Congressmen Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are today reaffirming their efforts to provide all Americans with health care that would allow access to the doctor of choice without premiums, co-pays or deductibles. Kucinich and Conyers, Jr., are the co-authors of H.R. 676, Medicare for All, which provides a blueprint for an effective, national single-payer system.  Sanders is the author of S. 703, the American Health Security Act which also provides for a single-payer system.

The three Congressional leaders on Medicare for All health care sent an open letter calling on Americans to build on the momentum created by debate and passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to make Medicare for All a reality.  They also renewed the call for states to take the lead on passing Medicare for All legislation.   

“I celebrate Medicare’s birthday by pledging to continue the fight to implement Medicare for All nationally and at the state level, where there is so much promise” said Kucinich.

“As we honor Medicare’s 45th birthday today, I am proud to say that the movement for Medicare for All remains strong and vibrant.  I look forward to working with my colleagues, activists, and my other friends in the single payer community to improve H.R. 676 over the next few months, before reintroducing it in the 112th Congress.         

While we must continue to work for the passage of a true universal health care bill, we must also be vigilant in our efforts to protect the health care benefits many Americans count on today.  Over 47 million older adults and people with disabilities look to Medicare as a source of health and financial security.  During this period of increased concern over the size of the federal deficit, Medicare and other social insurance programs are increasingly at risk of being targeted for benefit cuts. I pledge to work with my colleagues in the Congress to defeat any proposal that threatens any of these critically important programs,” said Conyers. 

“In my view, the single-payer approach is the only way we will ever have a cost-effective, comprehensive health care system in this country,” said Sanders. “One of the reasons our current health care system is so expensive, so wasteful, so bureaucratic, so inefficient is that it is heavily dominated by private health insurance companies whose only goal in life is to make as much money as they can.”

Read the letter here.