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Hardly a day passes without reminders of why transformative reform, real health care justice, remains enormously popular—and why the National Nurses United campaign to build the mass movement for Medicare for All has drawn tens of thousands of volunteers and a wellspring of support in a direct contact with voters.

Here’s a few examples of the most recent this holiday season.

There’s a common thread throughout these grim statistics. A health care system structured on generating profits, not on providing care. A system that rewards the wealthy who can afford the high cost of medicines, gold plated insurance plans, four-star hotel style hospital rooms, and all the perquisites of a society increasingly characterized by wealth and income inequality.

A nation with a health care system deeply stained by racial disparities in health especially linked to corporate practices, and social and economic inequities, in employment and housing that are the legacy of 400 years of structural racism and ability to pay.

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There’s another common thread here. In virtually every instance, the back-breaking costs fall dramatically after age 64—when seniors qualify for Medicare at age 65. And that doesn’t even account for the nearly 28 million people still with no health insurance, including an additional 400,000 children just in the time Trump and his war on health care have been in office.

Medicare for All would eliminate the debilitating health insecurity caused by skyrocketing costs while guaranteeing everyone will get the health care they need, when and where they need it.

That’s the gift that will keep on giving every holiday season.

Citations

[1] For Her Head Cold, Insurer Coughed Up $25,865 - KFF Health News ➤ https://khn.org/news/medical-bill-of-the-month-head-cold-throat-swab-dna-tests-insurer-coughed-up-25k/[2] Getting sick and going broke - The Boston Globe ➤ https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/12/16/opinion/getting-sick-going-broke/[3]https://www.axios.com/teamhealth-sent-thousands-of-surprise-medical-bills-in-2017-cb405e14-7ef5-4a0b-98b5-fff37334093f.html[4] Suicides, overdoses, other 'deaths of despair' fuel drop in U.S. life expectancy - Los Angeles Times ➤ https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2019-11-26/life-expectancy-decline-deaths-of-despair[5]https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/17/medicare-all-will-boost-fight-racial-justice-health-care%20[6] Opinion | All I Want for Christmas and Hanukkah Is Medicare for All | Common Dreams ➤ https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/24/all-i-want-christmas-and-hanukkah-medicare-all?cd-origin=rss#[7]https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/24/https%3A//www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/politics/us-children-health-insurance/index.html