Registered nurses (RNs), doctors, medical students, and labor and healthcare community activists joined Rep. Mary Flowers and other Illinois legislators in Springfield to rally for state legislation that would introduce a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system. They are showing support for the Healthcare for All Illinois Act (HB 311), which would guarantee healthcare for all state residents.
In addition to the state legislators and healthcare professionals, many groups of healthcare activists such as National Nurses Organizing Committee, Physicians for a National Health Program, Healthcare for All-Illinois, and American Medical Students Association, attended the press conference and hearing on the bill.
HB 311 establishes a state-administered system to provide comprehensive coverage to all Illinois residents. Healthcare would be provided by a current, mostly private network of Illinois physicians, hospitals, doctors? offices, and other providers. This would eliminate the link between healthcare coverage and job status or health condition, subject to ever-rising premiums, co-pays, and deductibles.
The National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) supports HB 311. The organization conducted a statewide study that showed that single-payer protects people's lives, health, and wellbeing, and would also provide economic stimulus which is of extreme import as Illinois' economy continues its downward path. Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the NNOC and a principal sponsor of the bill, remarked at the rally, ?We know that guaranteed healthcare systems around the world do a better job of caring for patients, at a lower cost, and we know that inefficient and wasteful health insurance companies have helped push our nation into recession. HB 311 would fix these problems in Illinois, while offering every patient the care they deserve.? She added, "Our time for genuine solutions to the healthcare crisis is now.?
The NNOC also conducted a national study which suggests that the single-payer system would create 2.6 million new jobs, creating an additional $100 billion in wages in the U.S., and would infuse $317 billion into new businesses and public revenues. The potential economic impact they discovered was huge. Increased healthcare spending would start a chain reaction, directly creating healthcare jobs, and indirectly stimulating employment in retail, manufacturing, and other associated sectors outside of healthcare.
This bill is being considered along with other significant medical bills both locally and nationally. Illinois is considering a Medicare for all bill, HR 676, and the United States is embroiled in a debate over the best path to a single-payer system. The most concerted effort has been placed into educating the public on the benefits of single-payer, touting it as the most comprehensive, cost-effective reform.
?Nurses are tired of watching our patients suffer from denial of care and lack of access to coverage,? said Brenda Langford, RN, a registered nurse at the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, ?We see far too much of this at Cook County hospitals?and that?s why we support guaranteed healthcare through a single-payer system.?
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