Friends -

The cruelty and dysfunction of our current health care system was apparent long before this horrific pandemic. But if there was ever a time to recommit ourselves to fighting for Medicare for All and granting health care as a human right, now is that time.

As millions of Americans have lost their jobs, it is virtually impossible for any rational person to defend a system that ties health care to employment status — a system that prioritizes its own profits over the needs and well-being of the American people.

In the middle of this coronavirus emergency, up to 35 million Americans are expected to lose their health coverage because they received it through their employer-sponsored plan. In the United States, unlike any other major country in the world, when you lose your job, you lose your health care. That is absurd.

That is why I’d like to ask you to do something important today to help send a powerful message that health care must be guaranteed as a human right in this country, not just an employee benefit.

Please add your name if you agree that the United States must join every other major country on earth, grant health care as a right for all, and adopt a Medicare for All, single-payer system.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, 87 million were uninsured or underinsured while one out of five people struggled to afford obscenely priced prescription drugs. Each year, more than 500,000 families declared bankruptcy and 30,000 people died because they couldn’t get the care they needed.

The situation is far more dire now.

At a time when people should not be worrying about how they will afford to go to a doctor, those without health insurance are terrified of going bankrupt just to get tested or treated for the coronavirus. Some have been forced to pay up to $34,000 in medical bills, and those who do have insurance could see their premiums increase by up to 40%.

Unbelievably, cities, states and hospitals are fighting over scarce personal protective equipment such as gloves, gowns and masks. In the richest country in the world, four out of five frontline nurses do not have the protective equipment they need. As a result, some have resorted to wearing trash bags as makeshift gear in an attempt to protect themselves at work.

The current crisis has further exposed, in a horrific way, how our massive level of income and wealth inequality creates grotesque health care disparities and puts our most vulnerable people on the brink of financial ruin. Rural hospitals and community health clinics, which often serve low-income families, are at risk of going bankrupt and shutting down entirely. And it is the poor, the minorities and the working class who disproportionately make up our country’s reported coronavirus cases and deaths.

If there is any positive outcome to the dire circumstances we find ourselves in today, it is that we must use this moment to reflect on the foundational institutions of our society and determine how we best go forward to create a better future together.

Do we really want to continue spending twice as much per capita for health care as any other country while our social outcomes — life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal deaths — lag behind many of them?

Do we really want to continue with a system that is designed to boost its own profits while millions of Americans struggle to get the care they need?

Do we really want to continue the current cruel system that ties health care to our jobs, leaving us without health care when we are unemployed and most vulnerable?

Do we really want to continue being ripped off by the greed and collusion of the pharmaceutical industry that charges us outrageously high prices for prescription drugs?

Do we really want to continue the complicated, wasteful and bureaucratic system that requires an absurd amount of paperwork to determine how much of our deductible we’ve paid, how much of our procedure is covered by our plan, and whether we saw a doctor in the correct "network"?

Do we really want to continue having a grossly unfair system where medical and nursing school graduates, facing crippling amounts of student debt, tend to go to communities where they can make the most money, rather than the locations where they are needed most?

The goal of a humane health care system should be to provide health care to everyone in a cost-effective way — not to make billions in profits to benefit CEOs.

The good news is that a large number of Americans — particularly as we experience this pandemic — believe that it is time for a Medicare for All, single-payer system that guarantees universal health care to every man, woman, and child as a basic human right.

Today I am asking you to say you’re a part of that effort:

Add your name if you believe we must grant health care as a right to all through a Medicare for All system.

There is no question that passing Medicare for All won’t be easy. We are taking on the incredible wealth and power of the insurance companies, the drug companies and an entire industry which puts profits before the well-being of the American people. We are taking on an army of well-paid lobbyists and the politicians who receive their campaign contributions. But we can win this struggle if we engage people in the political process in an unprecedented way. Let us stand together and fight back. Let us make health care a human right, not a privilege.

Thank you for adding your name to show that, together, we are committed to replacing our current cruel health care system with universal health care through Medicare for All.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders