Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sanders Institute Fellow Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) just introduced the Green New Deal for Health, the boldest plan yet to defend American patients, healthcare workers, and community clinics from climate-driven illness and disaster.

The climate crisis is already a health crisis and our hospitals are not ready. This summer, Americans are breathing wildfire smoke from coast to coast, sweltering through record-breaking heat waves, and having flash floods shut down emergency rooms. Children with asthma, seniors and other vulnerable communities are absorbing the worst of it. Senator Markey said it plainly: “Every year that Washington waits to address the climate crisis, more people pay for it with their health.”

What the GND for Health does:

It supports the clinics that low-income and rural Americans actually rely on. The bill invests $130 billion over five years in the community health centers that are the backbone of primary care for tens of millions who don't have a hospital nearby.

It revives a New Deal idea to make our hospitals unbreakable. The bill authorizes $100 billion in federal grants to modernize public and nonprofit facilities for climate resilience and disaster response. Projects must pay prevailing wages and serve their neighbors.

It puts health workers first, not last. Nurses, doctors, and aides are the ones who show up when the heat dome settles in and the power goes out. The bill funds climate and health education, grows the community health workforce, gives grant priority to unionized facilities, and provides hazard pay for crisis response.

It protects patients at home and prepares us for the next disaster. Medicare would cover solar batteries, heat pumps, and other resilience upgrades for people with disabilities and serious medical needs. These investments will mean the difference between staying safe at home or needing to go to the ER during a blackout.

Among other critical investments, the Green New Deal for Health is the bold public investment that the billionaire class says we can't afford, and that working people have waited a generation for.

Add your name as a citizen co-sponsor today.