Abdul El-Sayed - Medicare for All: A Citizens Guide

Early praise for Abdul El-Sayeds and Micah Johnsons Medicare for All

In this important and timely book, Drs. El-Sayed and Johnson document everything you need to know about Medicare for All. This Citizens Guide both demystifies and humanizes our broken health care system and explains why we must fight to transform it now.

Ady Barkan, Organizer, Center for Popular Democracy and Co-Founder, Be A Hero PAC

Drs. El-Sayed and Johnson have written a lucid and accessible account of why Medicare for All is the best path for universal health care access in the US. Stripping the arguments for or against of sham ideological content, they make clear that the main question is whether we believe that no one should have to face both illness and financial ruin. If you agree, read this book to make the case!

Mary Bassett, MD, MPH, Director of the FXB Center at Harvard Chan School of Public Health and Former Health Commissioner, New York City

This is by far the finest extended analysis I have seen to date of the next wave of public policy options for health care reform. It is breathtakingly comprehensive, thoroughly supported with research citations, lucidly written, and logical. It amounts to a major contribution to the US health care reform debate. Donald M. Berwick, MD, Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Nurses have long understood that the major obstacle to passing Medicare for All isnt the policy, but the will to take on those who benefit from our immoral, profit-driven health care system. In this book, Drs. El-Sayed and Johnson brilliantly demonstrate how Medicare for All works, and how a combination of messaging and grassroots advocacy can overcome our opposition. A must read. Bonnie Castillo, RN, Executive Director, National Nurses United

During a period when global pandemic has exposed the deadly mistake of linking health care to our workplace, Medicare for All: A Citizens Guide is the sweeping, clear-eyed manual for making health care a right that weve been waiting for.

Benjamin Day, Executive Director, Healthcare-NOW

The growing debate over Medicare for All has mostly occurred at the level of soundbites and slogans, not specifics. In this essential Citizens Guide, we get the specifics: the provisions, promise, potential pitfalls ofand, yes, political prospects forthis bold vision for affordable quality care for all. Whether you support Medicare for All or just want to truly understand it, you must read this book.

Jacob S. Hacker, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science, Yale University and Author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream

Medicare for All: A Citizens Guide is part moving narrative, part detailed policy analysis, and part practical organizing playbook.... I am grateful to Drs. El-Sayed and Johnson for speaking truth to power in this fierce book.

Representative Pramila Jayapal, WA-07

This book is a labor of love for the American people and the health care system they deserve. Drs. El-Sayed and Johnson demystify Medicare for All and defang the political talking points to offer a clear distillation of the potential of this policy, while guiding the reader through the challenges and opportunities of this moment for achieving it.

Representative Ro Khanna, CA-17

In this timely book, Drs. El-Sayed and Johnson shine a light on the people left behind by our current health care system. Regardless of your politics, their thought-provoking writing will push you to think more deeply and critically about the future of health care in America.

Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, 19th Surgeon General of the US

If the American health care system were a patient, it would be in critical condition. Fortunately for us, Drs. El-Sayed and Johnson don their white coats to discuss the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic options in plain English. This incisive handbook is a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor of Medicine and Author of When We Do Harm, A Doctor Confronts Medical Error

In this book, Drs. Abdul El-Sayed and Micah Johnson discuss Medicare for All in clear and simple terms. They describe the reasons why the industry has opposed the policy even though it would help millions of Americans, and how everyday Americans are beginning to make Medicare for All possible.

Senator Bernie Sanders, VT

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed just how unsustainable our fragmentary, privatized, and fundamentally individualistic health care system truly is. This engaging and accessible guide couldnt have come at a better time.

Lindsay F. Wiley, JD, MPH, Professor of Law and Director of the Health Law and Policy Program, American University Washington College of Law

An essential primer on why we need Medicare for All, the essentials of reform, and the pitfalls to avoid in crafting legislation.

Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, City University of New York and Co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program

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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

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Oxford University Press 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: El-Sayed, Abdul, author. | Johnson, Micah, author.

Title: Medicare for all : a citizens guide / Abdul El-Sayed & Micah Johnson.

Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021]

Identifiers: LCCN 2020020821 (print) | LCCN 2020020822 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780190056629 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190056643 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Medicare. | Medical careUnited States. | Medical

policy--United States. | Health care reformUnited States.

Classification: LCC RA412.3 .E47 2021 (print) | LCC RA412.3 (ebook) |

DDC 368.4/2600973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020020821

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020020822

Abdul: to Emmalee, my reminder of the future we must yet build.

Micah: to Cindy and Cliff, for a lifetime of inspiration and support.

The authors: to an America where healthcare is a right, not a privilege.

During the greatest pandemic in modern American history, Americans suffered worse than our counterparts in other industrialized countries because we are the only ones who do not guarantee healthcare to every person as a human right. People went without the healthcare they needed. Hospitals were left on the brink of collapse when we needed them mostall because we have maintained an enormously dysfunctional, wasteful, and bureaucratic system that enriches the CEOs of the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry but leaves tens of millions of Americans without basic healthcare. This is shameful.