Universal health care resolution (Resolution 260849)

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and details may be misheard.

What: a resolution calling on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to enact Senate Bill 1465, the Pennsylvania Universal Health Care Act, which would create an Office of Health Care and a Pennsylvania Care Board to run a single-payer system.
Where it stands: adopted by voice vote on 2026-10-15 with no audible opposition. It is a request to the state and does not change city law.
Next: the bill itself sits with the General Assembly.

Six speakers addressed it before the vote; four supported it and two opposed it.
Supporters: a healthcare union president and a resident physician cited federal Medicaid cuts (one speaker said more than 300,000 Pennsylvanians could lose coverage), medical debt and the Taiwan single-payer model. Another supporter backed it with caution about the cost.
Opponents: two speakers from a political group objected to the proposed payroll taxes (2.5% on employees, 7.5% on employers), cited Medicaid fraud, and said the city should cut taxes instead.
One supporter said the NHS in the UK has long waits and that the proposal's revenue projections need scrutiny.

Speakers credited Councilmember Gauthier as the sponsor. A councilmember whose name is garbled in the captions moved it on his behalf.
Adopted along with the other resolutions on the final passage calendar; no debate was recorded.

About 14 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-15 - City Council	14

2026-10-15 - City Council — Public comment (four for, two against), then adopted by voice vote.
2026-10-08 - City Council — Introduced as a non-privileged resolution (read during Ahmad's turn at the introductions, which the captions do not tie to a named sponsor) and placed on the final passage calendar for the next session.