Friends, we are winning. Not Bernie, US. In a historic development, the American College of Physicians, the largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest physician group in the United States, with 154,000 members (exceeded only by the AMA), has for the first time endorsed a Medicare For All system. The ACP made its announcement in a 43-page paper, titled "Envisioning a Better U.S. Health Care System for All: Coverage and Cost of Care", in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday. More from Business Insider:
The ACP's backing of a single-payer system comes on the heels of a first-of-its-kind study that revealed that the US healthcare system could save $600 billion in annual admin costs by switching to a single-payer option — and much of these savings are attributable to reducing the bureaucratic hurdles providers must leap over to get reimbursed by private insurers. On top of expanding health insurance coverage, the potential savings generated by introducing Medicare for All may have influenced the ACP's decision to endorse it.
It would be impossible to overstate how important this is for the viability of M4A as a realistic legislative prospect. Particularly given that this ACP study will go a long way to quieting the budget hawks when Bernie introduces M4A in his first 100 days as President.
ALSO for the first time this primary cycle, Joe Biden no longer leads the CNN/SSRS national primary poll, as Bernie Sanders has pulled ahead by 3 points with both likely Democratic primary voters overall and, more importantly, with voters of color:
By the way. Do you know what’s the single most important issue to voters, according to that CNN poll? Healthcare (+1% with all voters, +5% with likely Democratic primary voters).
This suggests the primaries are now a neck and neck race between Bernie and Joe Biden (Biden is now just +6 according to both the Real Clear Politics and 538 averages), and suggests a major surge for Bernie (the last CNN/SSRS poll had Biden leading Bernie 27-20). Bernie is now leading in NH according to both the latest polls and the RCP and 538 averages, CA according to the latest poll from Tulchin (admittedly not a great poll, but Bernie is also in a near-perfect tie in the 538 and RCP averages in CA as well). And where Bernie trails in the early states, he is second only to Biden, including a near-tie with him in ever-important Iowa’s polling averages. And in every recent early voting state poll since 2020 began, Bernie is either leading outright or improving over the same poll’s previous results. Finally, Bernie is up by 7% over Trump in a theoretical general election matchup with Trump, according to the CNN/SSRS poll out today.
Sanders supporters: excited? Keep pushing! Bernie volunteer options, in order of importance:
1. If you’re in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina:- find an event near you: events.BernieSanders.com - Download BERN and add everyone you know and ask them to support Bernie: https://app.berniesanders.com/
2. If you’re not in one of those first four early states, the most important thing you can do is get to one of those first four early states, especially IA and NH. Take the “Bernie Journey” and travel there to knock on doors: https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/…
3. If you can’t get there in person, make calls to early states. The Campaign has a huge goal of 5 10 million calls before Iowa. You can do it on your own from home, there’s a chatbox if you need help, and there’s a community on Slack of other callers to talk to. As a “coastal, urban elite” with a small child, I have mainly been volunteering in this way, and it is super easy and even quite fun at times. https://berniesanders.com/call
4. Early voting info (and general 50 state voting info)