Florida Activists Lead Grassroots Organizing on Medicare for All
By Brittany Shannahan
New Cosponsors for Medicare for All in 2026
In the United States, government cuts, and skyrocketing costs guarantee that healthcare will be a key political issue in the United States in 2026. Last year, Republicans in Congress enacted a series of major cuts to the Affordable Care Act and to Medicaid, impeding access to care for tens of millions of Americans. But another, more positive trend entered the media: strong gains for Medicare for All, with six new cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R.3069): Shomari Figures (AL-7), Adelita Grijalva (AZ-7), Julie Johnson (TX-32), April McLean Delaney (MD-36), Jared Moskowitz (FL-23), and Sarah Elfreth (MD-03); plus two in the Senate (S.1506): Tina Smith (MN) and Chris Van Hollen (MD).
This growing momentum for a comprehensive solution to our broken health care system comes alongside a series of new public polls that indicate Americans are broadly supportive of single payer health care (Medicare for All) at a national level. This has led to a wave of supportive commentary in the media that hasn’t been seen since 2020. Against the backdrop of a full-out assault on many aspects of our health care system by a Republican-led Congress and the Trump administration, renewed interest in Medicare for All among the public, newspapers and politicians makes perfect sense.
This renewal of Congressional and media support has a solid foundation in the national movement of Medicare for All activists, who have been organizing in their communities across generations to win single-payer health care. Recent victories include two key county-wide resolutions led by activists working with Public Citizen’s Medicare for All Resolutions campaign, in Baltimore County, MD and in Mecklenburg County, NC.
Medicare for All Organizing in Florida
In November, Public Citizen had the privilege of sponsoring and leading workshops (two on bringing Medicare for All into local pro-democracy protests as a key demand and one on passing municipal resolutions) at the first in-person Healthcare Now Medicare for All Strategy Conference since 2020, located on Florida’s Space Coast. The event space was packed to capacity, principally by Floridians themselves.
Conventional political punditry often tells us that when it comes to progressive politics, red states are a lost cause. How could the movement organize for Medicare for All in a state like Florida? Having one of the most vindictive governors in the country at the helm makes the Sunshine State no exception to the often-held theory to avoid conservative strongholds. But the answer to this question is that despite obvious challenges, Florida is already organizing health-focused campaigns and even offers plenty of new lessons on how to organize anywhere.
Public Citizen has been working with Medicare for All Florida ever since the organization was created back in 2021. Before that, some of our earliest victories in passing municipal resolutions in support of Medicare for All took place in Florida, led by Progressive Democrats of America activists in St. Petersburg and Tampa.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, working with Medicare for All Florida, we co-organized statewide virtual Medicare for All town halls, using these events as an opportunity to bring a wide array of organizational allies into our mutual coalition building work. More successful resolutions followed: in Key West, Gainesville, Alachua County and Lake Worth Beach.
The November strategy conference featured speakers active in immigrant rights organizing, state single-payer initiatives, and state politicians. In this space, I began to reminisce about Mitchell Stollberg, a Florida resident and Progressive Democrats of America leader who sadly passed away in 2020. Mitch was a life-long activist who developed cancer in his early 60s. He was too young to qualify for Medicare at the time. Struggling to meet his high health care costs, he became a dogged advocate for Medicare for All. Despite his health challenges, every time former Representative Ted Deutch (FL-22) made a public appearance, Mitch was there to ask him when he’d sign onto Medicare for All. After Mitch’s death, Rep. Deutch signed on to the Medicare for All bill to honor his memory.
A few days after the conference concluded, Jared Moskowitz, who now holds Deutch’s seat in Congress, signed on to Medicare for All. In January, the city of North Miami Beach, led by Mayor Michael Joseph, passed a resolution in support of Medicare for All. These victories represent both the reverberations of the Medicare for All Strategy conference in Florida, as well as a culmination of multiple generations of organizing work.
Medicare for All Organizing in 2026
The Floridians I met during the November event looked at our political situation in their own unique way that was very uplifting as many D.C. advocates have become jaded. Accustomed to a hard-right state government, they’ve had to develop their own resolve to organize their communities in spite of tough political conditions.
Floridians also understand the urgency of Medicare for All, even people like Mitch, who fought so relentlessly for a change that he probably knew he might not live to see. Florida activists are focused on the long-term task of building a successful movement to win progressive change. Medicare for All Florida has also invested energy in state legislative battles, over bills like a statewide cap on insulin costs and pressuring state lawmakers to introduce a state-based single payer bill.
I left Florida with both an awe at the strength of the long-term networks that grassroots activists have built, as well as a realization that there is a renewed energy behind the demand for Medicare for All in 2026. These lessons I took away will definitely be used in the broader fight, and we hope you will get us engaged with us in this work this year.
Coming up, we’re working with activists in Chicago to pass a resolution with the City Council. We’re also working with activists in target states and Congressional districts to win even more new cosponsors of the federal Medicare for All bill. And we’re working with activists across the country to help them to bring Medicare for All as a core demand to mass protests in their communities.
Whether you’re getting involved for the first time, coming back into the fight after a long break, or a seasoned activist looking for new strategy opportunities, now’s the time to elevate Medicare for All as our collective vision for guaranteed healthcare. Check out our toolkit for ways, both large and small, to participate in this work.