Right now, we’re coming to the end of a critical election year and gearing up for defensive fights in 2025 and beyond. While we fight back against right-wing attacks on Medicaid and Medicare, we must also keep making the case for fixing our broken health care system through Medicare for All.

As we finalize our plans for the new year, we want to provide you with a refresher on what Medicare for All is and how it would work by reviewing the six core MFA principles, which you can read and share with others here.

Today’s email is focused on universal coverage: Everybody in, nobody out. Under Medicare for All, every person in the U.S. — regardless of race, sex, gender, country of origin, disability status, immigration status, marital status, age, and income — would get the care they need regardless of ability to pay.

The United States does not currently have and has never had a health care system that provides universal coverage. Instead, we have a patchwork system of private and public insurance that has resulted in 26 million people being uninsured and 23 percent of adults being underinsured as of 2023.¹ Even nearly 15 years after the Affordable Care Act was passed into law, there are still millions of people without health care coverage, or unable to afford to use the coverage they have due to high copays and deductibles.

This isn’t normal, . As The Commonwealth Fund points out, the U.S. is the only high-income country that does not guarantee health coverage.²

Despite spending more money on health care than any other OECD country in the world, the U.S. has worse health outcomes, including the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest death rates for avoidable or treatable conditions, the highest maternal and infant mortality, and more.³

Even hyper-capitalist Elon Musk can see there’s something wrong with this. The most efficiently run health care systems in the world have been proven time and time again to be single-payer systems that provide universal coverage, and that’s exactly what Medicare for All could do for us!

Through Medicare for All, every person in the United States would have health care coverage from birth to death — no insurance, just care when you need it.

And when we say Medicare for All, we truly mean for everyone — no matter immigration status. Health care justice means every person in the U.S. receives a single standard of quality care, leveling the health care playing field by eliminating barriers and disparities.

Together, let’s keep up the fight to pass Medicare for All and finally guarantee health care to everyone in our country.

In solidarity,

Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All

 

1 - The State of Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S.
2 - U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2022: Accelerating Spending, Worsening Outcomes
3 - Ibid