Ann Arbor City Council: ‘We Need Medicare for All’
Ann Arbor Joins Growing List of Localities Demanding Guaranteed Health Care
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Ann Arbor City Council approved a resolution on Monday night in support of the federal Medicare for All Act of 2019 and the state MiCare initiative.
The resolution sends a strong message to both Congress and the Michigan Legislature that the residents of Ann Arbor are demanding a change to the for-profit health care system that treats health care as a privilege rather than a right for everyone.
The passage of the resolution comes as the coronavirus pandemic lays bare the dangers of our for-profit health care system, as more people unnecessarily suffer and die due to financial barriers to health care. Millions of Americans are losing their health insurance along with their jobs.
“Health care is a basic universal human right,” said Ann Arbor Council Member Ali Ramwali, who sponsored the resolution. “The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not provide universal health care, which has resulted in gross inequalities in the quality of health care provided, a higher infant mortality rate, lower life expectancy than that of our peer countries and millions of Americans declaring bankruptcy due to medical debt. We need a more sustainable and equitable health care system now.”
Other cities, including Detroit, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles and New Orleans, also have passed resolutions in support of Medicare for All. Michigan for Single Payer Healthcare – which helped push for the Ann Arbor resolution – is part of a national coalition, including Public Citizen, National Nurses United and People’s Action, that is urging local advocates to press their local governments to pass these resolutions.
“It is through relentless grassroots advocacy efforts like those that led to this city council resolution multiplied in communities across the country that we will win Medicare for All,” said Melinda St. Louis, director Public Citizen’s Medicare for All campaign.