SINGLE PAYER LEGISLATION

A bill to establish an improved Medicare for All national health insurance program was introduced by Representative Pramila Jayapal and Representative Debbie Dingell as H.R. 3421, and would improve and expand the overwhelmingly successful and popular Medicare program, so that every person living in the United States has guaranteed access to healthcare with comprehensive benefits.

A bill to establish a Medicare-for-all national health insurance program was filed by Senator Bernie Sanders as S. 1655. The bill establishes a federally-administered national health insurance program that would ensure quality and comprehensive health care to all. This would include dental care, vision coverage, and hearing aids – with no out-of-pocket expenses, insurance premiums, deductibles, or co-payments – and save middle class families thousands of dollars a year.

State-level single-payer legislation has been introduced in 26 states at one time or another, and many state campaigns are currently very active, such as in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Minnesota, Oregon and elsewhere. Contact Healthcare-NOW if you would like to be put in touch with state single-payer efforts in your area.

The Healthcare-NOW Education Fund has posted a range of resources on the history of single-payer healthcare, including a timeline of national single-payer legislation from the 1930s through the present, a graph of growing sponsorship levels of single-payer legislation since the 1970s, a sortable listing of single-payer bills, and documentation of public hearings on single-payer legislation during the 1940s and 1970s.