Winning Medicare for All Would Have Massive Implications Beyond Health Care
A Medicare for All system would benefit almost everyone in America — except health care profiteers. The only way to overcome their opposition is to build a mass movement that’s large enough and powerful enough to defeat them.
Giant hospital corporations, nonprofit or for-profit, are virulently opposed to Medicare for All precisely because their ability to increase revenue through monopoly power is diametrically opposed to the interests of health care workers and patients. (Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images)
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) reintroduced the Medicare for All Act into Congress in March. The bill netted a record 112 cosponsors, which amounts to more than half the House Democratic caucus. Thanks to a surprise endorsement by Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the Medicare for All Act now seems destined to pass another historic marker, with its first hearing in the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce sometime in the current legislative term.
Meanwhile, outside of the DC Beltway, Medicare for All enjoys widespread support among the public with 72 percent of Americans in favor of making the switch to a publicly funded national health program.
Just how long support will remain at these current levels, however, is unclear. One barrier to advocates’ ability to maintain momentum are the persistent misconceptions spread about Medicare for All by its enemies.
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