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Medicare for All Now

Formation:

2019
Founder:

Wendell Potter
Director:

Kerri Harris

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Medicare for All Now (sometimes stylized Medicare for all NOW) is a left-wing organization which supports the implementation of government-controlled, single-payer healthcare in the United States. Founded in 2019 by far-left health care activist Wendell Potter, the organization was active in opposing pro-market health care policy during the 2020 election cycle. 1

Though Potter claimed to be establishing Medicare for All Now as a nonprofit political advocacy organization in September 2019, there is no record of the group as a tax-exempt organization with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as of July 2021. Instead, it appears that donations to and spending by the organization during the 2020 election cycle were routed through the left-of-center Center for Health and Democracy, another organization affiliated with Potter, and the left-progressive Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). 2

Medicare for All Now founder Wendell Potter is a former Cigna communications executive who has since used his former career in private health insurance to support left-progressive health care policy, claiming that he “lied” to the American people while opposing government-controlled health care. 3 Failed left-wing U.S. Senate candidate Kerri Harris (D-DE) is the movement director of the organization. Harris received campaign support from the left-wing Working Families Party (WFP) and Justice Democrats during her campaign. 4

History

In September 2019, during an interview with left-of-center media outlet Common Dreams, left-of-center health care activist and former insurance company executive Wendell Potter announced the creation of Medicare for All Now as an advocacy organization affiliated with Business for Medicare for All, another Potter-founded organization which recruits business owners to support government-controlled health care policy. 5 6

After announcing the group’s creation, Potter tapped former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kerri Harris (D-DE) to lead the organization, developing out a fundraising list and building the capacity to spend “major sums” in electoral advocacy in support of government-controlled health care. 7

Despite claiming that Medicare for All Now would be established as a nonprofit political advocacy organization, there is no record of “Medicare for All Now” filed with the IRS as of July 2021. Instead, donations through Medicare for All Now appear to be routed through ActBlue to the left-of-center Center for Health and Democracy (CHD), another organization affiliated with Potter, and the left-progressive Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). 8

As of July 2021, Medicare for All Now has acquired over 16,000 followers on Facebook and brands itself as “the leading social welfare organization in the United States focused solely on Medicare for All.” 9 The organization has not posted since November 2020 and appears to have become less active since the 2020 election. 10

Activity

Medicare for All Now advocates for the implementation of a government-controlled health care system in the United States through research, political organizing, and advocacy campaigns in support of Democratic candidates. 11

Before the organization had even developed its fundraising list, Medicare for All Now researchers began advocating for government-controlled health care in the United States. 12 In December 2019, just months after its founding, Medicare for All Now provided documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests which showed that pro-market health care lobbyists had intervened to make revisions to articles published by state lawmakers in opposition to a government-controlled health care system. 13

In February 2020, less than half a year after Medicare for All Now began, Potter told Politico that it had spent “six figures” on field organizing and digital advertising to promote government-controlled health care in South Carolina in advance of the Democratic presidential primary. The organization had 13 paid canvassers, who knocked on 3,000 doors and contacted over 50,000 people over phones. The group’s advertisements highlighted left-wing activists and supporters of U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who claimed that evictions were caused by medical costs and accusing executives of making “billions of dollars in profit…at the expense of our health.” 14

During its South Carolina efforts, Medicare for All Now worked with major left-of-center figures. The organization hosted an event with Sen. Sanders supporter and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) and knocked doors with far-left U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). 15 The group also commissioned a poll which claimed to show that an overwhelming majority of Democrats in South Carolina supported government-controlled health care in order to push candidates further left during the presidential primary election. 16

During the 2020 election cycle, Medicare for All Now was active in publishing and compiling research to cast a negative light on pro-market health care activists. In January 2020, Medicare for All Now came out in support of a Colorado legislative effort to create a partially government-controlled health care system in the state. Speaking on behalf of the organization, Potter claimed that pro-market organizations opposing the bill, including the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future (PAHCF), were doing so because they “don’t want other states to look at Colorado as an example of something that might work.” 17

In March 2020, Medicare for All Now compiled court documents which demonstrated that Medicredit, a debt collection firm, had filed 7,800 medical debt collection suits in Colorado over the course of a decade. Left-of-center media outlets used the data to criticize Colorado’s Health Care Future, a PAHCF affiliate and owner of Medicredit, for advocating against government-controlled healthcare in the state. 18

Leadership

Wendell Potter is the founder of Medicare for All Now and the left-of-center Center for Health and Democracy. 19 Potter previously worked as a communications executive with Cigna for over a decade, but in 2008, he resigned and claimed that he had “lied” about government-controlled, single-payer health care systems and began using his former position to lend support for left-progressive health activism. Potter has advocated for using the COVID-19 pandemic to push people to accept a government-controlled healthcare system. Potter has claimed that his advocacy against government-controlled health care while at Cigna caused people to die “because of the inequities” of market-based healthcare. 20

Potter testified in support of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), claiming that insurance companies made it impossible for consumers to receive full information regarding their health care plans. Potter also alleged that insurance companies increased prices to force sick customers off of their plans. 21

Kerri Harris is the movement director at Medicare for All Now. 22 In 2018, Harris ran against U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) in the Democratic primary election in Delaware without ever having held an elected office. Harris ran on a left-wing platform endorsed by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who came to Delaware to support her campaign. Harris also received the endorsement and support of the left-wing Working Families Party (WFP) and Justice Democrats. 23

