SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Medicare for All supporters hold a rally outside PhRMA headquarters on April 29, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Maryland Coalition Urges Democrats to 'Stand With Majority of Americans' by Supporting Medicare for All in 2020 Platform
"In the middle of a global pandemic, it's a winning electoral strategy for the Democratic Party," one organizer said of supporting Medicare for All.
Aug 10, 2020
With the Democratic National Convention just a week away, a grassroots coalition of Maryland healthcare activists and providers on Monday joined the national campaign calling for inclusion of a Medicare for All plank in the Democratic Party's 2020 platform.
"In the middle of a global pandemic, it's a winning electoral strategy for the Democratic Party to stand with the majority of Americans in supporting Medicare for All," Kristy Fogle, founder of the Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition (MPHC), said in a statement.
MPHC is calling on Maryland voters to sign a petition urging the state's convention delegates to "pledge to only vote for a 2020 platform that includes a universal, single-payer, Medicare for All platform plank."
"We believe that healthcare is a basic human right, not a privilege or a luxury," the petition reads.
As Common Dreams reported last month, more than 700 DNC delegates have already vowed to vote against the Democratic platform if it excludes Medicare for All, arguing that the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic collapse have spotlighted "the need to separate healthcare from employment." The four national co-chairs of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign have endorsed the delegates' effort.
Speaking on behalf of Our Revolution Maryland, Chrissy Holt, Co-Chair of Our Revolution Anne Arundel, said in a statement Monday that fighting for the inclusion of a single-payer plank in the Democratic platform would put Maryland delegates in "alignment with the majority of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who have co-sponsored the Medicare For All Act of 2019." MPHC pointed to a Hill-HarrisX survey from April showing that 69% of registered voters--including 88% of registered Democrats--support Medicare for All.
Despite the policy's popularity among Democratic lawmakers and voters, members of the DNC Platform Committee last month overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have inserted a Medicare for All plank into the party platform. In its current form (pdf), the platform contains a nod to "those who support a Medicare for All approach" but does not endorse a single-payer system.
"Democrats who understand the profound need for Medicare for All don't want a pat on the head," Norman Solomon, national director of progressive advocacy group RootsAction.org, told Politico. "We want a genuine political commitment to healthcare as a human right."
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
bernie sanderscoronavirusdemocratic partydncelection 2020healthcaremarylandmedicare for allpandemicsingle-payer
With the Democratic National Convention just a week away, a grassroots coalition of Maryland healthcare activists and providers on Monday joined the national campaign calling for inclusion of a Medicare for All plank in the Democratic Party's 2020 platform.
"In the middle of a global pandemic, it's a winning electoral strategy for the Democratic Party to stand with the majority of Americans in supporting Medicare for All," Kristy Fogle, founder of the Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition (MPHC), said in a statement.
MPHC is calling on Maryland voters to sign a petition urging the state's convention delegates to "pledge to only vote for a 2020 platform that includes a universal, single-payer, Medicare for All platform plank."
"We believe that healthcare is a basic human right, not a privilege or a luxury," the petition reads.
As Common Dreams reported last month, more than 700 DNC delegates have already vowed to vote against the Democratic platform if it excludes Medicare for All, arguing that the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic collapse have spotlighted "the need to separate healthcare from employment." The four national co-chairs of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign have endorsed the delegates' effort.
Speaking on behalf of Our Revolution Maryland, Chrissy Holt, Co-Chair of Our Revolution Anne Arundel, said in a statement Monday that fighting for the inclusion of a single-payer plank in the Democratic platform would put Maryland delegates in "alignment with the majority of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who have co-sponsored the Medicare For All Act of 2019." MPHC pointed to a Hill-HarrisX survey from April showing that 69% of registered voters--including 88% of registered Democrats--support Medicare for All.
Despite the policy's popularity among Democratic lawmakers and voters, members of the DNC Platform Committee last month overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have inserted a Medicare for All plank into the party platform. In its current form (pdf), the platform contains a nod to "those who support a Medicare for All approach" but does not endorse a single-payer system.
"Democrats who understand the profound need for Medicare for All don't want a pat on the head," Norman Solomon, national director of progressive advocacy group RootsAction.org, told Politico. "We want a genuine political commitment to healthcare as a human right."
With the Democratic National Convention just a week away, a grassroots coalition of Maryland healthcare activists and providers on Monday joined the national campaign calling for inclusion of a Medicare for All plank in the Democratic Party's 2020 platform.
"In the middle of a global pandemic, it's a winning electoral strategy for the Democratic Party to stand with the majority of Americans in supporting Medicare for All," Kristy Fogle, founder of the Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition (MPHC), said in a statement.
MPHC is calling on Maryland voters to sign a petition urging the state's convention delegates to "pledge to only vote for a 2020 platform that includes a universal, single-payer, Medicare for All platform plank."
"We believe that healthcare is a basic human right, not a privilege or a luxury," the petition reads.
As Common Dreams reported last month, more than 700 DNC delegates have already vowed to vote against the Democratic platform if it excludes Medicare for All, arguing that the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic collapse have spotlighted "the need to separate healthcare from employment." The four national co-chairs of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign have endorsed the delegates' effort.
Speaking on behalf of Our Revolution Maryland, Chrissy Holt, Co-Chair of Our Revolution Anne Arundel, said in a statement Monday that fighting for the inclusion of a single-payer plank in the Democratic platform would put Maryland delegates in "alignment with the majority of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who have co-sponsored the Medicare For All Act of 2019." MPHC pointed to a Hill-HarrisX survey from April showing that 69% of registered voters--including 88% of registered Democrats--support Medicare for All.
Despite the policy's popularity among Democratic lawmakers and voters, members of the DNC Platform Committee last month overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have inserted a Medicare for All plank into the party platform. In its current form (pdf), the platform contains a nod to "those who support a Medicare for All approach" but does not endorse a single-payer system.
"Democrats who understand the profound need for Medicare for All don't want a pat on the head," Norman Solomon, national director of progressive advocacy group RootsAction.org, told Politico. "We want a genuine political commitment to healthcare as a human right."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.