The US should join the rest of the industrialized world in providing universal health coverage, congressman Keith Ellison said on Wednesday, as he assumed leadership of the Democrats’ single-player plan in the House of Representatives.

Ellison, a progressive from Minnesota and the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, will replace congressman John Conyers as the leading sponsor of legislation to establish a healthcare system that covers all 323 million Americans. Conyers resigned from Congress last year amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment.

In a floor speech, Ellison asked – and received – unanimous consent by members of the House of Representatives to take charge of the single-payer healthcare bill, titled the Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act, which has earned the support of nearly two-thirds of the Democratic caucus.

Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) I just received unanimous consent from my colleagues to assume leadership of former Rep. John Conyers' historic single-payer health care bill. Health care is a human right, and Medicare for All is an idea whose time has come. pic.twitter.com/kcmbvZRtud

“The United States is the outlier among large industrial countries,” Ellison said in a short interview on Wednesday. “Everybody else has decided that healthcare is a right and they’re working to make sure that it is. We as a nation need to move in that direction for the welfare of our people.”

When Conyers stepped down, there was no immediate replacement to take charge of the bill, which the Michigan lawmaker had introduced in every Congress since 2003.

Ellison said his colleagues agreed he should take up the bill as one of the most visible House Democratic supporters of universal healthcare. The Minnesota progressive said he does not expect to amend the bill this year, but is open to changes to the legislation in the future.

Public polling shows a growing share of Americans support a universal, or single-payer, system of healthcare. Once a liberal pipe-dream, many prominent Democrats have since embraced the approach and liberal voters have rallied around the cause.



Ellison thinks it is only a matter of time before a single-payer healthcare system is adopted by the Democratic party. He pointed to the number of candidates running in 2018 on a platform embracing universal healthcare.

In Texas on Tuesday night, Beto O’Rourke, a supporter of a single-payer system, won the Democratic primary there to challenge Ted Cruz for his Senate seat in November. And two other Democratic candidates and supporters of universal healthcare advanced in a crowded primary to a May runoff election.

“We’re going to have new people in Congress who are for this,” he said. “We’re going to have more people who are for it than before,” he added, predicting that rising healthcare costs will force the issue to center stage.

“As the public continues to say, ‘Hey, look, I can’t pay $900 for an EpiPen, I can’t do it, and this is running me into bankruptcy, the urgency for this kind of legislation, for a Medicare for All, single-payer bill is going to become greater,” he said.

With Republican control of both chambers of Congress, the legislation has no chance of becoming law. But Democrats, emboldened by early electoral successes and Trump’s record low approval ratings, are increasingly optimistic about their chances of taking back one or both chambers at the midterms in November.

Nevertheless, the political reality of passing such sweeping legislation in Congress is daunting and would undoubtedly require Democrats to win the presidency as well as the support of more conservative Democrats on the issue.

As an increasingly visible leader within the party, Ellison will continue to use his platform to build public support and organize around universal healthcare at rallies and events around the country. Next week, Ellison will host a town hall-style event in Minnesota to discuss healthcare and the congressional proposal.

In the Senate, Bernie Sanders has introduced a similar bill, known as Medicare for All, which has been endorsed by a record 16 senators. The list includes six senators who are up for re-election in 2018 and a number of potential 2020 presidential candidates, including senators Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

“I am excited to have Keith take the lead in the House on the fight to pass a Medicare-for-all health care system,” Sanders said in a statement, supporting Ellison. “With his leadership, I know that we will be able to take on the greed of the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries and finally join every other major country in guaranteeing health care as a right, not a privilege.”

The news comes as Ellison is facing fresh questioning over his former support for the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, after the minister made a series of antisemitic remarks during a speech late last month.

Ellison publicly renounced any association with the group in 2006 and repeatedly since then. He has repudiated Farrakhan for propagating “bigoted and antisemitic ideas and statements”.

But that piece of his past has continued to dog him throughout his career, and resurfaced in his race for chairman of the DNC last year. On Tuesday, the Republican Jewish Coalition called on all “Farrakhan-connected” members of Congress to resign, including Ellison.

In the interview, Ellison blamed political opponents for continuing to give life to this story, which has received considerable attention in conservative media since Farrakhan, in his speech, lashed out at Ellison for distancing himself.

“This is the equivalent of ‘Obama’s a Kenyan’. This is the equivalent of ‘John Kerry’s not a courageous person’. This is a swift-boating,” Ellison said, adding: “No one asks me about this other than reporters.”