PfP-VC supports single-payer national health insurance as the way of ensuring universal healthcare – and we strongly endorse @JoeBiden because of his platform, the most progressive of any general-election presidential candidate in history! Here are a few of our #100reasonsforJoe!
Health Care and Pandemic Response
- Offer a high-quality, affordable public option health insurance choice that is available to all Americans (whether they are currently insured through their employer, buy insurance on their own, or are uninsured), covers all primary care with no copayments, and controls the costs of specialty care by negotiating prices with doctors and hospitals
2. Enroll the nearly 5 million low-income individuals in states that have opted against Medicaid expansion in this new public option, with no premium and with benefits similar to those offered in Medicaid
3. Lower the age for Medicare enrollment to 60 and expand its coverage to include dental, vision and hearing care
4. Ensure that Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans are affordable by increasing financial subsidies to individuals and families making 100-400% of the federal poverty limit (FPL) and eliminating the 400 % FPL “subsidy cliff” that currently precludes individuals with income just over $50,000 a year from getting any assistance
5. Ensure ACA plans are affordable by guaranteeing that no one pays more than 8.5% of their income in premiums
6. Reduce the cap on out-of-pocket drug spending
7. Stand up to Big Pharma’s abuses by ending their advertising tax breaks, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and limiting launch prices for new drugs
8. Remove the 5-year waiting period that low-income, lawful immigrants currently endure before they can access Medicaid and CHIP
9. Expand funding for ACA outreach and enrollment programs, helping more Americans to secure quality, affordable insurance and to close the persistent racial gap in coverage
10. Expand the ACA to cover DACA recipients and allow undocumented immigrants to purchase unsubsidized coverage in the ACA marketplace
11. Ensure that all front line workers qualify for priority access to personnel protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 testing, as well as child care assistance and other forms of support
12. Invoke the Defense Production Act to increase production of PPE and COVID-19 testing, ensuring that everyone who needs a test can get it for free
13. Restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which was eliminated by the Trump Administration
14. Establish at least ten mobile testing sites and drive-through facilities per state to speed testing and protect health care workers
15. Take steps in the aftermath of the crisis to produce American-sourced and manufactured pharmaceutical and medical supplies, in order to reduce our dependence on foreign sources that are unreliable in times of crisis
Immigration
16. Immediately reverse the Trump Administration’s policies that separate parents and children at the border
17. Increase the immigration system’s capacity to process asylum applications efficiently
18. Reinstate the DACA program and ensure that Dreamers are eligible for federal student aid and expanded access to college
19. Rescind Trump’s “Muslim bans”
20. Ensure Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for vulnerable populations from war- and disaster-affected countries
21. Prohibit ICE from conducting actions at workplaces, medical facilities, schools, or places of worship
22. Start a parole program for deported veterans to allow them to return to the US
23. Provide Central American countries with a $4 billion aid package and cooperative planning to target the factors driving migration from those countries
24. Support legislation protecting the rights of farmworkers and domestic workers
25. End for-profit detention centers for immigrants
Women’s and LGBTQ+ Rights
26. Work to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) so women’s rights are explicitly enshrined in the Constitution
27. Work to pass the BE HEARD act, which will mandate systemic changes to address sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace
28. Work to pass the National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to ensure that domestic workers are treated with dignity and respect
29. Expand the funding available to women-owned small businesses through the SBA
30. Strengthen protections for survivors of sexual violence on college campuses
31. Restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood
32. Rescind the“global gag rule” that President Trump reinstated and expanded
33. Restore the ACA’s contraception mandate that was in place before the Hobby Lobby decision
34. Work to pass the Equality Act, which will guarantee that LGBTQ+ individuals receive equal protection under existing civil rights laws
35. Work with civil rights leaders to develop and institute implicit bias training programs for federal workers and contractors, and make those training materials available to the public
36. Reverse the transgender military ban
37. Guarantee that transgender students have access to facilities based on their gender identity
Education and Caregiving
38. Make public universities tuition-free, expand access to federal financial aid, and provide student loan forgiveness for families earning less than $125,000
39. Invest $70 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Minority-Serving Institutions
40. Expand the “community school” model, turning schools across the country into community hubs
41. Commit $775 billion to supporting daycare, in-home elder care and long-term care for the disabled
42. Support 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, similar to what other developed nations do
43. Pledge to train and hire 150,000 new community health workers in underserved communities, 35,000 to combat the opioid crisis, and 100,000 to make up a new public health job corps to combat COVID-19
44. Make preschool universal for all 3 and 4-year-olds, creating 1.5 million new caregiving jobs in the process
45. Call for pay increases for child care providers and an expansion of families’ access to after-school, weekend and summer care
46. Dramatically increase the number of child care facilities in the US, in part by providing incentives to employers to build child-care centers in the workplace
47. Provide support to struggling child-care centers and home-care workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
48. Advocate for sliding-scale subsidies and tax credits to help working families afford child care
The Economy, Infrastructure and Housing Opportunity
49. Massively invest in American manufacturing and innovation through his Build Back Better plan, which will create an estimated 5 million new jobs
50. Commit $2 trillion to upgrading America’s crumbling infrastructure, with a particular focus on infrastructure in communities of color
51. Expand the Community Reinvestment Act to ensure that our financial institutions are serving all Americans
52. Implement a Homeowner and Renter Bill of Rights to provide protection against abusive lenders and landlords
53. Help families buy their first homes with a new $15,000 tax credit
54. Expand Section 8 funding and create a new renter’s tax credit to ensure that no one spends more than 30% of their income on rental housing
