By Tara Fugate
MNA Strategic Researcher
MNA Strategic Researcher
This Friday, June 22nd, nurses and hundreds of progressive activists from across the country are gathering in Minneapolis to support a simple, fair, and universal healthcare reform of the American healthcare system. Join MNA nurses and others in supporting an improved and expanded Medicare for All system by attending the March for Guaranteed Healthcare.
Healthcare is an undeniable basic need for every American. Yet, many still lack access to affordable care. Millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured and make the challenging decision to delay or skip seeking care in order to avoid overwhelming medical debt.
While the Affordable Care Act has increased insurance coverage for many Americans, it has not slowed the greed that drives the healthcare industry. We are seeing an increase in expensive high deductible health plans and insurance companies boosting their bottom lines by denying coverage and raising prices, not by covering necessary healthcare costs.
The United States has the highest healthcare costs per capita of any industrialized nation, but many of our friends and neighbors are still uninsured and drowning in debt. We have the resources to cover every single American with the healthcare they need, when they need it.
Our country is at a turning point. Attempts to repeal, cut, and privatize the coverage we have access to now threaten the care that millions depend on.
There is a better way, an expanded Medicare for All system would cover every American regardless of: income, race, gender, employment status, immigration status, or preexisting conditions.
When we come together and demand that our elected officials place a higher priority on people rather than on corporations, we can build the political will to create a healthcare system that puts health above profits and uses public resources for the public good.
Flex your political will and demand healthcare for all while enjoying a summer walk around downtown Minneapolis, join us this Friday.
The march will begin at 4:00 p.m. outside the Radisson Blu Downtown Minneapolis (35 S. 7th St.), the route is approximately 1.5 miles.