Indian American U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) has introduced the Medicare for All Act to provide comprehensive health care to every American with no premiums, no co-payments and no deductibles.
It would also expand Medicare to include dental, hearing, and vision care, and it would give every American the freedom to choose their doctors without endless paperwork or fighting their insurance company.
Jayapal introduced the legislation Tuesday with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (VT), and U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell in the presence of hundreds of nurses, health care providers and workers from around the country in front of the Capitol.
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The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Medicare for All would save our health care system $650 billion a year. Further, researchers at Yale University have estimated that Medicare for All would save 68,000 lives a year, according to a press release from Jayapal.
This legislation would also create a health care system that finally puts people over profits. In fact, since 2001, the top health care companies in America spent 95 % of their profits, $2.6 trillion, not to make Americans healthy but to make their CEOs and stockholders obscenely rich.
While nearly one out of four Americans cannot afford the life-saving medicine their doctors prescribe, ten top pharma companies made $102 billion in profits in 2024. Meanwhile, the CEOs of just 4 prescription drug companies – Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, and Merck – together made over $100 million last year.
In America today, despite spending twice as much per person on health care as other wealthy nations, more than 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, one out of every four Americans cannot afford their prescription drugs, over half a million people go bankrupt due to medically-related debt, and more than 60,000 die because they cannot afford to go to a doctor, the release stated.
“It is a travesty when 85 million people are uninsured or underinsured and millions more are drowning in medical debt in the richest nation on Earth,” said Jayapal. “We don’t suffer from scarcity in America, we suffer from greed. That’s most clear in our broken health care system, which is why we need Medicare for All. People deserve and want comprehensive health care that covers mental health, long-term care, reproductive care, dental, vision and hearing, all without copays, private insurance premiums, sky-high deductibles or other hidden fees. Health care is a human right, that is exactly why it’s time to pass Medicare for All.”
The legislation has an additional 102 cosponsors in the House