"All That We Love Is On the Line": Progressive Coalition Offers Moral Case and Action Plan to Win Medicare for All

BURLINGTON, VT. — At the Sanders Institute Gathering on Friday, former Ohio state Senator and Our Revolution President Nina Turner repeated the call several times as she rallied a room full of Medicare for All organizers and supporters—”All that we love is on the line.”

“That’s all! Only all that we love is on the line,” she repeated.

“The only thing that stands in the way of Medicare for All in the United States is a lack of political and moral will. The moral argument is the only argument strong enough to create the political will necessary.”      —Jean Ross, NNU

Reminding the audience of the story of Alec Smith, a 26-year-old man who died of diabetes after desperately rationing his insulin when he aged out of his parents’ healthcare plan, Turner called the ongoing U.S. healthcare crisis “a sin and a shame,” pointing out that eight years after the passage of the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA), millions of Americans are still without health insurance.

Turner was joined by other organizers, healthcare experts and leaders of National Nurses United (NNU), who make up the core of the nation’s Medicare for All coalition.

“People connect with politics on an emotional and personal basis so we don’t bombard them with statistics,” said Jo Beardsmore, a senior adviser at the Social Practice who has worked on NNU’s campaign. “Nurses are the best people in the world for doing this. They do it every day at the bedside of their patients.”

NNU has led the charge for Medicare for All since its founding in 2009, knowing that speaking from their experiences caring for Americans in hospitals and doctors’ offices will be what forces a groundswell of support.

“People connect with politics on an emotional and personal basis…Nurses are the best people in the world for doing this. They do it every day at the bedside of their patients.”   —Jo Beardsmore, Social Practice

Diane Archer, president of JustCareUSA.org, spoke about the challenge of reaching out to Americans who may think of themselves as essentially satisfied with the only healthcare system they’ve ever know—the expensive and inequitable for-profit system—even as they’re forced to pay out-of-pocket for some care, pay high deductibles, and change health insurance companies if their jobs change.