Ann Arbor residents gathered in the Modern Languages Building Saturday afternoon for a healthcare town hall featuring U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. The event was moderated by Aaron McCormick, president of the Michigan Nurses Association.
Jayapal has represented Seattle in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017 and has introduced significant legislation aiming to broadly expand Medicare — which currently covers Americans 65 and older and those with certain disabilities — to cover all Americans. El-Sayed co-authored the book “Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide,” which has since become one of El-Sayed’s campaign slogans.
El-Sayed is running against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., in the closely contested Democratic primary election on Aug. 4. Both McMorrow and Stevens support creating a public healthcare option alongside private insurance. El-Sayed has long advocated for single-payer coverage, a state-run universal health care plan which would entirely replace private health insurance. Jayapal said El-Sayed’s campaign shows promise for candidates in the 2026 and 2028 elections who aim to expand Medicare to the entire population.
“We’re going to have to have the White House, the Senate and the House, but we have a new moment,” Jayapal said. “We have a real opportunity here, and we should not let this go to waste because this may be our moment to actually get this done, and that’s what I’m hearing across the country, and I think that’s what Abdul is hearing across the state.”
During the town hall, El-Sayed criticized private health insurance providers, claiming they intentionally take advantage of patients.
“All health insurance companies are essentially parasites,” El-Sayed said. “You pay so that you get the healthcare you need when you need it, only to find out that you’ve got a deductible standing in your way.”
El-Sayed referenced ongoing contract negotiations between Michigan Medicine and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan as an example of insurance companies restricting access to care. If an agreement is not reached by July 1, over 200,000 Michigan Medicine patients would no longer receive in-network care.
“I bet for a lot of you, if you’re insured on Blue Cross Blue Shield and you get healthcare at Michigan Medicine, you are on the chopping block,” El-Sayed said. “I don’t think parasites should exist in healthcare, which is exactly what Medicare for All would do.”
According to a 2025 Pew Research Center study, 35% of Americans supported a national single-payer health insurance system and 31% supported a mix of government programs and private insurance. Cost estimates for a Medicare for All program vary significantly, and potential tax increases are a concern for many. El-Sayed said Medicare for All is feasible if enough people take collective action and organize around the issue.
“People ask me, ‘Is it ever going to happen in my lifetime?’” El-Sayed said. “I’m like, ‘Listen, if you decide that you want it to happen, if we decide collectively that we’re going to work to make it happen, it can happen.’ Things don’t just happen in our politics; people make them happen.”
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, El-Sayed said frustration over healthcare costs has affected Americans’ trust in medical institutions as a whole.
“If your whole goal is to pick my whole back pocket, why should I trust you on anything?” El-Sayed said. “I think it’s important for us to understand that the economics of healthcare, as they are, have undercut trust in the science of healthcare.”
In an interview with The Daily, Jayapal said other candidates aiming to expand Medicare need to combine ambitious goals with specific and practical plans.
“We’ve got an opportunity to remind people that they don’t need to think small — they can actually think big about what is necessary for them to be able to thrive,” Jayapal said. “That’s exciting when we start talking about it, and when we have candidates like Abdul who are willing to actually go into the details of how we can do it.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA rising junior Bill Lewis, press assistant for El-Sayed’s campaign, said he believes El-Sayed’s platform provides hope for younger voters with a rising distrust in the political system.
“When we have young people who are turning more and more towards the right or towards extreme points of view, a lot of people scratch their heads and wonder as to why,” Lewis said. “But to me it’s clear that it’s because we had grown up in a democracy that’s sort of dysfunctional, and what Abdul is doing is reaching out to those people directly and saying ‘It doesn’t have to be this way.’”
Summer News Editor Niko Wilson can be reached at nikow@umich.edu.
