Medicare for All

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I come before the House today and the people of the United States because America needs universal, single-payer healthcare. We spend more--over $9,000 per person--on healthcare than any other nation in the world.

But for all that money, Mr. Speaker, we still have tens of millions of uninsured. We have the highest infant mortality rate of any wealthy nation on Earth, and we are last, last, in life expectancy among wealthy countries.

Mr. Speaker, in a few moments I expect to ask for unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered the first sponsor of H.R. 676, the Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act. The bill was originally introduced by my friend, John Conyers. I have his support in picking up the mantle where he left it and for the purposes of adding cosponsors and requesting reprintings. I will do that in a moment.

But, Mr. Speaker, the money that we are spending on healthcare isn't going to the patients; it isn't going to the surgeons. It is going to the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry, who are raking in record profits every day and are the major beneficiaries of our policy.

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