About
What is the Medicare for All Act?
Medicare for All, also known as the Expanded and Improved Healthcare Act, or the United States National Healthcare Act is a proposal to establish a universal, single-payer health care system in the United States, similar to the ones in Canada and Taiwan.
What does it do?
- Creates a single-payer, national health insurance program to provide everyone in America with comprehensive health care coverage, free at the point of service.
- No networks, no premiums, no deductibles, no copays, no surprise bills.
- Expands and improves Medicare to include: include dental, hearing, vision, and home- and community-based long-term care, in-patient and out-patient services, mental health and substance abuse treatment, reproductive and maternity care, prescription drugs, and more.
- Stops the pharmaceutical industry from ripping off the American people by making sure that no one in America pays over $200 a year for the medicine they need by capping what Americans pay for prescription drugs.
How would we pay for it?
- Tax the rich
- Replace premiums, deductibles, and co-pays with a modest increase in the Medicare payroll tax on individuals and employers, ultimately saving over 90% of Americans thousands of dollars a year.
- Eliminate health insurance industry profits and overhead and use the savings to fund national healthcare.
Does it have any support?
Yes! The Medicare for All Act has over 100 cosponsors in the House of Representatives and 14 cosponsors in the Senate. The following national organizations have also endorsed Medicare for All:
- Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW)
- National Nurses United (NNU)
- International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
- League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
- International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE)
- National Union of Healthcare Workers
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
- United Mine Workers of America
- United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE)
- National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC)
- National LGBT Cancer Network
- AIDS Healthcare Foundation
- American Medical Student Association (AMSA)
- National Domestic Workers Alliance
- Muslim Delegates and Allies Coalition
- National Council of Jewish Women
- South Asian Public Health Association
- National Immigration Law Center
- Japanese American Citizens League
- Business Leaders for Health Care Transformation
- National Korean American Service & Education Consortium
- United Church of Christ Justice and Local Church Ministries
Why hasn’t it passed?
Over 100 cosponsors in the House of Representatives and 14 in the Senate is great, but Medicare for All needs 218 votes to pass in the House and 51 to pass in the Senate. Health insurance companies and big pharmaceuticals have spent billions of dollars over decades to ensure that they can continue to profit off of people’s illness. They spread propaganda and lies to scare Americans about national healthcare. They lobby and pay off elected representatives to protect the system of for-profit healthcare. The power of the health insurance companies’ big money has not yet been matched with the power of a people’s movement. This is about to change.
What does it take to pass Medicare For All?
STEP ONE: The bill is introduced in both chambers of congress– the House of Representatives and the Senate.
STEP TWO: Both bills are referred to the committee that deals with the subject of the bill, in this case the Heath, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees.
STEP THREE: A majority of the committee must vote for the bill. If the Chair of the committee doesn’t support the bill, it won’t even come up for a vote.
STEP FOUR: If the bill wins enough votes in committee, it goes up for a vote on the floor— meaning among all representatives in the House, and all Senators in the Senate. Before the vote, reps and senators will debate and edit the bill, changing things they don’t like, and adding new amendments.
STEP FIVE: The bills must pass in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If that happens, they must be edited so that the version in the House matches the version in the Senate.
STEP SIX: The President of the United States must choose to sign the bill into law.
About this site
This site was created by volunteers who want to keep the fight for Medicare For All in the spotlight and make it easy to check which members of Congress support the Medicare For All Act in the House and in the Senate.