Thursday Petition Delivery of More Than One Million Signatures Highlights Overwhelming Support for Medicare-for-All
Feb. 13, 2018
Thursday Petition Delivery of More Than One Million Signatures Highlights Overwhelming Support for Medicare-for-All
Groups to Deliver Petitions to Key Senators
WHAT: Delivery of more than one million petition signatures in support of a Medicare-for-All health care system. Such a system would provide health care to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Americans are demanding a humane health care system; polls indicate that record numbers of voters believe that health care is a right and that the government should ensure access to care. They support the single-payer system embodied by the Medicare-for-All Act (S. 1804).
Petition signatures were collected by Public Citizen, CREDO, Daily Kos, Healthcare-NOW, Justice Democrats, Labor Campaign for Single-Payer, MoveOn, Our Revolution, People’s Action, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Progressive Democrats of America and Students for a National Health Program.
The event will begin with brief remarks by representatives of some of the groups making the delivery, including nurses and medical students. Then the groups will visit the offices of 10 lawmakers to deliver the signatures.
The event, including the delivery to the target offices, will be carried live on Our Revolution’s Facebook page.
WHO: Representatives from Public Citizen, Justice Democrats, Labor Campaign for Single Payer, National Health Care for the Homeless Council, National Nurses United, Our Revolution, Physicians for a National Health Program and Students for a National Health Program.
WHEN: 11 a.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 15
WHERE: Representatives from organizations will meet at the south entrance to the Hart Senate Office Building (near 120 Constitution Ave NE.). From there, the representatives will visit the offices of U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.).
BACKGROUND: Our health care system costs $3.2 trillion annually – roughly the entire gross domestic product of Germany – and the cost continues to grow. Nearly one-third of that is squandered on administrative tasks related to our fragmented system, which has hundreds of health plans. Nearly 30 million Americans are uninsured and tens of thousands of Americans die annually because they lack access to quality health care, even with the significant gains made through the Affordable Care Act.
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