"Healthcare is a right,
not a privilege, and our members will continue to push for it until we get it
over the finish line."
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
A diverse coalition of
progressive advocacy groups on Tuesday delivered 2.2 million petition
signatures to House Democrats demanding that they use their majority to pass
Rep. Pramila Jayapal's gold-standard Medicare
for All bill.
The petition delivery hit a
brief snag when members of the coalition—representing nurses, physicians, and
consumers across the U.S.—were stopped by a Capitol police officer who said the
public is not allowed to "deliver" items to members of Congress.
"Does that mean that
lobbyists can no longer provide any materials to offices, too?" asked activist
Maria Langholz.
Consumer advocacy group Public
Citizen said it has "delivered petitions to Congress countless times"
and "never encountered this before."
The groups were ultimately
able to deliver petition signatures to a number of House Democrats who have yet
to co-sponsor Jayapal's Medicare for All Act of 2019, including Reps. Darren Soto
(D-N.J.), Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Mary Gay
Scanlon (D-Pa.), and Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa).
"Our members are
organizing and pushing other members of Congress to get on board with Medicare
for All," Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, said
in a statement.
"Healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and our members will continue to
push for it until we get it over the finish line."
Melinda St. Louis, director of
Public Citizen's Medicare for All campaign, said the 2.2 million petition
signatures "are reflective of what we're seeing at the grassroots level
through efforts to win city and county council resolutions in support of
Medicare for All."
"As this campaign
continues to gain steam," said St. Louis, "we expect to see more and
more boxes of signatures from Americans demanding guaranteed healthcare for
all."
A majority
of the House Democratic caucus has co-sponsored the Medicare for All
Act, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has refused
to allow the bill to the floor for a vote. Tom Nickels, a lobbyist for
the American Hospital Association, predicted in
April that Pelosi would ensure there is no vote on Medicare for All as long as
she holds the gavel.
Maplight's Andrew Perez reported Tuesday
that the for-profit hospital industry is "leading the fight" against
Medicare for All by bankrolling the Partnership for America's Health Care
Future (PAHCF), a dark-money organization formed
by corporate interests to crush single-payer.
Connie Huynh, healthcare for
all campaign director with People's Action, said in a statement that
"corporate greed keeps healthcare out of reach for millions of
people."
"We can't wait,"
said Huynh. "We need Congress to vote for Medicare for All: it's the best
solution to our healthcare crisis right now."
Watch the petition delivery:
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