References

  1. Otterbein, Holly. “’Medicare for All’ Group’s Campaign Could Benefit Sanders, Warren in S.C.” POLITICO. POLITICO, March 1, 2020. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/28/medicare-for-all-groups-campaign-could-benefit-sanders-warren-in-sc-118282.
  2. “Fight Back against Big Insurance and Big Pharma.” Progressive Change Campaign Committee. ActBlue. Accessed July 21, 2021. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/pccc_medicareforallnow.
  3. Llana, Sara Miller. “He Used to Say Canada’s Health Care Was Risky. Now He Says It’s the Future.” The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, July 15, 2020. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2020/0715/He-used-to-say-Canada-s-health-care-was-risky.-Now-he-says-it-s-the-future.
  4. Grim, Ryan. “If You Care About Medicare for All or a Green New Deal, Here’s the Senate Primary That Matters.” The Intercept. First Look Institute, November 18, 2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/11/18/chris-coons-delaware-primary-jess-scarane/.
  5. Winship, Michael. “Healthcare Reformer Wendell Potter: The For-Profit ‘System Is Unraveling’.” Common Dreams, September 30, 2019. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/09/30/healthcare-reformer-wendell-potter-profit-system-unraveling.
  6. “Launch of ‘Business for Medicare for All’.” PNHP. Physicians for a National Health Program. Accessed July 21, 2021. https://pnhp.org/news/launch-of-business-for-medicare-for-all/.
  7. Marans, Daniel. “The Campaign Against ‘Medicare For All’ Is Spending Millions. Progressives Not So Much.” HuffPost. Buzzfeed Incorporated, December 30, 2019. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/attacks-on-medicare-for-all-largely-unanswered-early-states-2020-democratic-presidential-primary_n_5e067debc5b6b5a713ae2702.
  8. “Fight Back against Big Insurance and Big Pharma.” Progressive Change Campaign Committee. ActBlue. Accessed July 21, 2021. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/pccc_medicareforallnow.
  9. “Medicare for All Now.” Facebook. Accessed July 21, 2021. https://www.facebook.com/Medicare4AllNow/about.
  10. “Medicare for All Now.” Facebook. Accessed July 21, 2021. https://www.facebook.com/Medicare4AllNow/about.
  11. Marans, Daniel. “The Campaign Against ‘Medicare For All’ Is Spending Millions. Progressives Not So Much.” HuffPost. Buzzfeed Incorporated, December 30, 2019. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/attacks-on-medicare-for-all-largely-unanswered-early-states-2020-democratic-presidential-primary_n_5e067debc5b6b5a713ae2702.
  12. Marans, Daniel. “The Campaign Against ‘Medicare For All’ Is Spending Millions. Progressives Not So Much.” HuffPost. Buzzfeed Incorporated, December 30, 2019. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/attacks-on-medicare-for-all-largely-unanswered-early-states-2020-democratic-presidential-primary_n_5e067debc5b6b5a713ae2702.
  13. Stein, Jeff. “State Lawmakers Acknowledge Lobbyists Helped Craft Their Op-Eds Attacking Medicare-for-All.” The Washington Post. WP Company, December 2, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/02/state-lawmakers-acknowledge-lobbyists-helped-craft-their-op-eds-attacking-medicare-for-all/.
  14. Otterbein, Holly. “’Medicare for All’ Group’s Campaign Could Benefit Sanders, Warren in S.C.” POLITICO. POLITICO, March 1, 2020. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/28/medicare-for-all-groups-campaign-could-benefit-sanders-warren-in-sc-118282.
  15. Krieg, Gregory. “The Fight over Medicare for All Gets More Expensive in South Carolina.” CNN. Cable News Network, February 28, 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/28/politics/medicare-for-all-debate/index.html.
  16. Voght, Kara. “Medicare for All May Not Be the Poison Pill Biden and Buttigieg Are Banking On.” Mother Jones, February 28, 2020. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/02/medicare-for-all-may-not-be-the-poison-pill-biden-and-buttigieg-are-banking-on/.
  17. Kenney, Andrew. “Why A Dark Money Campaign Has Colorado In The Center Of The National Health Care Debate.” Colorado Public Radio. Colorado Public Radio, January 16, 2020. https://www.cpr.org/2020/01/16/why-a-dark-money-campaign-has-colorado-in-the-center-of-the-national-health-care-debate/.
  18. Fang, Lee. “Colorado Public Option Opponents Funded by Hospital Lobbyists.” The Intercept, March 12, 2020. https://theintercept.com/2020/03/12/colorado-health-care-public-option-hospital-lobbyists/.
  19. “Meet Wendell.” Center for Health and Democracy, August 4, 2020. https://centerforhealthanddemocracy.org/meet-wendell/.
  20. Llana, Sara Miller. “He Used to Say Canada’s Health Care Was Risky. Now He Says It’s the Future.” The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, July 15, 2020. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2020/0715/He-used-to-say-Canada-s-health-care-was-risky.-Now-he-says-it-s-the-future.
  21. “Meet Wendell.” Center for Health and Democracy, August 4, 2020. https://centerforhealthanddemocracy.org/meet-wendell/.
  22. Voght, Kara. “Medicare for All May Not Be the Poison Pill Biden and Buttigieg Are Banking On.” Mother Jones, February 28, 2020. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/02/medicare-for-all-may-not-be-the-poison-pill-biden-and-buttigieg-are-banking-on/.
  23. Grim, Ryan. “If You Care About Medicare for All or a Green New Deal, Here’s the Senate Primary That Matters.” The Intercept. First Look Institute, November 18, 2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/11/18/chris-coons-delaware-primary-jess-scarane/.
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