So far, the senators who have signed on as cosponsors to Bernie's Medicare-For-All bill are Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tom Udall (D-NM), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Al Franken (D-MN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)-- 15, so, with Bernie, that's 16 out of the 48 Democrats in the Senate. Bernie will make his formal announcement at 2pm (ET)-- in one hour. You can watch it live-streamed here.According to a poll by the Pew Research Center earlier this summer, support for "single payer" health care has continued growing, driven largely by efforts by Democrats. 60% of Americans agree that "it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage" while just 39% say this is not the government’s responsibility.
Among those who see a government responsibility to provide health coverage for all, more now say it should be provided through a single health insurance system run by the government, rather than through a mix of private companies and government programs. Overall, 33% of the public now favors such a “single payer” approach to health insurance, up 5 percentage points since January and 12 points since 2014. Democrats-- especially liberal Democrats-- are much more supportive of this approach than they were even at the start of this year....The issue of the government’s responsibility in ensuring health coverage remains deeply divisive politically, according to the new survey, conducted June 8-18 among 2,504 adults. More than eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (85%) say that this responsibility falls to the federal government, while about two-thirds of Republicans and Republican leaners (68%) say it does not.Still, most Republicans (57%) say the government “should continue programs like Medicare and Medicaid for seniors and the very poor.” Just 9% of Republicans say the government should not be involved in providing health insurance at all.Among Democrats, 52% now say health insurance should be provided through a single national insurance system run by the government, while fewer (31%) say it should be provided through a mix of private companies and government programs. The share of Democrats supporting a single national program to provide health insurance has increased 9 percentage points since January and 19 points since 2014.Nearly two-thirds of liberal Democrats (64%) now support a single-payer health insurance system, up 13 percentage points since January. Conservative and moderate Democrats remain about evenly divided: 38% prefer that health insurance continue to be provided by a mix of private insurance companies and government programs, while 42% favor a single-payer approach.Overall, support for a single-payer health insurance system is much greater among younger adults than older people. Two-thirds of adults younger than 30 (67%) say the government has a responsibility to provide health coverage for all, with 45% saying coverage should be provided through a single national program.
Tuesday, Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat running for reelection next year in Wisconsin, a state Trump won, wrote an OpEd in the state's #1 newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Why I support Medicare for all and other efforts to expand health coverage. "When it comes to providing affordable health care for every American," she wrote, "there is more we must do right now to change the status quo, improve our health care system and lower costs. That is why I have introduced bipartisan legislation with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the FAIR Drug Pricing Act, to take on sky-high prescription drug costs by holding drug companies accountable for price hikes. I also am working across party lines on bipartisan solutions to stabilize the insurance marketplace, reduce families’ health costs and get more people covered. We must act now to stabilize and strengthen the individual market to help Americans buy insurance at more affordable prices for 2018."
Before the Affordable Care Act, families weren’t protected against being denied coverage or charged more because of a past illness. Today, insurance companies can no longer discriminate against someone based on their pre-existing condition. I championed the health reform that allows young people to stay on their parents’ insurance plans up to age 26. These reforms have led to millions more Americans having the health insurance they need. We have made great progress in making things better.However, we have more work to do, and Washington has been consumed by a debate this year over partisan attempts to make things worse.Congressional Republicans have offered a number of repeal plans that would increase the number of people who are uninsured and force many families to pay more for less care.The people of Wisconsin did not send me to Washington to take people’s health care away, so I fought against these repeal plans. Instead of making things worse, I believe we should move forward to expand coverage and make health care more affordable, not more costly.Every American should have affordable health coverage, and there is more we can do to make that a reality. I always have believed that our goal must be universal health care coverage for everyone, and my support for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All legislation being introduced this week is a statement of that belief.With this reform, we would simplify a complicated system for families and reduce administrative costs for businesses. It would expand coverage to all the uninsured, make health care more affordable for working, middle-class families and reduce growing prescription drug costs for taxpayers.This reform will help us achieve universal coverage for everyone and is one of many paths we can take to expand coverage and lower health care costs. Last month, I helped introduce the Medicare at 55 Act, which would provide an option for people between the ages of 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare. I am working with Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) to soon introduce legislation to allow states to offer people a choice to buy into the Medicaid program. This would grant more Wisconsinites the opportunity to enroll in our popular BadgerCare program. And Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is working on a reform that would provide all Americans, individuals and companies with a public option to purchase Medicare.What all of these proposals have in common is a commitment to the belief that every American deserves affordable health coverage. If both parties look past the partisan debate in Washington, we can find common ground today on solutions that work for the American people.It is time to move forward.Forward toward the day when we make good on the guarantee of high quality, affordable health care coverage for every American. That is a goal worth reaching, and, as Americans, we shouldn’t let anyone tell us we can’t.
