By Monica Maalouf, M.D., Winnie Lin, M.D., and Alec Nicolas Angelo Jotte, M.D.
Chicago Sun-Times, Letters, April 4, 2026
While it didn’t make headlines, Chicago recently became the largest city in the U.S. to pass a resolution calling on Congress to support Medicare for All. The resolution was adopted the same day that Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native, called upon nations to enact universal health care as a moral imperative.
As physicians practicing in the Chicago area, this moral imperative couldn’t be clearer. Every day, we witness how our health care system prioritizes profits over patients. We see and live the gaps, inefficiencies and devastating consequences of this fragmented system.
While a city-level, nonbinding resolution might seem trivial, this unanimous vote supporting Medicare for All is a declaration that the status quo is no longer acceptable. It’s a rejection of small-scale reforms that force our patients to lose limbs because they chose paying rent over buying insulin. It’s a cry against systems that force us to stand by as women die prematurely of breast cancer because they can’t afford a biopsy.
Chicago’s resolution reflects a growing recognition that incremental changes and new direct-to-consumer price reductions (such as TrumpRx) are simply not enough. It also signals an important shift: Medicare for All is no longer a fringe proposal but is now recognized as a common-sense solution. That recognition was echoed just one day prior to the City Council vote when Illinois Democratic primary voters chose Juliana Stratton, who made Medicare for All central to her campaign for the U.S. Senate nomination.
There is a growing consensus that the federal government should ensure all Americans have health care coverage. Medicare for All represents a solution to providing that coverage while building upon ongoing efforts to reduce health care costs and, per the words of Pope Leo XIV: “Universal health coverage is … a moral imperative for societies that wish to call themselves just.”
It is time to move beyond the complicated, inadequate reforms of the Affordable Care Act. There is a growing clarity, and now an increasingly prominent insistence, that a universal, national health program is the best next step. The rest of the Illinois Democratic coalition should take heed and find the courage to move in step with this rising public will.