“Yesterday’s decision by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Florida is the latest signal that the inevitable march to Medicare for All is gaining speed. If the Affordable Care Act is ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court, Congress must step up to ensure universal access to affordable, high-quality health care.  

“Expanding Medicare to everyone in the U.S. is not only constitutional, but would cover everyone for medically necessary services with no copayments, deductibles or premiums. It would increase the quality of care, and would cost less than we currently pay for health care. It would get the for-profit insurance companies, who make money by not providing health care, out of the equation.

“Currently, states are creating their own momentum by exposing the myth that Medicare for All is not politically possible.  California’s legislature has passed similar bills three times and now has a new governor with a more supportive record.  Pennsylvania’s bill has strong bipartisan interest and one of its largest advocacy groups has elected a Republican former member of Pennsylvania’s legislature as its president.  

“Most promising is Vermont, where the newly elected governor, Peter Shumlin, ran on a platform that called for a ‘Medicare for All’ type system. The Vermont legislature asked Harvard’s Dr. William Hsiao, who has helped to set up health care systems in several countries, to investigate health care options for Vermont.  He found that using a Medicare for All type system to provide health care for all Vermonters would ‘produce savings of 25.3% of total health expenditure between 2015 and 2024.’

“It is clear that ailing state budgets, skyrocketing health care costs, the judicial rejection of the Affordable Care Act, and a successful state implementation of a Medicare for All health care system could set the stage for a new era of health care in this nation,” said Kucinich.

Kucinich was a co-author of Medicare for All, H.R. 676, in the 111th Congress.  The bill is expected to be reintroduced in the 112th Congress as well.