Pelosi, on the other hands, continues to crap on her own legacy and once again, feels compelled to take the side of the reactionaries and conservatives in her dysfunctional caucus. She's running around like a chicken without a head muttering about how single payer healthcare is not a litmus test. Funny, her DCCC seems to be using it as a reverse litmus test as they continue recruiting Blue Dogs, "ex"-Republicans, self-funding multimillionaires and lottery winners who are 100% out of touch with the energy of the Democratic base.I often sit and talk with tepid progressives who want to back Medicare-For-All but are afraid their districts' voters won't understand it or support it. Life's a bitch and explaining it and persuading them to understand it is part of a political leader's job. It's worth the effort. But some Democratic politicians want nothing to do with it at all... conservatives who will work with the Republicans to kill it, the way Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, Mark Pryor and Max Baucus-- none of whom are in public office any longer-- worked so hard to kill the public option. Pelosi and Hoyer have refused to co-sponsor Medicare-For-All, nor have most of the conservative shitheads in the Democratic Caucus, like Schumer's two horrid Senate picks, Blue Dog Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and Jacky Rosen (NV). Pelosi's anti-single payer position is, according to The Post "the latest evidence that Democrats in the House are willing to ignore pressure from liberal factions aiming to drive the party further to the left." The "liberal factions," I suppose, are the 117 House Dems who have already signed on as co-sponsors to John Conyers' H.R. 676-- including conservative allies of Pelosi's like Joe Crowley (New Dem-NY), Adam Schiff (New Dem-CA), Darren Soto (New Dem-FL), Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN), Luis Correa (Blue Dog-CA) and Gene Green (TX).
“I don’t think it’s a litmus test,” Pelosi said in an interview. “What we want is to have as many people as possible, everybody, covered, and I think that’s something that we all embrace.”Pelosi said that she would like a variety of health-care ideas to be vetted and analyzed by budget scorekeepers but that she thinks none of them will succeed while the ACA is under attack from Republicans.“Right now I’m protecting the Affordable Care Act,” Pelosi said. “None of these things, whether it’s Bernie’s or others, can really prevail unless we protect the Affordable Care Act.”Some liberal factions of the Democratic Party have complained in recent months that Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the two most powerful elected Democrats in Washington, have been unwilling to listen to demands from the progressive base. Many were angry last week after Pelosi and Schumer struck a deal with President Trump to increase the federal borrowing limit and extend current spending levels through December.Progressives such as Reps. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) and Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) said the Democratic base is not interested in working with Trump. Instead, they want action on key agenda items such as securing legal protections for those immigrants who benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Trump began winding down last week.“Our base is deeply alienated from this president,” Connolly said in an interview with the Washington Post. “Our base is not saying, ‘Work with him, try to find some common ground.’”...“Fortunately, I’m a progressive from San Francisco. I’m a liberal, and I have my own credibility on these subjects,” Pelosi said. “While we all share our values and priorities and the rest, I think Chuck [Schumer] and I are both strong Democrats.”Both Democratic leaders have said they think it is their job to work with Trump where possible to pass legislation that meets the values of the party. Pelosi said it is her job to get bills passed.“You can never satisfy everybody,” Pelosi said. “We don’t have a responsibility to get nothing done.”Several political organizations supportive of Sanders have said voters should reject any Democrats who do not support “Medicare for All.” Nina Turner, who now leads Sanders’s Our Revolution group, told Politico this summer that there was “something wrong” with Democrats who did not endorse it. The People for Bernie, a group that grew out of the Occupy Wall Street movement, started the week by urging progressives to call Democrats and demand that they endorse Sanders’s bill.
