AFT and Medicare for All
This was submitted as a letter to the editor of Jacobin magazine.
In his Sept. 26 Jacobin article — “Why Is Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten Attacking Medicare for All?” — AFT member Ben Curttright says he was upset and disappointed by my advocacy for universal healthcare coverage as well as my effort to lift up all of the 2020 Democratic candidates’ proposals to expand coverage. He wants me simply and exclusively to champion “Medicare for All.”
It’s Ben’s right to champion Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal, and I am supportive of AFT members fighting for diverse viewpoints and positions. We agree that we must make healthcare a basic, universal human right — a right that too many people are still living without — which is what I argued for in my op-ed with which he takes issue. But where Ben and I differ is that I don’t believe there is just one way to get there. The conversation about how to provide that access to healthcare is an important one, but asserting that every progressive in America wants an immediate and permanent transition to one public system is inaccurate.
I argued for Medicare for all as a floor, not a ceiling, with a role if people want for private insurance. This exists right now for people like my father CONTINUE READING: AFT and Medicare for All - Randi Weingarten - Medium