[ [link removed] ]Democratic Socialists for Medicare for All

Dear John,

Hello and thank you for reading our first issue of 2020! 

[ [link removed] ]Sen. Bernie Sanders leads Joe Biden by 9 points in Iowa and [ [link removed] ]15
points in New Hampshire. In fact, [ [link removed] ]he’s favored over Trump in every
major poll conducted in the last month! But with Super Tuesday on the
horizon, it’s more important than ever to continue building support behind
Sen. Sanders because he’s the only candidate committed to enacting
Medicare for All from day 1.

It’s also key to remember that Sanders is the only candidate whose
healthcare plan adheres to [ [link removed] ]our campaign’s 5 principles and truly earns
the right to be called Medicare for All. Other candidates’ plans just
don’t stack up, and this recent campaign video explains why:

[ [link removed] ]DSA for Medicare for All tweet with screencap of video of Bernie
speaking on Medicare for All. Text: Voting is about to start in the 2020
primary, and Americans say their most important issue is healthcare. Of
the major candidates, who has the best plan to fix our broken system?

[ [link removed] ]Watch the full video here!

We’re still encouraging [ [link removed] ]individuals and chapters to put pressure on
their representatives to support Medicare for All, and now we’re also
asking that people [ [link removed] ]canvass, make calls and/or send texts for the
Sanders campaign. Keep the momentum up!

As the Medicare for All movement grows, it’s also picking up support from
crucial players in the healthcare system itself: doctors. The American
College of Physicians — the country’s largest medical specialty
organization representing more than 159,000 doctors — [ [link removed] ]announced their
support for a single-payer system in January. The group outlined their
position in the [ [link removed] ]Annals of Internal Medicine, saying in part, “Major
changes are needed to a system that costs too much, leaves too many
behind, and delivers too little.”

Separately but on the same day as the ACP announcement, [ [link removed] ]more than
2,000 doctors took out a full-page ad in The New York Times “prescribing”
Medicare for All. Their message read in part, “Oppressive costs and the
fear of financial ruin amplify the suffering of illness. Meanwhile,
doctors and nurses struggle to provide good care in a bad system... It is
time to transform the way we pay for care — to embrace improved Medicare
for All.”

It’s not just doctors who recognize we’re at a critical moment in the
fight for single-payer. In Washington, UFCW 21 jointly [ [link removed] ]endorsed
Medicare for All and Bernie Sanders as the presidential candidate who will
achieve it. UFCW 21 is the largest private sector union in the state and
largest UFCW local in the country, including over 46,000 workers in
healthcare, retail, grocery stores and other industries.

Board member and emergency department assistant at Spokane’s Sacred Heart
Medical Center Jose Hernandez said, “As someone who works in an ER, I see
the effects of our broken health care system every day, as patients skip
getting the care they need because they can’t afford it, leading to worse
health outcomes and higher costs for everyone. And as a union member,
Medicare for All relieves us of the burden of long, drawn-out fights to
maintain our health care plans, freeing working people from the crushing
consequences of getting sick and opening doors for wage increases and
other benefits.”

We can’t miss this tremendous opportunity to achieve a healthcare system
that truly works for the many, not just the privileged few.

For a full list of Bernie’s current labor union endorsements visit
[ [link removed] ]laborforbernie2020.org/endorsements.

If you have friends, family members or colleagues who are interested in
keeping up with the campaign, [ [link removed] ]tell them to sign up here to receive All
In straight to their inbox. Thanks for reading, and see you next month! 

From the campaign

News from the M4A blog and the broader campaign

More than 60 chapters participated in our Week of Action in January! Held
in partnership with the [ [link removed] ]DSA for Bernie campaign, chapters in [ [link removed] ]North
Texas, [ [link removed] ]East Bay, [ [link removed] ]Inland Empire, [ [link removed] ]Los Angeles, [ [link removed] ]Kern County,
[ [link removed] ]Seattle and [ [link removed] ]dozens more cities held canvasses and events in
support of Bernie Sanders and Medicare for All. [ [link removed] ]Not even snow kept
some canvassers from hitting the streets! [ [link removed] ]See our full recap here.

