by Boyd Walker of Alexandria, VA
Nevada will be a critical juncture not just for the Bernie Sanders campaign, but for the nation. Do we accept the status quo of our current health care system, perhaps with a few tweaks, or do we fundamentally change how we provide healthcare? Several other candidates, including the latest and greatest (and wealthiest) Mike Bloomberg, say healthcare is a right, but the question is: a right for who? The key phrase of the Sanders Plan is “for all.” Like some of his other proposals, free college for all, paying off student debt for all, Sanders does not exclude anybody. But other proposals by design exclude somebody.
As demonstrated in the article, ”The Next Hurdle for Bernie Sanders: Nevada’s Top Union Dislikes ‘Medicare for All’,” several other candidates are attacking Sanders for wanting to take away people’s private health insurance. Candidates, like Amy Klobuchar, says that Medicare for All will kick 160 million people off health insurance. That is not true. Medicare for All means everyone will have health insurance, no one will be denied medical care, no one will go bankrupt for medical expenses, and when you get a disease like cancer, you won’t have to worry that you will have to sell your house, or spend your children’s college tuition savings.
What I want to ask the other candidates, except Elizabeth Warren – the only other major candidate supporting Medicare for All – is why do they want to keep every American from getting healthcare? The only answer I can think of, is because, like the Culinary Union, they have theirs, and so they don’t want other people to have what they have for fear that what they have might be taken away. Well, Amy Klobuchar, I want every American to have the healthcare you have as a U.S. Senator, and Culinary Union member, I want every American, like the 60,000 members of your union, but also the 3 million people of Nevada, to have healthcare as a right, not a privilege. This is because like other Sanders supporters I am willing to fight for someone I don’t know. A vote for Sanders will show that you too will fight for someone you don’t know, but needs you, so they can also have the healthcare we all deserve.
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