The first step to decent health care for all Americans

The new Democratic majority in the House will hold the first hearings on Medicare-for-All legislation, a longtime goal of the party’s left, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi lent her support for the process.

“It’s a huge step forward to have the speaker’s support,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who will be the House sponsor of the legislation, usually denoted as HR 676. “We have to push on the inside while continuing to build support for this on the outside.”

Some version of universal health care has been a Democratic goal for decades. The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, first introduced in 2003 by then-Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, has become the vehicle for Democrats who want to bring single-payer, Canada-style health care to the United States.

That legislation was typically sidelined, even when Democrats had power; in 2009 and 2010, when the House passed the Affordable Care Act, the “Medicare-for-All” package was not part of the discussion. But in his 2016 campaign for president, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) championed Medicare for All. The following year, for the first time, a majority of House Democrats co-sponsored HR 676.

[...]

With Democrats locked out of power in the Senate and the White House, Jayapal said that supporters of universal health care were proceeding “one step at a time” and that getting the first real hearings on the bill — for years, it has been aspirational, and not even subject to a Congressional Budget Office score — would force a larger discussion.

“This will ensure that Medicare for All is part of the 2020 Democratic presidential platforms,” said Jayapal.

  WaPo

Something they could actually win on.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.