Statement: Let States Lead the Way on Guaranteed Health Care for All
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) reintroduced the State-Based Universal Healthcare Act, which would give states the power and federal funds to develop and implement their own universal health care programs. Eagan Kemp, Public Citizen’s health care policy advocate, released the following statement:
“Even before the pandemic, states like California and New York were leading the way in working to create state-based single-payer health care systems that would ensure that everyone in the state has access to the care they need. States should be given the authority and funds to create more efficient and equitable single-payer systems to demonstrate just how much better they are than our fragmented for-profit health care system.
“The COVID-19 crisis has only increased the groundswell for state and federal action to fix our broken health care system by breaking down barriers to care and eliminating the ability of greedy corporations to profit off illness and disease. This bill would do just that.
“We applaud Rep. Khanna’s efforts to push the fight for state-based single-payer health care forward.”