Fifteen Democrats Back Bernie’s Medicare For All Bill. Do They Mean It?

It's easy to support a bill you know won't pass under the current president. Time will tell if this support is genuine. Watch the full episode of Aggressive Progressives here:

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"Bernie Sanders has for decades argued that the United States must establish a single-payer health-care system that provides the guarantee of care for all while controlling costs—what he calls a “Medicare for All” structure. So it came as no surprise that the senator from Vermont made single payer central to his 2016 presidential bid. What is striking, Now that the campaign has finished, however, what is striking is the burgeoning interest on the part of prominent Democrats in a reform that was once considered “too bold.” As Sanders prepared to introduce a detailed “Medicare for All” bill on Wednesday, Democratic senators from across the country and from across the ideological spectrum—including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York—announced that they would be signing on as cosponsors."*

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Fifteen Democrats Back Bernie's Medicare For All Bill. Do They Mean It?

32 thoughts on “Fifteen Democrats Back Bernie’s Medicare For All Bill. Do They Mean It?

  1. So Hillary thought she had to condemn single payer to win an election and now they all think they have to champion it to win an election. Well times they are a’changin. Ancient Rome began by feeding christians to the lions and ended with christianity as the official religion of the empire. So miracles can happen.

  2. Remember in 2008 there was a guy who ran on pushing single payer and once elected turned 180 degrees on most of his election promises?

  3. You need 60 Senators to pass this. Will never happen. Even before that, you need the Democrats to take the Senate, which probably won’t happen. Does that mean that I don’t want it? Hell no, I do want it – I’m just realistic.

    • rationalguy and others: There are not enough toss-up seats open in the Senate for the Democrats to take control in 2018, even with the Trump factor. Perhaps in 2020.

    • Libertarian Ish: Yeah, the other 47 Republicans are just in the pocket of the Corporations and Wall Street. There’s nothing wrong with Capitalism. There’s something seriously wrong with pure Capitalism though. FYI- the Republicans all still vote for Corporate Welfare and that’s not Capitalism, it’s pure Fascism.

    • JL Software: Too old, and unelectable once the Republicans start the “Communist!” chants. We need a more moderate candidate who can get elected.

  4. Before Obamacare I was paying $875mth for myself and my son. My employer was paying $577 of that.. I had no co pays, no prescription costs, this was 2010 through 2014.. After Obamacare, I got married, My husband pays $805mth for myself and him,his employer pays $312. $75 Co pays for the doctor, most Useful meds not covered. When I did tons of research to go back to the other company Aetna, that I had instead of this Humana, I found that because insurance companies DID NOT want to stop paying the top people in their company $5 million a year who do less than the scientists, that was why they raised the cost. Not because of anything Obamacare did for us, THE PEOPLE! They just didn’t want to take a pay cut of, and yes, I called and spoke to so many in different companies, $472,000yr.. That’s actually it.. So I ask those haters of Obamacare, why do you hate on Obama for wanting to help us and not the insurance companies that want to screw us??

    • Reason why Obamacare had a masive spike in Premiums was Marco Rubio and the republicans defunded a crucial part of it in 2015.. Marco Rubio even made speeches in public about how this was gonna win the Republicans the election.. What did they defund? The Fund in Obamacare that compensated insurance companies for now having to take on people with pre-existing conditions. This is why some of them started pulling out. It was weak that the democrats left that weak point to the bill knowing full well how oppositional politics works.. Drafting the legislation with a Super-Majority in the house.

    • Banana Republic USA That makes a lot of sense. My employer was paying more for me until Obamacare, then my husbands employer just stopped and I didn’t understand why.

  5. Nope, they’re just not being dimwits; nothing more. You’d have to be a real imbecile to be blind to the direction the political winds are blowing. I’m not trusting any of them except Senator Sanders. I’m 99.999% positive that all the other co-sponsors are just doing this to score brownie points with the constituents. None of them will do it when push-comes-to-shove. They’re just thinking of 2020 presidential runs and 2018 re-elections, not the people.

    • You’re right but although there is reason for caution (and vigilante surveillance), I wouldn’t be all out cynical or paranoid either. For one, there are both followers as well as leaders in any political party, and for two, the corporate dems must recognize after Bernie’s successful grass roots financial and political campaign that it is possible to pursue ethical policies and still be financially and politically viable.

    • Lycan Thorpe
      He will be needing a heart transplant by 2020. You’ll need to look for Tulsi Gabbard. Start pushing her to run for the big cheese. That woman is all heart through and through!

  6. As with any major change in this country’s past, this is a sign that we are getting there. It may take another 10 or 20 years, but at this point, it’s inevitable. Most of the people alive today will eventually have single payer insurance.

  7. Bernie knows full well it wont’ pass this year.. What he is doing is setting up single payer as a major election issue in 2018 and in 2020… Democrats will have to support single payer or face primary challenges while Republicans will continue with their downward spiral introducing one disastrous repeal and replace alternative after another while fighting off the inevitable which is single payer.

  8. This *NEEDS* to happen.
    We are not livestock who should be let-go, when are too old, sick or lame to labor-for or be profitable-to someone else.
    The U.K. has had a version of Single Payer, since 1948!

    • +Troy J That’s true. It was brought up by Aneurin Bevan and was approved by Prime Minister Clement Atlee (Who was a Socialist believe it or not) in 1948. This was a massive step since the UK was still recovering from WW2.

      Seeing America’s healthcare is pretty much the reason I want to stay in my own country (Scotland).

  9. Do they mean it? Don’t know. Don’t care. Doesn’t even matter. I don’t give one flying phookola what politicians think in their heart of hearts. If that’s what you want, go to a dating site. I do not care why they do the right thing, just so long as they do. If and when they backslide, then you hit them over the head with their commitments and promises. The very fact that they’re coming out publicly in favour of something gives us leverage. That’s how grownup politics works.

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