Wednesday, March 17, 2020, marked the first time all 50 states in the country reported COVID-19 cases and the beginning of mass layoffs as businesses across the country closed their doors. The problem in America is — unlike many other developed nations that guarantee healthcare as a right to its citizens — the U.S. mainly sat idle as mass unemployment led to countless people losing their health benefits.

In the U.S., people rely on their employer for their health insurance plans. If you lose the job, you lose the insurance, and that is exactly what happened as layoffs swept the nation last March. Over 22 million people lost their jobs to COVID-19, resulting in millions of insurances swept out from underneath the working class in the midst of a public health crisis — adding to the 87 million who were already uninsured or underinsured in 2018 before the pandemic even started. 

Everyone should have access to high-quality healthcare, especially during a pandemic, and we saw what happened when they didn’t; a 48% increase in COVID-19 related deaths and 70% increase in COVID-19 infections were the result of a lack of health insurance, according to a recently published study by Families USA. COVID-19 cases went up by 10% for individuals without health insurance plans, as published in the Oxford University Press. These increased rates of death and infection have the most impact on those already in underinsured lines of work, such as agriculture and food services workers.

It shouldn’t have taken a pandemic for our country to realize we can’t afford the costs of employer-dependent healthcare, but it did. With public health crises only expected to become more common — thanks to decreasing biodiversity and civilization encroaching on wildlife — we need to take action sooner rather than later. 

Medicare-for-all is the only option. People’s healthcare coverage should not be tied to their employment status. Even if you have a private plan, you’re paying a tremendous amount more. The idea that someone could be laid off one day and lose their healthcare coverage the next was an insane concept before the pandemic. We should look at just how badly this system failed as proof we need to change it.

Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) reintroduced a bill to establish Medicare-for-all March 17, and while 112 House members co-sponsored the bill, it is depressing that this widely popular policy has not become a key part of the Democratic Party platform. While 69% of registered voters support Medicare-for-all, President Joe Biden suggested he would veto the concept of the bill. 

In a post-pandemic world, it will be crucial that we strive for a society where no one chooses to skip a doctor’s appointment to save money. It also cannot be understated that Medicare-for-all would eliminate the discrepancy in insurance rates between white Americans and Americans of color. Healthcare justice is racial justice.

We need to demand congressional Democrats and the Biden administration to pass the Medicare-for-all Act, because the best time to pass Medicare-for-all was before the pandemic. The next best time is now.