April 2, 2019.   This article supports HCACF's position on the importance of implementing a Public National Health Insurance to finance universal public and private health care delivery.

Private health insurers seek to defund and privatize traditional Medicare by supplanting it with the much less efficient, more costly, Medicare Advantage Plans that are paid tens of billions of dollars in extra subsidies annually. This piece by American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), representative of private insurers, thanks 368 Congress members for their “strong bipartisan” advocacy for enrollment of those over 65 in Medicare Advantage Plans. Even Congress members who ostensibly support “Medicare-for-All,” have endorsed AHIP’s letter effectively promoting privatization of Medicare. Most of Colorado’s delegation, Democrats & Republicans, have signed. Check to see if your representatives signed - let them know that privatizing Medicare by replacing it with Medicare Advantage is the wrong way to go.

February 7, 2019

Kevin Uhrmacher, Kevin Schaul, Paulina Firozi and Jeff Stein from the Washington Post highlight the presidential candidates and their positions on Medicare-for-All.  The information presented is based on the candidate's voting records, statements and answers to a Washington Post questionnaire. 

Dylan Scott from Vox interviewed Matt Bruenig from the People's Policy Project "on what he worries about — and what he doesn’t — for Medicare-for-all".  Matt answered some tough healthcare questions such as "How do you finance a single-payer health care system?" " Is it possible for the health care supply to meet its demand?"  and "What can the government do for rural hospitals that feel a pinch under single-payer?"
 

On February 4, 2019 Public Citizen published a report in support of Medicare-for-All.  This 69-page document called The Case for Medicare for All summarizes how a Medicare-for-All healthcare system would guarantee high quality healthcare to all U.S. citizens; even to those in need of chronic care or who might require preventative care.  The Political Economy Research Institute published its report called Economic Analysis of Medicare for All in November, 2018.

The people will win Medicare for All. Thousands united this week to prove it. Mark Dudzic, National Coordinator of Labor Campaign for Single Payer, was on Nurse Talk discussing the need for a grassroots movement in support of healthcare justice. His organization, Labor Campaign for Single Payer, deems healthcare to be a necessity and strongly supports a Single-Payer Medicare-for-All healthcare system for all Americans.  Mark Dudzic calls for activists to get involved, especially during the Week of Action February 9-13, when there will be Barnstorm events throughout the country in support of Medicare-for-All.