Contact: Johanna Kichton, press@peoplesaction.org, 202.660.0605
WASHINGTON, D.C.–People’s Action released the following statements in response to the bicameral reintroduction of Medicare for All:
“Everyone should have health care when they need it. Sadly, our health care system allows greedy private health insurance companies to put profits over people,” People’s Action Director Sulma Arias said. “These companies waste billions on executive pay while denying their members the care they need. We applaud Senator Sanders and Congresswomen Jayapal and Dingell for rejecting the corporate takeover of our health system and offering a vision of health care is a human right. We won’t stop organizing until we turn it into a reality.”
“My private health insurance raked in $8.1 billion dollars in just three months of profit. Yet, I’m too expensive to keep alive,” Rights & Democracy New Hampshire member Jenn Coffey said. “I sold everything I have just to afford my life-saving treatments. People like me shouldn’t live in fear for our health while private health insurance companies profit off our pain. We need Medicare for All.”
“When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was unemployed and uninsured. I was too busy stressing about how I would pay for treatments to even think about if I would survive. Nobody should have to feel even worse for getting sick, and that’s why we must transform our private for-profit health insurance industry into one that actually cares for each other,” Progressive Maryland member and People’s Action’s Health Care for All cohort co-chair Mike Walsh said. “We need to put people over profits and build a just health care system for all.”
Jenn Coffey and Mike Walsh are leaders with People’s Action member organizations Rights & Democracy New Hampshire and Progressive Maryland. Jenn was a panelist at a Medicare for All town hall hosted by Senator Sanders and Mike spoke at a press conference for the bill’s introduction.
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People’s Action builds the power of poor and working people in urban, rural, and suburban areas to win change through issue fights and elections. We are a national network of 40 state and local grassroots power-building organizations in 29 states–united in the work of building a bigger “we.”