With Medicare for All reaching record levels of support among both members of Congress and the American public — where support for single-payer is spreading “like wildfire” — policy platforms demanding that the US ditch its wasteful and deeply immoral for-profit system in favor of guaranteed healthcare for every American are also proving to be winners in Democratic primary fights across the country.
In red and blue states alike, candidates backing Medicare for All have emerged victorious in Democratic primary battles where, in some cases, their opponents had the backing of the party establishment.
“In Nebraska’s 2nd district, Kara Eastman, who supports ‘Medicare for All,’ beat a former congressman backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,” Axios’s Caitlin Owens reported on Tuesday. “Two ‘Medicare for All’ backers, Scott Wallace and Susan Wild, won House primaries in Pennsylvania. Gina Ortiz Jones, competing to unseat GOP Rep. Will Hurd in Texas’s 23rd district, ‘supports a single-payer system,’ per her campaign website.”
Over the next few months, candidates who support Medicare for All “are also running in Minnesota, New Jersey, Iowa, New York, Maine, and Washington state,” Owens added.
This growing support for single-payer among Democratic congressional candidates come amid an upsurge of activism at the grassroots level from nurses, doctors, progressive activists, and democratic socialists.
Being able to go to the doctor for any reason and not worry about paying for it? That sounds pretty good tbh. We should do that.
— DSA for Medicare for All (@dsam4a) May 28, 2018
It doesn’t have to be this way. #SinglePayer #Medicare4All pic.twitter.com/F07al41r1z
— NationalNursesUnited (@NationalNurses) May 28, 2018
Further demonstrating the American public’s hunger for a system that guarantees healthcare as a right regardless of one’s ability to pay, a town hall hosted by Sanders and other Medicare for All advocates earlier this year drew 1.6 million viewers despite a complete blackout by the corporate media.
“It ain’t gonna be on CBS. It ain’t gonna be on NBC. What astounds me is we already have a pretty good majority of the American people who already believe in universal healthcare, believe that it is the government’s responsibility to make sure that health care is a right,” Sanders said. “And we have reached that stage with media not talking about the issue at all.”
“Together we will successfully move the United States to a Medicare-for-All, single-payer healthcare system and guarantee healthcare to all,” Sanders concluded.
Angry, shocked, overwhelmed? Take action: Support independent media.
We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. We have 8 days left in our fundraiser: Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.