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
"We're asking Joe [Biden] to share his personal and powerful health care story like his colleagues, and explain his vision of health care in America," states a petition by dying healthcare activist Ady Barkan. "It should be more than a 30 second soundbite on the debate stage, or a 2 minute TV ad." (Photo: Screenshot/@AdyBarkan)
Out of Surgery, Dying Activist Ady Barkan Still Waiting to Talk With Joe Biden About Medicare for All
"We may disagree, but if you want to be president, you'll have to have some hard conversations."
Oct 03, 2019
At home and recovering from recent tracheostomy surgery to improve his breathing, dying healthcare activist Ady Barkan on Wednesday issued a video message to remind former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that he would still like to have meet in person to have a discussion about Medicare for All and the nation's ongoing crisis of unaffordable care.
An outspoken proponent of Medicare for All as the best and only solution to provide coverage to everyone in the country for less cost overall than the current for-profit system, Barkan noted Biden's opposition to that approach, but said: "We may disagree, but if you want to be president, you'll have to have some hard conversations."
Watch:
While both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren--the two other top-tier candidates in the Democratic primary--both support a Medicare For All, Biden has consistently attacked the plan and even adopted frequently parroted industry and Republican Party talking points against it.
As Common Dreams reported last month, Barkan prior to his surgery had implored Biden to meet with him like 2020 Democrats, including Warren and Sanders, have donein order to speak face-to-face about the nation's healthcare woes and what can be done to fix them.
"Look a dying man in the eyes and tell me how we fix this country," Barkan said to Biden at the time. "We may disagree, but that's okay."
Biden's refusal so far to accept the invitation has caused many to question why:
Linking to a online petition on Wednesday, Barkan asked supporters to join the campaign pressing Biden to meet and talk with him.
"There is only one candidate who has not responded to Ady's invitation: Joe Biden. So we have a message for Joe Biden: Please Mr. Vice President, respond to Ady's invitation," the petition reads, in part. "We're asking Joe to share his personal and powerful health care story like his colleagues, and explain his vision of health care in America. It should be more than a 30 second soundbite on the debate stage, or a 2 minute TV ad."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
At home and recovering from recent tracheostomy surgery to improve his breathing, dying healthcare activist Ady Barkan on Wednesday issued a video message to remind former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that he would still like to have meet in person to have a discussion about Medicare for All and the nation's ongoing crisis of unaffordable care.
An outspoken proponent of Medicare for All as the best and only solution to provide coverage to everyone in the country for less cost overall than the current for-profit system, Barkan noted Biden's opposition to that approach, but said: "We may disagree, but if you want to be president, you'll have to have some hard conversations."
Watch:
While both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren--the two other top-tier candidates in the Democratic primary--both support a Medicare For All, Biden has consistently attacked the plan and even adopted frequently parroted industry and Republican Party talking points against it.
As Common Dreams reported last month, Barkan prior to his surgery had implored Biden to meet with him like 2020 Democrats, including Warren and Sanders, have donein order to speak face-to-face about the nation's healthcare woes and what can be done to fix them.
"Look a dying man in the eyes and tell me how we fix this country," Barkan said to Biden at the time. "We may disagree, but that's okay."
Biden's refusal so far to accept the invitation has caused many to question why:
Linking to a online petition on Wednesday, Barkan asked supporters to join the campaign pressing Biden to meet and talk with him.
"There is only one candidate who has not responded to Ady's invitation: Joe Biden. So we have a message for Joe Biden: Please Mr. Vice President, respond to Ady's invitation," the petition reads, in part. "We're asking Joe to share his personal and powerful health care story like his colleagues, and explain his vision of health care in America. It should be more than a 30 second soundbite on the debate stage, or a 2 minute TV ad."
At home and recovering from recent tracheostomy surgery to improve his breathing, dying healthcare activist Ady Barkan on Wednesday issued a video message to remind former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that he would still like to have meet in person to have a discussion about Medicare for All and the nation's ongoing crisis of unaffordable care.
An outspoken proponent of Medicare for All as the best and only solution to provide coverage to everyone in the country for less cost overall than the current for-profit system, Barkan noted Biden's opposition to that approach, but said: "We may disagree, but if you want to be president, you'll have to have some hard conversations."
Watch:
While both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren--the two other top-tier candidates in the Democratic primary--both support a Medicare For All, Biden has consistently attacked the plan and even adopted frequently parroted industry and Republican Party talking points against it.
As Common Dreams reported last month, Barkan prior to his surgery had implored Biden to meet with him like 2020 Democrats, including Warren and Sanders, have donein order to speak face-to-face about the nation's healthcare woes and what can be done to fix them.
"Look a dying man in the eyes and tell me how we fix this country," Barkan said to Biden at the time. "We may disagree, but that's okay."
Biden's refusal so far to accept the invitation has caused many to question why:
Linking to a online petition on Wednesday, Barkan asked supporters to join the campaign pressing Biden to meet and talk with him.
"There is only one candidate who has not responded to Ady's invitation: Joe Biden. So we have a message for Joe Biden: Please Mr. Vice President, respond to Ady's invitation," the petition reads, in part. "We're asking Joe to share his personal and powerful health care story like his colleagues, and explain his vision of health care in America. It should be more than a 30 second soundbite on the debate stage, or a 2 minute TV ad."
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.