Back in March, we sent you a campaign update about our plans for the rest of the year. Today, we’re excited to share another update with you to report back on what we’ve achieved so far and what’s next for the rest of the year. 

Before we get into it, we want to let you know that we laid out all of this in a Medium article that we published today. Will you read and share our Medium post to help spread the word about our plans?

First, to recap: in March of this year, Medicare for All was reintroduced in the House as H.R. 1976. The bill was introduced with a record 112 original cosponsors. And, as of today, because of our collective organizing, we’ve ticked that up even higher to 118 total cosponsors. 

That’s well over half the Democrats in the House — which is significant. But it’s not enough to pass the bill in the House, and so we need to keep organizing.

Beginning in March 2021, we decided to focus our efforts on 19 Democrats who we believed were most likely to sign on to the bill with enough pressure, along with 21 Democrats who are some of the highest recipients of corporate health care donations in Congress. 

We’re proud to share that since then, volunteer leaders have stepped up in nearly every single one of those Congressional districts to lead the local campaign efforts in their area. 

And that work has paid off — we’ve already crossed two members of Congress off our list of priority cosponsor districts, Rep. Kwesi Mfume (MD-07) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA-19), because activists in their districts successfully pressured them to sign on. Activists in the districts of Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-04) and Rep. Mike Quigley (IL-05) have also succeeded in moving their members of Congress to cosponsor during this same time.

We know that this local organizing work must continue, but we also know that in order to win, we need folks from across the country to help put the pressure on in key districts as well. 

So we’ve selected four districts where we’ll focus national attention this Fall. The members of those districts are: 

• Congressman John Garamendi, CA-03 (Sacramento)
• Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, OH-03 (Columbus)
• Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, TX-15 (San Antonio)
• Congressman Albio Sires, NJ-08 (Newark)

If just one of these members of Congress signs on to the bill, we’ll pass an important symbolic milestone: more cosponsors on Medicare for All than we had in the last session of Congress when the Democratic majority was much larger.  

We think we can leverage the power of the national grassroots movement to make this happen, but we can’t do it without you.

Will you read and share our latest Medium post that lays out our fall strategy in full to help grow our movement and build power?

There are a number of ways you can get involved in this next phase of the campaign: 

1. Join a text bank party: We’ve already hosted two mass national text bank parties and have one more planned for Thursday, September 2nd (click the link to RSVP) to text voters in these four districts to identify and mobilize supporters of Medicare for All.
2. Send postcards to voters: In the first week of October, we’ll host three national Medicare for All Postcard Parties to write letters to Medicare for All supporters. To join, sign up here by September 13th so that we have time to ship you a batch of blank Medicare for All postcards.
3. Join a phone bank party: We’re hosting two national Medicare for All Phone Bank Parties to reach out to supporters in our four priority districts. Each phone bank will be 2 hours long and will take place on Saturday, October 30th and Monday, November 1st. Click the links to RSVP!
4. National Day of Action: All of these actions will lead up to a national Day of Action in early November. During the Day of Action, Medicare for All supporters in each of the four districts will be organizing massive car caravans that include starting or ending at the office of each member of Congress.

Through these tactics this fall, we will be able to supplement the organizing being done on the ground in these four districts. But we can only do it with your help — so sign up to take action with us above!

And that’s not all. We know that if we’re going to win, we need to directly take on the health care corporations that are spending millions of dollars trying to stop us. 

Earlier this year, it was uncovered by The Intercept that none other than CVS Health had become the largest single donor to the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, which is the largest anti-Medicare for All lobby group made up of the country’s biggest insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospital corporations.

So we’re launching a campaign this fall to confront CVS Health for its role in bankrolling the Partnership, and we’re going to need your help.

That starts with a mass public education panel titled: CVS Health, The Future of Health Care, and the Fight for Medicare for All that we’re organizing on Thursday, September 9th (click the link to RSVP) and we need you there. 

There’s a lot happening this fall, and we need you to sign up and take part however you can. Please sign up for an event above, then share this Medium post to grow our movement and invite your friends to join you.

Onward, 

Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All