Asheville DSA, N.C. Medicare For All Coalition to hold rally on Saturday, Dec. 12

Press release from the Asheville Democratic Socialists of America and the North Carolina Medicare for All Coalition: 

What:

“Bill Burn” Rally to Demand Medicare For All:

Community members in Asheville will be gathering—with masks and using COVID-safe protocols—to rally in support of Medicare For All, and to denounce the corporate control of our current healthcare system.

We will be sharing our personal stories about the healthcare system, and tossing our insurance bills, denied claims, prescription receipts, and any other healthcare-related paperwork, into a fire.

More information can be found at our event website and Facebook page.

This local event is being organized by Asheville DSA on behalf of the NC Medicare For All Coalition.

Who:

North Carolina Medicare For All brings together dozens of organizations across the state , including NAACP, Planned Parenthood, the Poor People’s Campaign, National Nurses United, Muslims for Social Justice, and the Democratic Socialists of America, to fight for an end to the private health insurance industry’s profiteering at the expense of human lives and wellbeing.

Asheville DSA , a member of the NC Medicare For All coalition, is the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest left organization in the United States. Asheville DSA seeks to empower working people and marginalized groups and build a more equitable society for all of us.

Where:

West Asheville Park, 198 Vermont Ave., NC 28806

This event also coincides with other Medicare For All “bill burn” rallies across the state on the same day, in Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, and Fayetteville. For more info on the statewide event, go here.

When:

Saturday, December 12th, at 6:30pm

Why:

Even with the resolution of the 2020 election, we remain in the midst of a dire healthcare crisis in North Carolina and the country as a whole. The surging global pandemic is compounding the existing healthcare disparities in North Carolina and beyond.

Despite the notion of a democratic government, it’s clear that the economic interests of the private insurance and health care industries are superseding the will of the American people. Duplicitous politicians who serve donors instead of constituents hide behind platitudes like promising “access” to healthcare or saying “healthcare is a right” without policy or votes that match their rhetoric.

Americans owed $88 billion in medical debt in 2018 , and nearly half (45%) of people surveyed said they feared a medical event would bankrupt them. Medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy despite the Affordable Care Act.

Within this unjust system, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other marginalized people are forced to bear the harshest impacts. Dying of Covid at higher rates, people of color also account for 54 percent of North Carolina’s uninsured while making up only 37 percent of the population. Health justice is racial justice.

Furthermore, an estimated 257,000 North Carolinians lost their health insurance and jobs during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic. With more than 1.1 million N.C. residents already uninsured at the start of the pandemic, recent job losses have increased our state’s uninsured rate to 20 percent for people under age 65. Only seven states have higher uninsured rates. Nationally, nearly 90 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, and millions of people with employer-based health insurance are burdened by ever-increasing premiums, deductibles, and co-payments, often making their coverage too expensive to use. Introducing a public option will not resolve the fundamental problems of commodified healthcare that enriches private insurance companies, large hospital systems, and pharmaceutical companies at the expense of patients.

Fortunately, Medicare for All is a comprehensive solution and studies show it will cost less in the long term. Medicare for All is also a winning issue. In poll after poll, the majority of Americans have declared their preference for a universal, government-administered healthcare system. A 2020 Morning Consult poll pegs support for Medicare for All at 55 percent of voters nationally, while a 2020 Fox News exit poll found support as high as 72 percent of all voters.