Tell Sec Becerra to Support Granting Federal Waivers to Streamline State Healthcare Expansion
DHHS Secretary Xavier Becerra
Sign this petition to Xavier Becerra (Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services) asking him to publicly state his support of federal funding for state-based single payer healthcare and commit to approving the waivers that would streamline state healthcare expansion. While states can fund these programs via taxes, the federal government’s assistance would ensure success, even in states with limited revenue.
While we push for Medicare for All, we also encourage states to expand coverage to their residents via legislation and ballot measures. Throughout our nation’s history, our states have served as the incubators of democratic ideas. Our neighbors in Canada established their own successful national health program by allowing the province of Saskatchewan to lead with a universal hospital care program in 1947, a decade before the plan took hold nationwide.
The American Health Security Project and our allied sponsors of this action, ask you to sign this petition to Xavier Becerra asking him commit to approving waivers in states like California, Maine, Washington, New York and the many other states with active single payer legislation!
Sponsored by
Additional Sponsors
To:
DHHS Secretary Xavier Becerra
From:
[Your Name]
Honorable Secretary Becerra,
I am signing this petition from The American Health Security Project asking you to publicly reaffirm your support of state healthcare expansion. Dozens of organizations are leading the way locally to create affordable, accessible universal healthcare programs in their states. Throughout our nation’s history, states have served as the incubators of democratic ideas; states are the laboratories of democracy. The Affordable Care Act was modeled after the success of RomneyCare in Massachusetts, and included an intent in Section 1332 that states become the focus of health policy innovation. Additionally, our neighbors in Canada established their own successful national health program by allowing the province of Saskatchewan, led by Premier Tommy Douglas, to pass a universal hospital care program in 1947, a decade before the plan took hold nationwide.
In addition to the flexibility inherent in Section 1332 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, The State-Based Universal Health Care Act (HR 3775 by Rep. Ro Khanna D-CA), an example of federal legislation you could publicly support, creates a super waiver to allow states to develop their own plans to provide health care for all their residents. This bill provides states with access to federal funding streams and regulatory flexibility to support affordable, universal health care plans.
States are in a unique position to innovate and lead in the push for universal healthcare. You can provide them with the tools they need to succeed. Those tools would include exemptions from ERISA restrictions, flexibility in applying tax credits for health benefit spending, and a willingness to negotiate with states to include within their universal health policy planning authority to adapt federal programs funding health benefits such as Medicare, CHIP, Medicaid, IHS, VAMC, federal employee health benefits, Tri-Care, and others, while of course protecting the promised benefits for American citizens.
Mr. Becerra, I ask you to publicly declare what Section 1332 allows states to achieve in health policy innovation, and what further opportunities would be available to states if HR 3775 passes. Further, we ask you to come forward with written support of expanding healthcare via state bills like AB 1400 (CA), SB 5204 (WA), A.6058/S.5474 (NY), and many others. Your advocacy for universal healthcare as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services could save millions of lives. Indeed, you could be the Tommy Douglas of the United States.
Signed,
A Concerned Citizen