John Dingell Kept the Faith, From the New Deal to 'Medicare for All'

[sheshe2]

Putting this here.

Some of our candidates are claiming to be sole owner of M4A. That is not right and needs to be corrected.

……………………..

John Dingell Kept the Faith, From the New Deal to ‘Medicare for All’

The veteran congressman, who has died at age 92, always understood that health care is a right.



Indeed, Dingell, who died Thursday at age 92, lived long enough to see a mass movement arise in support of Medicare for All legislation that is now backed by millions of Americans, by dozens of members of the House and Senate, and by most of the leading contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Toward the end of his life, Dingell asked US Representative Debbie Dingell, his wife and successor as the Democratic representative from southeast Michigan’s 12th district, to promise to carry the fight forward. When the news of his death was reported, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Pramila Jayapal, the Washington Democrat who has organized a Medicare for All caucus, tweeted: “We’ll make good on that.”

US Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) echoed the message, observing that “John Dingell defined statesmanship. Every year, for five decades, Rep. Dingell would introduce a single-payer health care bill in the House. I know that when we finally pass Medicare for All to guarantee health care as a human right, John will be smiling.”

The Dingell name has been linked with the health-care fight since before Medicare even existed. In 1943, Dingell’s father, a congressman from the Detroit area who had played a critical role in enacting the Social Security Act of 1935, joined a pair of New Deal stalwarts from the Senate—New York Senator Robert Wagner and Montana Senator James Murray—to propose the rough outline for a single-payer national health-care system.

snip

Many hoped that the Dingell-Murray-Wagner bill would frame the underpinnings for that initiative. Its sponsors traveled the country promising to “not give up until the fight is won.” After Roosevelt died at the beginning of his fourth term in 1945, Harry Truman pressed the issue—only to be blocked by the combination of Republican obstruction, red-baiting, and the AMA’s big-spending opposition. But John Dingell Sr. kept introducing his national health-care proposal through the rest of the 1940s and into the 1950s. And after John Dingell Jr. took his late father’s House seat in 1955, he continued to introduce it as “The United States National Health Insurance Act.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/john-dingell-obit-medicare-for-all/

This has been here for decades. Any candidate that claims it as there own is being untruthful. Any voter for 2020 that claims it came to be this year has no clue of the history and the man that fought for you for decades. You did good John Dingell. RIP. We will get this done. Credit where credit is do.

Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill. The Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill was a 1945 proposal to institute a national medical and hospitalization program. Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-New York), Senator James E. Murray (D-Montana), and Representative John D. Dingell, Sr. (D-Michigan) introduced it to the 79th United States Congress on May 24, 1945.
Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner-Murray-Dingell_Bill

The bill was introduced in 1945 and not an idea in 2019.

[dweller]

1. it's about time !

Time goes, you say, ah no
Alas, time stays, we go ...

✌🏼

[JoeOtterbein]

2. It was the perfect idea in 1945 and then again when Bernie brought it back for...

...2020!!!

Yipeee!!!!!

Thanks for your post.

Proof why we should never give up on what is right!

[sheshe2]

3. Geez.

Here we go.

John restated his bill for 5. Five. Five DECADES! Five Decades. Five. Where was Bernie? He just thought about it in 2019?

[JoeOtterbein]

5. Bernie is leading with it.

If you support the idea that John had then, why not support it now?

People are going broke and/or dying by numbers that are shameful.

As you opened with:

Jeeze. (add tears)

[Cha]

8. You're missing the point.. does BS credit John Dingell

with introducing it?

[sheshe2]

13. Nope.

Nada.

No.

[sheshe2]

10. I have a hard time with a person that claims it is his brand new idea.

He could at least give credit to the 92 year old man that passed away recently.

John was a treasure and should be honored for his years of service to this county and his innovated ideas that he fought for relentlessly for over 50 years. He never stopped.

[George II]

29. His whole FAMILY has pressed for universal health care for 75 yrs, beginning with John Sr. in 1945..

....followed by John Jr. when he took over his father's seat, and even now with Debbie Dingell, who succeeded her husband John Jr.

There's nothing "revolutionary" about a 75-year old idea.

In the meantime, many countless others have championed the cause, resulting in Medicare (on which Sanders wants to expand), Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.

[sheshe2]

32. Thank you, George.

[George II]

28. No he's not. He's following on the work of countless others over the years.....

....surely you're aware of the ACA, aren't you?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

30. hOw wAs He gOinG tO pAy FOr iT?

