Jayapal Statement On Biden-Sanders Joint Task Force's Health Policy Recommendations

SEATTLE—U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Co-Chair of the Biden-Sanders Joint Task Force on Health Care, issued the following statement regarding today’s announcement of the committee’s health policy recommendations that the Biden campaign has agreed to:

“By having bold progressive champions at the table and engaging the Biden campaign in critically necessary conversations about the future of health care in America, our task force was able to secure substantial advances that the Biden campaign has agreed to for a significantly expanded health care policy platform.

“From lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60 and greatly expanding the availability of free or low-cost high-quality public health insurance coverage to repealing the Hyde Amendment and significantly reducing the barriers to health care for immigrants, including by lifting the five-year bar on Medicaid and CHIP eligibility for green card holders, we have made substantial progress. We were also able to get agreement that Medicare will negotiate drug prices for all payers, and other aggressive actions to ensure that Americans will no longer pay more for prescription drug prices than people in other developed nations—something our progressive movement has long fought for.

“Additionally, we achieved a substantial and critical expansion for long-term services and supports by investing in creating 600,000 new home care jobs—paying a minimum of $15 an hour and offering benefits—eliminating the current wait lists of 800,000 people nationwide who need home care while also working to remove the institutional bias in Medicaid that stops people from being able to get the care they need at home with their loved ones. We also negotiated a doubling of funding for critical community health centers, investment into new financing models and federal support for states that want to innovate with universal health care models.

“While we have progress to be proud of, we have significant work still ahead to secure a true, single-payer, universal health care system that guarantees care to everyone in this country as a human right. As the lead author of the Medicare for All Act in the House, the Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the National Health Policy Chair of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, I am deeply committed to that goal and will not stop fighting until we achieve it. A pandemic that has already caused at least 27 million people to lose their health insurance—joining the 87 million who were already uninsured or underinsured—only underscores not only the flaws of our for-profit employment-based system but the urgent need to fundamentally change it.

“Let me be clear about this: Absolutely no progress is possible with Donald Trump in the White House. His administration continues to gut health care and attack those with pre-existing conditions. His Republicans in Congress continue to vote to take health care away from millions more. So we must do everything possible to defeat him in November, take back the Senate, expand our majority in the House and elect proud progressives in down-ballot races across America so that we can get that much closer to finally ensuring that health care is a human right and not a privilege for the few. With so much on the line this November and for the work ahead, we simply cannot fall short.”

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