[ [link removed] ]DSA Medicare for All blog screencap: BUILDING MOMENTUM FOR BERNIE WITH
THE LARGEST WEEK OF ACTION YET by DSA M4A. Photo: Jabari Brisport, left,
running for New York State Senate District 25, and Phara Souffrant
Forrest, right, running for New York City's 57th Assembly District,
attended a Medicare for All/Bernie town hall hosted by New York City DSA.
(Photo via New York City DSA).Medical device manufacturers have a friend
in Elizabeth Warren, [ [link removed] ]writes Zaid Jilani for Jacobin. Sen. Warren aided
the industry in a multi-year battle to fight off a 2.3 percent excise tax
that would’ve been levied on the companies — many of which are
headquartered in her home state of Massachusetts — to help fund the
Affordable Care Act. She even went so far as to [ [link removed] ]write an op-ed in 2012
for Mass Device, an industry trade publication. “When Congress taxes the
sale of a specific product through an excise tax, as the Affordable Care
Act does with medical devices, it too often disproportionately impacts the
small companies with the narrowest financial margins and the broadest
innovative potential,” she wrote. That doesn’t sound like a candidate who
is going to put people over medical industry profits.

“The spectacle of national labor leaders defending a system that is the
biggest cause of strikes, lockouts, and concession bargaining is
mind-boggling,” [ [link removed] ]writes Mark Dudzic for New Politics. Labor leaders
such as AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka and American Federation of Teachers
(AFT) President Randi Weingarten have stoked fears that Medicare for All
would “take away” their members’ hard fought union benefits, but Dudzic —
National Organizer and Chairman of the United States Labor Party — urges
rank-and-file union members to resist their logic. He also explains why
Medicare for All would be uniquely beneficial for union members, and why
the Medicare for All movement needs union workers at the forefront of the
fight. “Medicare for All would take health care off the bargaining table
and increase union bargaining leverage in nearly every negotiation,” he
writes.

News

Related news articles, essays, articles from outlets beyond the campaign

Research has shown time and again that Medicare for All  is cost effective
and will save money. [ [link removed] ]A study published in the Annals of Internal
Medicine revealed that “an increase in overhead from private insurers
caused spending as a percentage of total US healthcare costs to surge from
31% in 1999 to over 34% in 2017,” mostly driven by significantly higher
spending on per-patient admin costs compared to countries with a
single-payer system. “The US' sky-high healthcare costs are driven in no
small part by the oversized admin spending burden private insurance places
on hospitals and other providers — and these costs could have negative
implications on patient health,” [ [link removed] ]according to an article in Business
Insider. 

[ [link removed] ]Screencap of tweet by @AdamWeinstein: Them: Your copay for the CT scan
will be $500 Me: Whaaaat? No way. Who'd you talk to at my insurance? Them:
... Me: What's the cash self-pay rate, if I don't use insurance? Them: Uh,
$300 Me: ...

Adam Weinstein’s tweet thread could only go viral in America. 

In January the national security editor for The New Republic was told by
his doctors that he needed a CT scan of his neck after experiencing months
of tonsillitis, sore throats, and fatigue. [ [link removed] ]In his thread, he describes
an absolutely baffling series of contradictory and obtuse statements made
by the hospital, the medical providers and his insurance — simply because
he asked how much the scan would cost. [ [link removed] ]A self-described “Ayn
Rand-loving libertarian” prior to the experience, he now writes, “the
American health system is an insane patchwork of privileged,
cash-hoovering cartels and fiefdoms, and everyone knows it... And I worry
about a thin, pale version of national patriotism that believes the fault
lies with the underemployed, sick and afflicted, rather than the system
that’s supposed to tend to them.”

“Oh my god, we can't afford this,” Bee immediately thought [ [link removed] ]after
tripping over a tree root on a hike and shattering her leg. The
25-year-old had been recently laid off from her job and was without health
insurance. She spent a year recovering from the catastrophic injury and
then had to face a new hurdle: the medical bill. “Today, I’m $33,993 in
debt from my leg injury alone,” she says. “One night, I was feeling so
depressed and defeated about this whole situation from beginning to end.
My husband was sitting next to me, and I looked up at him and told him, ‘I
wish you would have shot me out there. A funeral would have been
cheaper.’”

Social media

The best stuff from our feeds

😤 [ [link removed] ]If your boss likes your plan, you have to keep it

🚴❄️ [ [link removed] ]Yeah, pretty much

💖 [ [link removed] ]DSA M4A really loves the NHS (and Rob Delaney)

🗣️ [ [link removed] ]Bernie has been on-brand for longer than most of us have been alive

🔥 [ [link removed] ]Medicare for All is attractive in more ways than uhhh, one

🐬 [ [link removed] ]Even animals want Medicare for All


 
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