55. Create a new public credit reporting agency within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to provide consumers with a government option that seeks to eliminate racial disparities in credit scoring
56. Increase the federal minimum wage to $15 and protect access to overtime pay
57. Increase access to clean, efficient public transportation
58. Adopt Elizabeth’s Warren plan for bankruptcy reform, which will make it easier for people to get relief from crushing debt, make it easier to discharge student loan debt, end our bankruptcy system’s racial and gender disparities, and close loopholes that allow the wealthy to abuse the system
Foreign Policy
59. Respect the experience and analysis of our country’s dedicated diplomatic and intelligence community, recognizing that failure to do so makes all of us less safe
60. Rebuild a modern, agile U.S. Department of State, which Trump has deemed the “Deep State” and accused of undermining him
61. When the United States hosts the next Summit of the Americas in 2021, harness this opportunity to rebuild strong hemispheric ties based on respect for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law
62. Pursue an extension of the New START Treaty, an anchor of strategic stability between the United States and Russia, and use that as a foundation for new arms control arrangements
63. Work to reenter the Iran Nuclear Deal, extending and strengthening it in the process
64. Together with our allies, strengthen our collective capacity to deal with non-traditional threats like weaponized corruption and cybertheft
Environment
65. Recognizing that climate change is real and a global emergency, commit $2 trillion over four years to putting the United States on an “irreversible path” to achieving net-zero emissions of planet-warming gases before 2050
66. Immediately rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement
67. Eliminate carbon pollution from power plants by 2035
68. Install 500 million solar panels and 60,000 wind turbines within 5 years
69. Set a national goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for all new buildings by 2030
70. Affirm California’s statutory authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own stricter emissions standards
71. Treat America’s system of national parks and monuments and public lands as treasures that should be held in trust for future generations, and immediately reverse the Trump Administration’s harmful rollbacks of protections for national monuments like Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
72. Fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund to protect wildlife habitats and biodiversity, slow extinction rates, and grow America’s natural carbon sinks by ensuring 30 percent of our lands and waters are conserved by 2030
73. Place vast amounts of Indigenous land in trust, thereby protecting it for future generations
74. Establish a new Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) within the U.S. Department of Justice to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for cleaning up their toxic sites
75. Make climate change a diplomatic priority
Campaign Finance and Ethics Reform
76. Introduce a constitutional amendment to entirely eliminate private dollars from our federal elections
77. To bridge the gap until that amendment is in place, enact legislation to provide voluntary matching public funds for federal candidates receiving small-dollar donations
78. Work to enact legislation ensuring that SuperPACs are wholly independent of campaigns and political parties
79. Ban corporate PAC contributions to candidates and prohibit lobbyist contributions to those they lobby, ensuring that they do not play a role in our elections
80. Issue an Executive Order directing that no White House staff or any member of his administration may initiate, encourage, obstruct, or otherwise improperly influence specific DOJ investigations or prosecutions
81. Establish the Commission on Federal Ethics to more effectively enforce federal ethics law
82. Hold elected officials accountable for the public transparency of lobbying meetings
Gun Control
83. Require background checks for all gun sales
84. End the online sale of firearms and ammunition
85. Prevent individuals who have been convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes or convicted of assault, battery or stalking from buying or owning a firearm
86. Reinstate the Obama-Biden policy to keep guns out of the hands of certain people unable to manage their affairs for mental reasons, which President Trump reversed
87. Create a $900 million, eight-year initiative to fund evidence-based interventions to reduce gun violence in 40 cities across the country, which is estimated to save more than 12,000 lives
88. Establish a network of trauma care centers for survivors of violence, with a special focus on survivors of domestic and sexual violence
89. Train health care and other service providers in trauma-centered care
Support for Rural America
90. Expand the Obama-Biden Administration’s microloan program for new farmers, doubling the maximum loan amount to $100,000
91. Foster the development of regional food systems, partnering with small and mid-sized farmers to help them collectively create supply chains
92. Protect small and medium-sized farmers and producers by strengthening enforcement of antitrust laws
93. Promote ethanol and the next generation of biofuels
94. Invest $20 billion in rural broadband infrastructure, which has the potential to create more than 250,000 new jobs
Criminal Justice Reform
95. Create a new $20 billion competitive grant program to spur states to shift from incarceration to prevention.
96. Expand the Obama-Biden effort to expand resources for public defenders’ offices
97. Work for the passage of legislation to repeal mandatory minimums at the federal level and give states incentives to repeal their mandatory minimums
98. End the federal crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity
99. Decriminalize the use of cannabis, expunge all prior cannabis use convictions, and reschedule cannabis as a schedule II drug so researchers can study it properly
100. End all incarceration for drug use alone and instead divert individuals to drug courts and treatment
101. Work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example
102. Introduce legislation to end the cash bail system
103. End the federal government’s use of private prisons
104. Expand funding for after-school programs, community centers, and summer jobs
105. Double the number of mental health professionals in our schools so that behavioral and emotional challenges can be addressed effectively
106. Set a national goal of ensuring that 100% of formerly incarcerated individuals have housing upon reentry
107. Expand access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment, as well as educational opportunities and job training for individuals during and after incarceration
108. Eliminate barriers keeping formerly incarcerated individuals from accessing various forms of public assistance
109. Incentivize states to automatically restore voting rights for individuals convicted of felonies once they have served their sentences
Physicians For Progress | Ventura County 