[George II]

35. I'm sure he had detailed funding sources in it.

[LanternWaste]

36. With a sale on sacred cow meat is my guess.

"What happens when an unstoppable petulance meets an immovable absurdity?"

[lapucelle]

21. John Conyers introduced his MFA bill in 2003,

and re-introduced it in every session of Congress right up until 2017.

So no, BS didn't "bring it back". John Conyers did.

https://bit.ly/2LZMjQs

http://web.archive.org/web/20180927135809/http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/HR676

http://web.archive.org/web/20180924040117/http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/S1804

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/22/single-payer-gold-standard-hr-676-rest-peace

[betsuni]

22. +1

[sheshe2]

33. Thank you, lapucelle.

[George II]

23. He didn't "bring it back", it's been there just about every year for the last 75 years, and backed..

...by many Member of Congress. Yipeee!!!!!

You DO realize that the ACA has been in effect for about ten years, don't you?

[LanternWaste]

34. BS didn't bring it back 'cause it was already there.

But hey.... we'll say what we have to to better frame our sacred cows, even when doing so is at the expense of Dingel and reality.




"Proof why we should never give up on non-fiction!!!"

[tirebiter]

4. How many terms was Truman elected for?

Taxes were still topped out at 90% for the rich then, too. Make that happen then we can have this conversation

[JoeOtterbein]

7. +1000!

Thanks for your hope!

[sheshe2]

12. OT.

[Cha]

6. Nobody should be claiming it was their idea..

when it was introduced by Rep John Dingell.

Thanks for this history on John Dingell, she.

I still don't want them to do away with Obamacare that actually was passed and has saved lives. It's a strong foundation to build on .. not destroy as some would have it.

Obamacare study proves that having health insurance reduces U.S. death rates

<snip>

"The relentless conservative attack on the Affordable Care Act has been based on two deeply-held beliefs: That the individual mandate didn’t prompt people to buy health insurance, and that having coverage does nothing to make people healthier.

A new study conducted by a Stanford University researcher with the help of the Internal Revenue Service explodes both notions. It found that Americans who failed to respond to the individual mandate penalty when it was in effect (through 2018), tended to sign up for coverage when they were reminded about it; and that among those who did sign up, mortality rates fell.

The study is significant for two reasons. First, it undercuts Republican actions that led to the elimination of the penalty by the 2017 tax cut bill, effective in January 2019, while supporting legislation in California, two other states and the District of Columbia that reinstates the penalty within their borders.

Second, it’s the most statistically valid study showing that mortality rates are lower for people with coverage. Indeed, the study found that among those 49 to 64 years old, acquiring health insurance showed up in lower death rates within a year or two."

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-09/health-insurance-reduces-death-rates

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=383310

[JoeOtterbein]

9. DEAD WRONG! It is a Dem idea! Don't let the Trump/Repubs steal that too!!!!!

(worried)

[sheshe2]

11. What?

[NurseJackie]

15. ..

[sheshe2]

17. Ha!

[George II]

24. Ah, so you agree it ISN'T Sanders' idea. Thanks!

[LanternWaste]

37. "Don't let the Trump/Repubs steal that too!!!!!" Or Bernie.

[betsuni]

14. Thank you.

Bernie taking credit for the idea of health care as a human right and Medicare for All during a Rachel Maddow interview this year:

"Health care is a human right. 'Oh, Bernie, that's not -- that's un-American. Nobody believes that!' The last poll I saw, 60 to 70 percent of the American people believe in a Medicare for All, single-payer program. So, the good news is we have moved -- not only have we moved the debate, we moved legislature in states and the federal government."

All the long hard work Democrats have done on many issues, CANCELLED.

[sheshe2]

16. I thought it was...

[betsuni]

18. Oops. The "us" comes in later. The rallies.

In the same interview, Maddow asks Bernie what he would do if Mitch McConnell and the Republicans still controlled the Senate and he were president.

"I would be in the state of Kentucky holding a rally, with tens of thousands of people, to say to what is, in fact, one of the poorest states in the country ... that we need to raise the minimum wage, a state which is really suffering from lack of health care. We're going to rally the American people in Kentucky. We're going to rally the American people in Mississippi. We're going to rally the people in South Carolina to demand that their representatives -- I know this is a radical idea -- actually do what the American people want. ... The ideas that I talk about are ideas that the American people want. They don't get it because you got a Congress indebted to wealthy campaign contributors. ... These are not radical ideas, but we need to rally the American people by the millions. That's what I mean by a political revolution."

