National Nurses United (NNU)’s Kelly Coogan-Gehr, Assistant Director of Public and Community Advocacy gave passionate support for Single-payer Medicare for All. Read to find out why it is imperative that we join the fight to demand government action. Share to ensure we inform all as they speak out in this year’s election.
National Nurses United comes out swinging for Single-Payer Medicare for All
National Nurses United is one of the major organizations at the forefront for forcing the hands of politicians to legislate single-payer Medicare for all.
“Our nurses are on the frontlines of our country’s health care crisis every single day,” Coogan-Gehr said. “They see patients being denied care. They see families having to make really difficult decisions around you know, do we go bankrupt or do we pay our medical bills, do we buy groceries, do we pay our rent or do we pay our medical bills.”
Coogan-Gehr pointed out that the nurses see the human face of the pain so they are the natural leaders and natural spokespeople for the single-payer Medicare for All movement.
At that point, I pointed out the mathematical fact that in healthcare, profit must be considered an expense.
“We couldn’t agree more,” interjected Coogan-Gehr.
She went on to explain why single-payer Medicare for all was more efficient and inexpensive than the status quo.
“Right now there are three pools of money that go into healthcare,” Coogan Hehr said. “You have individuals paying into the system, paying insurance which the profit imperative of insurance is to deny care. That’s how they make money. You have employers. And you have the government. What a single-payer system does is it brings those multiple payers, single-payer being Medicare for All, it brings those multiple payers into one system. It regulates and controls pharmaceutical pricing. It regulates and controls hospital pricing. And it removes the middleman of the insurance industry that serves no purpose. The profit imperative is to deny care. When you see insurance just automatically think denial of care. That’s how the industry survives. That’s how it thrives. You combine those, you do those price regulations, those price controls, you cover everybody for significantly less money.”
Kelly Coogan-Gehr reinforced the argument for single-payer Medicare for All by referencing a study from Mercatus Center at George Mason Univerity, a Koch Brothers sponsored organization, that inadvertently proved that the total cost of healthcare would be lower than maintaining the status quo yet with everyone covered. Bernie Sanders jumped on the fact that numbers do not lie.
Thank you, Koch brothers, for accidentally making the case for Medicare for All! pic.twitter.com/speuEL6ETC
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 30, 2018
Later in the discussion, Coogan-Gehr agreed that we must expand the narrative beyond single-payer Medicare for All. We must talk about social justice as well about an economic system that thrives on capitalizing everything including the health care of people, a highly immoral act.
Politics Done Right interviewed over 40 politicians, activists, and policy framers at Netroots Nation 2018. Check them out as we post them here.