Elizabeth Warren’s $20.5 trillion “Medicare For All” plan was attacked over the weekend by Republicans, fellow Democrats, and “Saturday Night Live.”
The proposal, released on Friday, calls for cuts in defense spending and passing immigration reform to increase tax revenue from new immigrants, two steps that would face an uphill battle in Washington. Funding would also come from cost-cutting, business contributions and new taxes on Wall Street, big businesses and wealthy individuals.
Her plan would replace the private insurance plans, including employee-sponsored plans, with full government sponsored coverage, erasing premiums, co-pays, deductables and out-of-pocket expenses for individuals. She says it would cover 27 million Americans currently without insurance, without the taxes affecting the middle class, and saving households $11 trillion in health care costs.
Who said what?
Joe Biden:
“Her plan would create a new tax on employers of almost $9 trillion that would come out of workers’ pockets, a new financial transaction tax that would impact investments held by middle class Americans, and a new capital gains tax that would affect far more people than she stated tonight.”
Pete Buttegieg:
“This my way or the highway idea, that either you’re for kicking everybody off their private plans in four years or you’re for business as usual, it’s just not true.”
Bernie Sanders:
…Sanders told ABC News his Medicare for All approach “will be much more progressive in terms of protecting the financial well-being of middle income families.”
Rahm Emmanuel, former Chief of Staff for President Obama called it a “pipe dream” and said it wouldn’t happen and it’s not the way you argue healthcare.
The RNC called the price tag of Warren’s plan “staggering.”
And SNL’s cold open devoted nearly 8 minutes to Warren’s plan, with actress Kate McKinnon portraying Warren as the policy wonk Mom who will fix Bernie’s plan.
See Reuters.