On February 27, over 100 people joined Representative Pramila Jayapal in Washington, DC, to launch the Medicare For All Act, laying out a historic health agenda for the United States. The Center for Popular Democracy, National Nurses United, Our Revolution, and Social Security Works are among the groups backing the new bill as the best path forward on healthcare. The Medicare For All Act is a landmark comprehensive bill that would ensure all Americans would be covered and would eliminate copays, deductibles, and out of pocket expenses. The announcement made headlines in major outlets like ThinkProgress, Huffington Post, Common Dreams, The Intercept and Bloomberg.

Network President and CPD Co-Executive Director, Jennifer Epps-Addison, spoke at the press conference to announce this measure. Epps-Addison explained that, “The Medicare For All Act is the only viable fix to a healthcare system that leaves far too many people in this country behind. I have the privilege of good employer-based insurance, but even that wasn’t enough when my husband was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I pay $830 a month just in premiums, just to struggle to afford copays and prescription costs, and still any job change or financial emergency could threaten my husband’s life. A system that profits off our pain and misfortune will never deliver the healthcare our families deserve–and that’s why we’re rallying behind this groundbreaking legislation.”  

In the United States today, 30 million people are uninsured while another 40 million are underinsured. “We have the most expensive healthcare system in the world and yet our outcomes are the worst of all industrialized countries,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal. “I and the more than 100 co-sponsors of this bill refuse to allow this to continue. It’s time to put people’s health over profit. It’s time to ensure that healthcare is a right and not a privilege, guaranteed to every single person in our country. It is time for Medicare for All.”

This is a problem felt nationwide–in black and white neighborhoods, rich and poor households, rural, suburban and urban environments. A problem that affects us all, demands a solution that includes us all. The CPD Network is proud to advocate for this bold solution to the healthcare crisis that ensures that all people in this country have access to care. We need change and we need it now.