How We Win Medicare For All

Healthcare is a right.

At the Sanders Institute Gathering, National Nurses United sponsored a panel called "We Can Win Medicare For All" that brought together experts in the Medicare for All movement.

Senator Nina Turner began the panel with a rallying cry - that we must fight for healthcare for all - "because only all that we love is on the line."

The panel was introduced by Jane Kim, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Kelly Coogan Gehr, Assistant Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for NNU, laid the scene: an overview of the movement for healthcare for all. She also delivered remarks for Jean Ross, Nurse and Co-President of National Nurses United, speaking about the moral aspects of a Medicare for All system and why our strength not only lies with the statistics, and the economic benefits, but also in the moral imperative of healthcare as a human right.

Dr. Diane Archer, President of Just Care USA, explained why Medicare for All is the best and only option – because we cannot encourage a “middle-ground” system that would continue to include private companies that exclude patients that need care to maximize their profits while hiking up costs for everybody else.

Dr. Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini described the reverence for and popularity of the UK’s single payer system but warned of spreading privatization – an import from the American system – that is jeopardizing the popular and quality care that has been provided in the UK for over 70 years.

Jo Beardsmore, co-founder of UK uncut, convinced every person in the room that we must not only fight for healthcare for all, but that we can win!

Finally, Libby Devlin, Southern Director of NNU, showed us that nurses in each and every state in the U.S. and around the country are already leading the charge because they know – and see every day – what is at stake.

The voices of the nurses of our country are important. They care for patients in their greatest time of need. As the healing hands at the bedside, they have been the consistent witnesses to the inequality of our current health care system. They bear witness to the need for systemic change. They believe as we all do that our collective activism is the catalyst for change.

Medicare for All is possible.

It is right.

It is within our reach.

And we must reach for it… because only all that we love is on the line.