Amy Lynnette Vilela (born 1974 or 1975) is an American politician from the state of Nevada. She worked as an accountant before becoming an advocate for single-payer healthcare, also known as Medicare for All, after her daughter was turned away from a hospital and died of a heart attack because the hospital thought she lacked health insurance.
Vilela was born in Maryland. Her father was an ironworker and her mother was a secretary. They divorced during her childhood. Vilela became a mother when she was a teenager. She ended up homeless while raising her children, and used public assistance. She earned a bachelor's degree in business and accounting from Park University in Missouri.[1]
She became the chief financial officer of the Tammy Lynn Center, a nonprofit organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She then became the chief financial officer at Foresee Consulting, a construction management consulting firm.[1]
In 2015, Vilela's 22-year-old daughter died of a heart attack. She had presented to Centennial Hills Hospital with the symptoms of a deep vein thrombosis. Sometime later, following a flight, the blood clot broke off and became a pulmonary embolism. Following her daughter's death, Vilela became an advocate for Medicare for All.[11][12] She founded a Nevada chapter of Healthcare-NOW!, which lobbies for single-payer healthcare.[1] In 2017, she filed a lawsuit against Centennial Hills Hospital.[13][14]
