Dear John:
These are some hard times. With each passing day, we’re seeing the death tolls rise, job losses soar, and more people left to fend for themselves. Yet, trillions of dollars continue to flow to corporations while we, as individuals and families, struggle to meet some of our most basic needs.
That is what makes community so important, and that’s why we care for the collective. This is a critical moment to address the needs of people who are being hammered by both the pandemic and the economy. The U.S. unemployment rate is now over 14.7%, the worst it’s been since the Depression Era, so we can’t risk abandoning people knowing that our own health depends on the security of the whole.
The Medicare Crisis Program Act (H.R. 6477) would ensure healthcare for anyone on unemployment by enrolling them and their household into Medicare. That means that people who lost their jobs in recent weeks could get the health care they need without the worry of how they’ll pay for it.
Contact your Member of Congress to pass the Medicare Crisis Program Act now.
This week, House Democrats released another federal relief package called the HEROES Act. It’s a critical step forward and addresses the needs of frontline workers eager for personal protective equipment (PPE), but it’s yet another package that fails to deliver real protections and security for people who are uninsured.
Right now, the HEROES Act is only offering COBRA for people who have been laid off. This doesn’t cut it for working people whose employers didn’t provide health benefits in the first place. For anybody who had insurance, this would put them into expensive and largely unusable private insurance plans for just several months. The Medicare Crisis Program would cover more people, more health care services, cost nothing and last through the entire pandemic. We need Congress to include the Medicare Crisis Program in the HEROES Act.
Contact your representatives now to demand they co-sponsor the Medicare Crisis Program Act and include it in the HEROES Act.
As some states and municipalities begin to lift physical distancing restrictions, our communities will become more vulnerable to infection, making it even more urgent that Congress take every action it can to protect people.
We need a government that cares as much as we do.
Stay safe,
Connie Huynh
People's Action
