Well, well, my friends. We learned yesterday that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren will join Sen. Kamila Harris of California in co-sponsoring Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for all bill. This is just flat awesome news. We are betting our dear sisters and brothers at National Nurses United have been front and center in securing support for this measure — and what’s not to love about that? In a period so filled with negative policy moves in D.C.. this is just great to celebrate.

Ten years ago, then Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren testified on the same witness panel that I did about medical debt/crisis and bankruptcy. From that day forward, she and I have been in sync on almost every issue — well, almost — except for her reluctance to support Medicare for all. But because I know her to be courageous, intensely curious, compassionate and among the most intelligent people I have ever known, I knew earning her support would be a big deal for me. I underestimated how much it would mean to me.

With her announcement yesterday that she would be co-sponsoring Bernie’s bill, I heard our late founder, Tim Carpenter, cheering from his Massachusetts home alongside our dear PDA-MA leaders like Martha and Russell Freedman and Kelley Johnson. — all of whom spent quality time whenever they could reaching out to their Senator on this issue. I also imagined Benjamin Day in Boston, everyone with Healthcare-NOW!, and so many of the awesome Medicare for all advocates in Massachusetts discussing this with Senator Warren. And I certainly think of all of the other allies in the single-payer movement working to garner support from one of the Senate’s most respected and influential members. I think I can even faintly hear some of the naysayers expressing a tiny bit of joy.

So, welcome to the wild, wooly and wonderful world of achieving healthcare for all as a human right without financial barrier, dear Senator Warren. You thought those bankers were playing fast and loose with any rules, did you? Well, wait until you get a load of the healthcare industry. When I started this day, I had no way to know that learning of your co-sponsorship would reignite the fire in my soul that has been so damaged by the Trumpublican insanity. You were there when I first implored my Congressional members, on July 17, 2007, to hear me and to fix this mess of a healthcare system. And here you are today, dear Senator, proving to me once again that “Dignity heals.”

Let’s make sure to add many co-sponsors to join Bernie, Senator Warren and Senator Harris on Bernie’s Medicare for all bill.

If you haven’t yet reached out to your own Senators, click here to send them a quick note, and share the link with your friends to make sure they do as well. In the face of Harvey and now Irma, it’s more important than ever that we stand together and care for each other. That’s the fundamental philosophy behind Improved Medicare for All.

Whew, this is great news.

In solidarity,

Donna Smith