[Peace-discuss] HR1384 (Rep. Jayapal's Medicare for All bill) is now officially published on congress.gov

[J.B. Nicholson]

The good news:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1384/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr1384%22%5D%7D&r=1&s=1 
is now returning an actual bill.

The bad news:

The PDF version of HR1384 is 120 pages long. HR676 was 29 pages long.

You'll remember HR676 from being called the "gold standard" Medicare for 
All bill[1]; the bill that the Democrats never brought up for a vote even 
when they controlled Congress and the presidency, and the bill which the 
Democrats recently let slip away entirely for reassignment to another bill.

Happy bedtime reading.



[1] 
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/22/single-payer-gold-standard-hr-676-rest-peace 
has the quite apt quote from Dr. Margaret Flowers of Health Over Profit for 
Everyone. This quote was given before HR1384 had been published as it was 
being drafted secretly.

> “For the past 16 years, HR 676 was our gold standard bill defining a
> national improved Medicare for All single payer healthcare system for
> the United States,” said Margaret Flowers of Health Over Profit for
> Everyone. “It was based on the 2003 Physicians Working Group proposal by
> Physicians for a National Health Program.”
> 
> “Now that the Democrats can no longer ignore that their base is
> demanding a single payer health system, we have lost both HR 676 by
> number and its status as the gold standard. From what we have heard, as
> we have still not seen the text of the draft as promised, the new health
> bill being written by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) has
> an unnecessarily long transition period and maintains the for-profit
> providers in the system. The delayed transition means more preventable
> deaths and suffering. Keeping the for-profits means higher costs and
> lower quality of care.”