After Comprehensive Budget Hearing on Single-Payer Health Care, Yarmuth Cosponsors Medicare-For-All and Public Option Proposals

WASHINGTON, May 30 -- Rep. John A. Yarmuth, D-Kentucky, issued the following news release:

Today, Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) announced his cosponsorship of H.R. 1384, the Medicare for All Act of 2019, and three other legislative efforts aimed at either expanding Medicare or providing access to a public option system, H.R. 2452, the Medicare for America Act of 2019; H.R. 2085, the Consumer Health Options and Insurance Competition Enhancement Act, or CHOICE Act; and H.R. 1346, the Medicare Buy-In and Health Care Stabilization Act of 2019.

"Last week, the House Budget Committee held a hearing on the many issues involved in constructing a single payer, or Medicare-for-All healthcare system in the United States. Following the hearing, in which my Republican colleagues offered no alternative to a single payer system, but criticized it with mostly simplistic ideological rhetoric, I decided to announce my cosponsorship of four bills proposed by members of the committee," said Yarmuth. "While none of these bills is written exactly as I would have written them, it is more important that I express my support for broad expansion of Medicare and an ironclad commitment to achieving universal coverage. I have been a proponent of single payer health care since entering politics, and I am more convinced than ever that we need to move decisively in that direction."

Yarmuth's cosponsorship of these measures comes on the heels of last week's House Budget Committee Hearing--entitled "Key Design Components and Considerations for Establishing a Single-Payer Health Care System,"--a hearing Yarmuth promised to hold if he became Chairman of the Committee. Committee members heard from Congressional Budget Office officials on the implications of specific single-payer policy considerations and ways to expand access to affordable care.