Keep your bags packed, people. You'll be traveling a lot during a Bernie presidency.

[sheshe2]

19. Rally!!!!!

In the same interview, Maddow asks Bernie what he would do if Mitch McConnell and the Republicans still controlled the Senate and he were president.

Sounds vaguely familiar. To tired to think it all out. I have it right there, it is so close. So close....Oooo shit. Got it. Dayum it all to hell.

"I would be in the state of Kentucky holding a rally, with tens of thousands of people, to say to what is, in fact, one of the poorest states in the country ... that we need to raise the minimum wage, a state which is really suffering from lack of health care. We're going to rally the American people in Kentucky. We're going to rally the American people in Mississippi. We're going to rally the people in South Carolina to demand that their representatives -- I know this is a radical idea -- actually do what the American people want. ... The ideas that I talk about are ideas that the American people want. They don't get it because you got a Congress indebted to wealthy campaign contributors. ... These are not radical ideas, but we need to rally the American people by the millions. That's what I mean by a political revolution."

As President he is going to rallies, lots of rallies, many rallies with a Huuuge crowd size. The democratic congress sucks. His words:

Congress indebted to wealthy campaign contributors. Priority. Trash Democrats.

Rallies. Not heal the trump wounds to our allies. Not heal our standing on the world stage. Not address children in cages. Not reverse the hatred he has sown with hate groups that are slaughtering our own. Priority is to hold rallies.

[betsuni]

20. Yup.

Democratic majority in the House passing all sorts of progressive things that will never even get a vote in the Republican controlled Senate. They passed a $15 minimum wage. They're impeaching Trump in the face of ridiculous and hysterical opposition from Republicans. The ACA bill with a public option passed in the House with a Democratic majority. Six years of total obstruction during the Obama administration that we all saw.

But no, nothing is the fault of Republicans. The reason we can't have nice things is that "Establishment Democrats" are indebted to wealthy donors. His supporters believe it (a few weak boos at the mention of Republicans, fierce sustained BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS at the mention of "Establishment Democrats." )

[George II]

25. Some claim that 60-70 percent of the American people believe in "Medicare for All", when in fact....

.....they believe in universal health care. The "Medicare for All" people just use that moniker to lump all the different, and some better, ideas and try to make it look like THAT is the plan that everyone prefers. That's simply not true.

Biden has a plan
Buttiegieg has a plan
Warren has a plan (which now obviously isn't "Bernie's" plan)
We have the ACA
We have our current Medicare

All are variations, and 60-70 percent of the American people believe in at least one of them, NOT "Medicare for All".

[betsuni]

27. I don't care for the "Sanders' Medicare for All is our only hope or millions die" thing.

Ridiculous.

[tirebiter]

26. FDR did not put the millionaires who tried to overthrow him in jail

He put them in his cabinet.

[LanternWaste]

38. And paid them a buck a day.

Paul Blazer was effective as head of Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration and then as Chairman of President Roosevelt's Petroleum Administration of War.

But sure... he should have have been in jail because of (insert arble-garble here).

[Gothmog]

31. JOHN Dingel was an amazing man

[BlueMTexpat]

39. Thanks so much for

setting the record straight, ss2!

Harry Truman also proposed this in 1945. Here's an excellent New Yorker article from 2015. Al;though it is actually focusing on Medicare, it mentions why the 1945 proposals were opposed from the get-go ... by the AMA and private health insurers. That sounds very familiar, doesn't it?

HOW MEDICARE WAS MADE https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/medicare-made?verso=true

...
When President Harry Truman proposed national health insurance for every American in 1945, and again in 1949, as part of his effort to move forward with domestic policies that had been left out of the New Deal, he and allied liberals came to see why F.D.R. had avoided the issue of health care back in the nineteen-thirties. The American Medical Association conducted the most expensive lobbying effort to that date in opposition to Truman’s health-care plan, which it branded as “un-American” and “socialized medicine.” Charging that the Truman Administration consisted of “followers of the Moscow party line,” the A.M.A. worked closely with the conservative coalition in Congress to kill the measure in committee. By 1950, the proposal was dead.

Meanwhile, during the forties and fifties, the government solidified the private health-care system through corporate tax breaks that subsidized companies offering their workers insurance. More workers were brought into the private system through this indirect and hidden form of government assistance, creating even greater resistance to the idea of the federal government directly providing insurance. ...

*************
Thanks to John Dingell for fighting the good fight for so long.