Why We Need Universal Healthcare

• The United States is the only high-income country without universal health insurance
• The U.S. multi-payer system leaves tens of millions uninsured or underinsured, despite overall healthcare costs far above other nations
• In 2019, 8.0 percent of people, or 26.1 million, did not have health insurance at any point during the year
• More than 26 000 Americans die each year because of lack of health insurance
• From 2010 to 2020, total premiums for family coverage increased by 55%, and the worker’s share increased by 40%, outpacing wage growth
• Polled support for single-payer is near an all-time high, as high as two-thirds of Americans
• A January 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 61% of independents favored Medicare for All
• Industries that profit off our broken health care system have been paying for attack ads attacking Medicare for All

National Organizations that Endorse H.R. 1384 — Medicare for All Act of 2019

• National Nurses United
• Physicians for a National Health Program
• Labor Campaign for Single Payer
• Center for Popular Democracy
• Public Citizen
• Democratic Socialists of America
• Our Revolution
• National Union of Healthcare Workers
• People's Action
• Click here for more

Polls

• Public Opinion on Single-Payer, National Health Plans, and Expanding Access to Medicare Coverage (2020)
• Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – March 2018: Views on Prescription Drug Pricing and Medicare-for-all Proposals.

Academic Papers & Reports

• Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2019 (United States Census Bureau)
• Cai C, Runte J, Ostrer I, Berry K, Ponce N, Rodriguez M, et al. (2020). Projected costs of single-payer healthcare financing in the United States: A systematic review of economic analyses. PLoS Med 17(1): e1003013. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003013
• Gaffney, A., Woolhandler, S. & Himmelstein, D. The Effect of Large-scale Health Coverage Expansions in Wealthy Nations on Society-Wide Healthcare Utilization. J GEN INTERN MED 35, 2406–2417. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-05529-y
• Galvani, Alison P et al. (2020). Improving the prognosis of health care in the USA. The Lancet, Volume 395, Issue 10223, 524 - 533Health Care Administrative Costs in the United States and Canada, 2017
• Tanne J. H. (2008). More than 26,000 Americans die each year because of lack of health insurance. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 336(7649), 855. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39549.693981.DB
• Vladeck B. (2003). Universal health insurance in the United States: reflections on the past, the present, and the future. American journal of public health, 93(1), 16–19. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.93.1.16

"By contrast, a universal system, such as that proposed in the Medicare for All Act, has the potential to transform the availability and efficiency of American health-care services. Taking into account both the costs of coverage expansion and the savings that would be achieved through the Medicare for All Act, we calculate that a single-payer, universal health-care system is likely to lead to a 13% savings in national health-care expenditure, equivalent to more than US$450 billion annually (based on the value of the US$ in 2017)."

- Galvani, Alison P et al. (2020)

Statistics

• Figure Percentage of People Without Health Insurance Coverage by Selected Characteristics: 2019
• Uninsured Rate by State: 2019

Articles

• John Nichols | "The Essential Pandemic Relief Bill Is Medicare for All." The Nation (March, 2021)
• Igor Derish | Multiple studies show Medicare for All would be cheaper than public option pushed by moderates. Published in Salon on February, 2020
• Jennifer Tolbert, Kendal Orgera , and Anthony Damic | Key Facts about the Uninsured Population. Kaiser Family Foundation report published in November, 2020
• Harvard Medical School. "Preventable deaths from lack of high-quality medical care cost trillions." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 June 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180604160447.htm>.

"Why are people uninsured?
Even under the ACA, many uninsured people cite the high cost of insurance as the main reason they lack coverage. In 2019, 73.7% of uninsured adults said that they were uninsured because the cost of coverage was too high. Many people do not have access to coverage through a job, and some people, particularly poor adults in states that did not expand Medicaid, remain ineligible for financial assistance for coverage. Additionally, undocumented immigrants are ineligible for Medicaid or Marketplace coverage."

- Key Facts about the Uninsured Population, KFF

Video

Town Hall: Building the Movement for Health Care Justice

 

#ForceTheVote Town Hall

 

Yale Study Says Medicare for All Would Save U.S. $450 Billion, Prevent Nearly 70,000 Deaths a Year

Medicare for All Explained

 

How Canada's Universal Healthcare System Works

 

Debunking a Huge Medicare for All Myth