Friend,
Across this country, working families are paying for the climate crisis with their health. It is a public health emergency hiding in plain sight. Every day we don’t take action, we will pay for it in higher healthcare costs and the lives of our neighbors and loved ones.
That's why Senator Ed Markey and I just introduced the Green New Deal for Health, a bill to make sure that as we build the clean energy economy, we don't leave our clinics, our hospitals, our nurses, or our most vulnerable communities behind.
The bill puts $130 billion over five years into community health centers, the backbone of primary care for tens of millions of working Americans. It further authorizes $100 billion in federal grants to modernize public and nonprofit hospitals for climate resilience, modeled on Hill-Burton, the program that built America's hospital system the first time around.
But that’s not all. The bill gives grant priority to facilities that collectively bargain with their workers, and it provides hazard pay to the nurses and aides who show up when the heat dome settles in or the power goes out.
In an AI world, people's healthcare must not depend on their job and the Green New Deal for Health moves us in that direction. Medicare would cover solar batteries, heat pumps, and other resilience upgrades for people with disabilities and serious medical needs. These investments are the difference between staying safe at home or ending up in the ER during a blackout for vulnerable communities.
This is the kind of investment in our community healthcare and health infrastructure that working people have been waiting a generation for.
Today I'm asking you to add your name as a citizen co-sponsor of the Green New Deal for Health. The Sanders Institute is collecting names from across the country, and when we deliver this list to Congress, your name should be on it.
America has done this kind of thing before. The original Hill-Burton Act built the hospital system that has served this country for two generations. The WPA put millions to work. The space race mobilized a generation of scientists and engineers.
We inherited this legacy and it is up to us to carry it forward.
That’s why Senator Markey and I are so proud to have The Green New Deal for Health be endorsed by Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Cory Booker, Representatives Maxwell Frost, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar, AFT: Education, Healthcare, Public Services; Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments; Alzheimer's Foundation of America; American College of Nurse Midwives; Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR-SEIU); Earthjustice Action; Green & Healthy Homes Initiative; National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA); National Nurses United and so many more leaders in Congress and organizations.
A step you can take right now is to join leaders from around the country and add your name as a citizen cosponsor of the Green New Deal for Health.
The 21st century economy demands a 21st century health system. Let's build it together.
Congressman Ro Khanna
Sanders Institute Fellow
