The Digger

Comparison of Conyers Hr.676(RIP) and Sanders/McDermott S.1804 Bills - http://www.md.pnhp.org/docs/Comparison-HR676-and-S703.pdf Excerpt: HR 676, the gold standard single payer legislation  for the past sixteen years, is no longer. The House Democrats have decided that their single payer Medicare for All bill will not carry the HR 676 number. They let that number go this week  to a bill that reiterates  “the support of the Congress of the United States for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).” [...] “Now that the Democrats can no longer ignore that their base is demanding a single payer health system, we have lost both HR 676 by number and its status as the gold standard. From what we have heard, as we have still not seen the text of the draft as promised, the new health bill being written by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) has an unnecessarily long transition period and maintains the for-profit providers in the system. The...

By Amanda Buddenbaum June 20, 2018 “We remain the only major country on earth that allows chief executives and stockholders in the health care industry to get incredibly rich, while tens of millions of people suffer because they can’t get the health care they need. This is not what the United States should be about.”[1] So wrote Senator Bernie Sanders in his New York Times Op Ed of September 13, 2017, to announce the introduction of his Medicare for All Act. During his presidential campaign of 2016, Sanders had called for a Medicare for all, single payer system to solve the nation’s health care crisis. The thousands who attended his rallies and joined in his social media network responded enthusiastically. Sanders escalated the demand for single payer health care as he reiterated the message across the country. On that same date, Senator Bernie Sanders, joined by 16 senators, introduced S. 1804, his long awaited Medicare for All Act of 2017.[2] At least four of the cosponsor...