The Letter I Received from House Rep. Matt Cartwright
I wrote Rep. Cartwright demanding that he and progressive Democrats withhold their votes for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House unless she agrees to bring H.R. 1384 (Medicare for All) to a vote given the urgency of universal healthcare during a pandemic. This was his response.
MATT CARTWRIGHT
8TH DISTRICT, PENNSYLVANIA
December 11, 2020
Mr. David Kain
(Personal address redacted)
Dear Mr. Kain,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding H.R. 1384, the Medicare for All Act, a bill I am proud to cosponsor. As your Congressman, reducing the cost of health care is one of my top priorities. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue, and I’m glad to have the opportunity to respond.
Medicare is an American success story. Medicare, an earned benefit, ensures that seniors will get the health coverage they worked a lifetime for. Due to its high success, many groups have called to enact a larger nationwide Medicare plan to solves America’s health insurance crisis. Although the Affordable Care Act significantly decreased the number of Americans without health insurance coverage, millions of Americans are still uninsured. According to the Kaiser Foundation, high premiums are the main barrier to access. One way to address lack of access and rising costs is to establish a publicly funded universal health care system, also referred to as Medicare for All.
H.R. 1384 would establish a privately-delivered, publicly-financed universal health care system. This bill would expand the Medicare program and provide universal access to care to all Americans. The program would be primarily funded by a modest payroll tax on employers and employees, a financial transaction tax, and higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans. I am proud to cosponsor this legislation and look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this important legislation.
For far too long, America’s health insurance system has made health care more costly, less accessible, and less efficient for families and small businesses. As your Congressman, I am working to improve the affordability of, and access to, health care for all Americans. You may be interested to know that this Congress I voted for H.R. 965, the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples Act (CREATES) Act. H.R. 965 outlines the civil actions a product developer may bring against a license holder for blocking the production of a generic drug. If an eligible product developer prevails in a civil action, they are entitled to receive the product without delay along with monetary compensation. It is critical that we bring down drug prices and control our nation’s health care spending. That is why I was proud to vote for this bill when it passed the House as part of H.R. 987 on May 16, 2019.
Sincerely,
Matt Cartwright
Member of Congress
MC/EK
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