SEATTLE — U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal is introducing a Medicare for All bill that would create a government-funded, single-payer health-care system to cover every person in the United States.
The proposal, which has 107 co-sponsors, is even more ambitious in scope — covering more services, more quickly — than the Medicare for All bill previously proposed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. And it comes not from a two-time presidential candidate, but from Jayapal, a second-term Seattle Democrat who’s fast becoming an influential leader of national progressives.
Jayapal, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, leads a group of 96 House members that’s begun to assert significant sway on the Democratic Party.
In January, Jayapal garnered better committee assignments for her caucus in exchange for supporting Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House speaker. Then she extracted a guarantee that her Medicare for All bill would get hearings in exchange for backing a rules package that Pelosi wanted.
