As we get ready to close the books on 2022, we wanted to look back and reflect on our incredible work together this year.
As part of that, we’ll be sending a series of emails throughout the month highlighting specific campaign areas – and today, we’re starting with our national Medicare for All legislative campaign.
Together, here’s just some of what we accomplished in 2022 to grow the support for Medicare for All in Congress:
In February, we launched our Senate Organizing Committees ahead of the highly anticipated reintroduction of Medicare for All to the Senate.
We formed committees in 28 states and had nearly 800 volunteers sign up to be part of them. Volunteers on the committees helped to collect thousands of petition signatures, drove phone calls, met with Senate offices, and more ahead of the bill reintroduction to get as many cosponsors on the bill as possible.
Ahead of the reintroduction, we also hosted ‘Medicare for All Fest’ with live music, Spanish translation, and over 700 people in attendance. We made over 800 calls to the Senate and organized 30 canvass actions that took place during the Senate Week of Action a few weeks later.
Highlights from Medicare for All Fest on April 23, 2022
Senator Bernie Sanders reintroduced the Senate Medicare for All bill on May 12 with 14 cosponsors! This was a huge day, and our movement’s grassroots organizing work was an absolutely key part of the strategy.
Led by Senator Sanders as chair of the Budget Committee, the first ever hearing on Medicare for All took place in the U.S. Senate on the same day as the bill introduction. Our very own Executive Director, Bonnie Castillo, testified on behalf of nurses and patients in support of Medicare for All.
In May, we launched a public education webinar series over the course of the summer to focus on some of the most dangerous trends in the health care industry and how Medicare for All would be a key part of the solution to stop corporatization, protect patients and nurses, and address inequity.
These webinars included:
Our 3rd ever cohort of the Leadership School kicked off in mid-June with several dozen committed nurses and community members across the country. Students in the program committed to an intensive, 3-month long program to become trained on the skills necessary to be successful grassroots leaders in their workplaces and communities in the fight for Medicare for All.
We were so proud to successfully graduate 24 students from the program at the end of August!
After months of local organizing in partnership with Our Revolution NJ, activists in New Jersey showed up at Rep. Andy Kim’s district office at the end of August to deliver hundreds of constituents signatures calling on him to sign on as a cosponsor of Medicare for All.
Volunteers collected 400 petition signatures, organized 11 local unions to sign onto a letter calling on Kim to support, published multiple newspaper op-eds, and showed up at five different town hall events asking him to sign on.
Similarly, in partnership with Medicare for All Florida, activists delivered hundreds of signatures at the end of August to Rep. Darren Soto’s district office near Orlando, FL, to call on him to cosponsor Medicare for All.
Volunteers collected 300 petition signatures and organized dozens of local organizations and unions onto a sign on letter. We also got a ton of media attention — including a news clip of the action that ran a total of 13 times across three different local TV stations!
It’s been a jam-packed year, and this is just one part of our larger campaign efforts. We know that next year is primed for a ton of progress, and we’re so grateful to have you with us.
We laid the groundwork to grow our organizing in 2023, and we’re in a strong position heading into the new year with over a dozen new candidates joining Congress in January that ran on Medicare for All.
We’re excited to build on these efforts in advance of the reintroduction of the House and Senate bills again next spring, and we hope you’ll join us to continue pushing to gain new cosponsors and help move single-payer forward in Congress.
In solidarity,
Jasmine Ruddy
Organizer
Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All
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