news

This week, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) joined Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-7), Debbie Dingell (MI-6), and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to introduce the Medicare for All Act.

In America today, despite spending twice as much per person on health care as other wealthy nations, more than 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, one out of every four Americans cannot afford their prescription drugs, over half a million people go bankrupt due to medically-related debt, and more than 60,000 die because they cannot afford to go to a doctor.

“As the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, it is a tragedy that millions of Americans remain uninsured,” said Congresswoman Escobar. “It’s long past time we right this wrong and finally accept, as a country, that healthcare is a human right.”

Under this legislation, Medicare would provide comprehensive health care to every American with no premiums, no co-payments and no deductibles. It would also expand Medicare to include dental, hearing, and vision care, and it would give every American the freedom to choose their doctors without endless paperwork or fighting their insurance company. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Medicare for All would save our health care system $650 billion a year. Further, researchers at Yale University have estimated that Medicare for All would save 68,000 lives a year.

This legislation would also create a health care system that finally puts people over profits. In fact, since 2001, the top health care companies in America spent 95 percent of their profits, $2.6 trillion, not to make Americans healthy but to make their CEOs and stockholders obscenely rich. While nearly one out of four Americans cannot afford the life-saving medicine their doctors prescribe, ten top pharma companies made $102 billion in profits in 2024. Meanwhile, the CEOs of just 4 prescription drug companies – Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, and Merck – together made over $100 million last year.

The Medicare for All Act has an additional 101 original House co-sponsors, an additional 15 co-sponsors in the Senate, and is endorsed by dozens of organizations.

To read the bill text, click here.