[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 7, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1450-H1451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MEDICARE FOR ALL

  (Mr. ELLISON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I come before the House today and the 
people

[[Page H1451]]

of the United States because America needs universal, single-payer 
healthcare. We spend more--over $9,000 per person--on healthcare than 
any other nation in the world.
  But for all that money, Mr. Speaker, we still have tens of millions 
of uninsured. We have the highest infant mortality rate of any wealthy 
nation on Earth, and we are last, last, in life expectancy among 
wealthy countries.
  Mr. Speaker, in a few moments I expect to ask for unanimous consent 
that I may hereafter be considered the first sponsor of H.R. 676, the 
Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act. The bill was originally 
introduced by my friend, John Conyers. I have his support in picking up 
the mantle where he left it and for the purposes of adding cosponsors 
and requesting reprintings. I will do that in a moment.
  But, Mr. Speaker, the money that we are spending on healthcare isn't 
going to the patients; it isn't going to the surgeons. It is going to 
the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry, who are raking 
in record profits every day and are the major beneficiaries of our 
policy.

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