With the Center for American Progress floating their Medicare Extra for All plan and Senators Jeff Merkley and Chris Murphy introducing their Choose Medicare Act into the Senate, democratic socialists pushing for single-payer healthcare must remember not only the futility of making demands from a position of compromise, but also the incredible opportunity that's before us. Medicare for All has never been as popular with voters as it is now.

Democratic Socialists for Medicare for All coalition partner and Labor Campaign for Single-Payer national director Mark Dudzic writes:

Medicare for All has won the battle of ideas. Now we have to win the battle against entrenched economic and political power. This fight won’t be made any easier by harboring illusions that we can somehow compromise our way to victory. Every country in the world that recognizes healthcare as a right for all of its citizens did so in response to a powerful working class movement backed by unions and grassroots organizations. The time has come to construct such a movement in the U.S.

“A defensive posture and incremental demands have not worked. Let’s play offense instead,” says Michael Lighty of the National Nurses United, himself also a DSA M4A coalition partner. “We don’t need insurance, we need healthcare. This is the strategy that can turn the tide: building a broad movement of workers to demand economic and health justice.”

This June 22-24 at the National Single Payer Strategy Conference in Minneapolis, we will be part of the launch of a new national campaign to win Medicare for All. We won’t be talking about clever policy proposals. We’ll be planning how to build the kind of power necessary to transform American politics and win healthcare for all.

We encourage DSA members to register to be a part of this historic event!