[1]National Nurses United



After hundreds of people across the country mobilized to pressure the
House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee to include a nurse
witness, I was invited to testify about how Medicare for All is the only
legislative proposal that will truly fix our country’s health care crisis.
[ [link removed] ]You can read my full testimony here.

Including a nurse in the hearing was a huge win in itself — something we
could not have achieved without you. Because of our seat at the table, I
was able to make several arguments that would not have been heard
otherwise.

My argument was simple: Medicare for All is the only policy that will
guarantee health care to all people, regardless of ability to pay, and
will control costs by vastly simplifying a complex and wasteful
administrative bureaucracy.

I was also able to tell the committee that unions representing a historic
9 million union workers now support Medicare for All, and that nearly
every major strike this year has been over health care. Indeed, health
care justice is an issue that impacts all working people.

It was also important that I had an opportunity to explain how rural
health care would be significantly strengthened by Medicare for All, and
that the bill even includes a special budget for constructing facilities
and hiring additional staff in underserved areas.

But the influence of Big Pharma and the insurance industry was readily
apparent:

Some members of Congress repeatedly parroted the industry’s talking points
verbatim. I sat directly next to one witness, Douglas Holtz-Eakin
(pictured below, in the blue tie), whose organization has taken tens of
millions of dollars directly from Big Pharma to block any attempts at
health care reform.

[2]NNU President Jean Ross at Yesterday's Hearing

As I made clear in the hearing: so long as the profit-motive is kept in
the driver’s seat, care will continue to be denied to those who need it
and people will die. Profiteering corporations are prepared to spend
whatever amount of money it takes to ensure no reform advances.

In the coming year we plan to intensify our efforts to go after the
culprits behind our broken health care system. I hope you’ll join our
movement — either this month or in the new year. We can’t win without you.

In solidarity,

Jean Ross
President
National Nurses United



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