Yesterday we asked a dozen Democratic House candidates to describe in one sentence what motivates their campaign. 8 of them used the words "single payer," "universal health care" or "Medicare-For-All" in their single sentence-- from Randy Bryce in Wisconsin ("I'm running for Congress to help raise everyone's standard of life; everyone is worthy of being healthy which is why Medicare-for-All is a top priority.") and Derrick Crowe in Texas ("We're fighting for liberty and justice for all-- and in practice that means tuition-free college, Medicare For All, real climate change action, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, and a pro-rural agenda that gets the Democrats back to their populist roots.") to Tim Canova in Florida ("I am campaigning to put basic human needs and human values ahead of unfettered corporate greed and profits and I'm proud to support a people's agenda: election integrity reforms to ensure transparency and accuracy in vote counting, Medicare For All, federal subsidies for K-12 and tuition-free higher education, a voluntary national service program modeled on New Deal public works programs...").Wouldn't it be ironic if conservative Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) signs onto Medicare-For-All before Pelosi! It probably won't, but it could happen. When asked about Bernie's bill yesterday, Manchin said "It should be explored. I want to know what happens in all the countries that have it-- how well it works or the challenges they have."The good old daysAlas, Pelosi, unbeknownst to herself, has slipped into the position Dick Gephardt was in when she wrested control of the party from him-- she is now the spokesperson for the Republican wing of the Democratic Party and is at odds and no longer in synch with the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. The House Democrats are endangering their chances to win back a majority next year by keeping her on as their Leader. She is one of the most detested and hated politicians in America and more than a few voters may hesitate-- Trump or no Trump-- to pull the lever for a Democratic candidate on election day for fear of making her Speaker.And if you're wondering what the scumbag who has been sucking off Wall Street since the early 1980s when he was first elected to Congress-- and has taken more in bribes from the banksters than any other politician in history who hasn't run for president ($26,628,675 since 1990 when the figures began being compiled)-- has to say about Medicare-for-All... "Democrats believe that health care is a right for all, and there are many different bills out there," pointedly refusing to get behind Bernie's bill. How could he, when his two Senate recruits this year are corrupt corporate Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and Jacky Rosen (NV)-- neither of whom supports anything normal Democrats support (except abortions and gays)? Schumer-- worst and most corrupt Democratic Senate Leader ever!Bernie: "Do we, as a nation, join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee comprehensive health care to every person as a human right? Or do we maintain a system that is enormously expensive, wasteful and bureaucratic, and is designed to maximize profits for big insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, Wall Street and medical equipment suppliers? We remain the only major country on earth that allows chief executives and stockholders in the health care industry to get incredibly rich, while tens of millions of people suffer because they can’t get the health care they need. This is not what the United States should be about."No, but it's what Chuck Schumer's career has always been all about. More Bernie: "The reason that our health care system is so outrageously expensive is that it is not designed to provide quality care to all in a cost-effective way, but to provide huge profits to the medical-industrial complex. Layers of bureaucracy associated with the administration of hundreds of individual and complicated insurance plans is stunningly wasteful, costing us hundreds of billions of dollars a year. As the only major country not to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry, we spend tens of billions more than we should... Now is the time for Congress to stand with the American people and take on the special interests that dominate health care in the United States. Now is the time to extend Medicare to everyone."
