Members of the audience greet Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during an event to introduce the "Medicare for All Act of 2017" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 13, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
House Democrats are making history as their majority is sworn in, and they intend to hold first-ever hearings on Medicare for all.
Pelosi, who had been one of those co-sponsors, said throughout the 2018 campaign that Democrats were free to discuss many other health-care programs. She strongly suggested that a Democratic House would at least hold hearings on the far-reaching Jayapal bill; on Wednesday, Jayapal got Pelosi’s commitment to hearings in the Rules and Budget committees.
The incoming chairmen of those committees, Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), support Medicare for All.
“The American people deserve to know what the various options for Medicare for All would mean to them as health care consumers and taxpayers,” Yarmuth said.
The legislation will be released in the next couple of weeks, and for the first time, it is going to get a full hearing in Congress. Democrats are open to all policy options on healthcare. The debate on Medicare for all within the Democratic Party has always been more quibbling about splitting hairs than a serious policy difference.
All Democrats support universal coverage and universal access to healthcare. The difference within the party is about how to get there, not the goal itself.
The Medicare for all hearings shows why elections matter. The legislation would have been buried by a Republican Congress, and the hearings also show that with Democrats in charge of the House, it will no longer be business as usual in Trump’s Washington.
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