Friends,

On Friday, a couple in Ferndale, Washington was found dead in their apartment. Authorities are calling it a murder-suicide, caused by medical debt and a fear that health care costs would drive them to financial ruin.¹ They were 77 years old — and even though they qualified for Medicare, it wasn’t enough to cover all their expenses.

This is the heartbreaking and real-life human toll of our broken, gluttonous, profit-driven health care system. The fat cats at Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson may treat us all like numbers on a spreadsheet — just a part of their calculus to earn billions off our illnesses and misfortune. But the cost is very, very real.

We are sickened and angered. We all should be. These aren’t the first patients to be brutalized by this health care system, and unless we do something to change it, they won’t be the last.

The couple’s Representative, Suzan DelBene, has repeatedly refused to support H.R. 1384, the Medicare for All Act of 2019 — which would expand and improve Medicare to eliminate co-pays and cover dental, vision, long-term care, and prescription drugs. Instead of backing this legislation, she has sided with the corporate machine that drove this couple to the brink.

We need to make sure this avoidable tragedy serves as a wake-up call to her and members of Congress all over the country.

Please sign our petition today: join National Nurses United in demanding that Rep. DelBene cosponsor Medicare for All so that we can win a future where no one ever needs to take their own life to escape medical debt.

This story — and the stories like it — make one thing clear: we must demand accountability from Congress. How many more lives are they willing to condemn and throw away for the sake of CEO profits?

Just last week, Josh Wilkerson — a man with diabetes — died after taking a cheaper, over-the-counter insulin to save money for his wedding. His prescription would have cost $1,200. He was 27 years old.

Josh wasn’t alone, either. Just look up “insulin rationing,” and you’ll see page after page of people unable to afford the medicine that they need to stay alive. All so a few CEOs can buy another house in the Hamptons or add another yacht to their armada.

Tell Rep. DelBene to put her constituents over corporate profits by supporting H.R. 1384 today. Winning Medicare for All is the only way we can prevent medical debt from destroying any more lives.

The system has to change, badly. And I think we have the power to do just that this year. We’re going to pressure each and every member of Congress until they join us.

In solidarity,

The Nurses' Campaign to Win Medicare for All

1: The Hill - Elderly couple in apparent murder-suicide indicated they could not afford medical care