The Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All is sponsored by National Nurses United (NNU). With more than 225,000 members nationwide, NNU is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in U.S. history.
At our founding convention in December 2009, NNU adopted a call for action premised on the principles intended to counter the national assault by the health care industry on patient care conditions and standards for nurses, and to promote a unified vision of collective action for nurses. This included a campaign to, “win health care justice, accessible, quality healthcare for all, as a human right.”
In 2018, on the heels of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign which significantly raised the profile of Medicare for All, NNU launched our biggest push yet to win guaranteed health care for all. We worked closely with Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Debbie Dingell, and Sen. Bernie Sanders to write the most comprehensive bills for Medicare for All to date, and have been organizing around that legislation ever since.
Driven by the tireless guidance of our nurse leadership, the Nurses’ Campaign for Medicare for All has organized hundreds of canvasses around the country, engaged in long-term pressure campaigns on members of Congress, taken on the corporate health care industry through the Patients Over Profits Pledge, and more. And we’ve done it all for one thing – the health of our patients.
In the years since 2018, we’ve seen historic hearings in several House committees, as well as the Senate Budget committee. The House bill has reached support as high as122 cosponsors, as well as 14 in the Senate. 69% of people in the United States support Medicare for All, and NNU is prepared to keep organizing until we build a mass movement for health care justice that cannot be ignored. Anyone is welcome to join the campaign — you do not need to be a nurse to take action with us.