A New ‘Medicare For All’ Caucus Has Been Created With 70 House Democrats Signing On For It


Showing that politicians may finally be listening to American voters and the idea that Bernie Sanders has long championed, a new Medicare for All caucus has just been launched by 70 House Democrats. According to Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who co-chaired the new caucus, this new development was formed with the lofty goal of attempting to “build the evidence base” for what may very well be a future Medicare for All proposal.

As the Daily Beast reported, the other co-chairs of the Medicare for All caucus include Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN).

When speaking at a press conference, Jayapal asserted that the new caucus will allow Democrats to fully investigate the many merits of Medicare for All for American citizens, while looking at the different paths that universal healthcare could take in the future.

“Our goal is to sponsor briefings in this caucus on a variety of topics from the basics of Medicare for All to financing to universal health care systems around the world.”

Besides this new caucus, there is already legislation in the works that is supported by 122 House Democrats to create a Medicare for All system. And when it comes to the Senate, Bernie Sanders has seen to it that over one-third of the Democrats there have pledged their full support.

With even more House Democrats believed to be signing up for the caucus in the weeks that follow, it has also been surmised that once the November midterms are through there will be new Democrats that will be supporting this Medicare for All plan.

According to Vice, Rep. Pramila Jayapal noted that the new caucus shows that the tide is quickly turning on the issue of healthcare and that an increasing number of Americans now believe that healthcare should be a right rather than a privilege. Politicians, too, are also finally beginning to agree.

“This is a sea change from just four or five years ago and people are more likely to see healthcare as a right. The impetus for this caucus is to have a real discussion and work with our offices to see how a system would really work as we think about implementing it. It’s about a growing movement to bring a Medicare for All system into being.”

Advocates of Medicare for All are jubilant about this huge change in the government amongst Democrats, especially as Hillary Clinton had previously dismissed the idea in 2016, calling it an idea that would almost certainly “never, ever” happen. Jayapal has now thanked Bernie Sanders for putting forward the idea that Medicare for All is something that is needed, especially in light of today’s soaring healthcare costs.

“Bernie Sanders putting that out at that high level was a huge step forward. It built the public knowledge that this wasn’t a crazy progressive idea.”

A poll that was recently conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation has shown that 59 percent of Americans now agree that a government-run healthcare system should be set up, and it appears that Democrats are finally listening with their new Medicare for All caucus.

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