Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday accused 2020 Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden of parroting insurance and pharmaceutical industry talking points after the former vice president raised alarm about the supposedly high price tag of Medicare for All and suggested the transition to a single-payer system would leave people with gaps in health coverage.
“Obviously what Biden was doing is what the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industries, Republicans, do: ignoring the fact that people will save money on their healthcare.”
Click Here: COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES 2019—Sen. Bernie Sanders
Campaigning in New Hampshire on Saturday, Biden said he wants to expand the Affordable Care Act and add a public option, claiming such incremental steps wouldn’t “cost $3 trillion, and it can be done quickly.”
“I don’t know why we’d get rid of what in fact is working and move to something totally new,” Biden said. “And so, there are differences.”
Medicare for All advocates—including Sanders, the lead sponsor of the Medicare for All Act of 2019 in the Senate—argue that the ACA is not working, pointing to the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured or under-insured.
In an interview with the New York Times on Sunday, Sanders called Biden’s attack on Medicare for All “totally absurd.”
“Obviously what Biden was doing is what the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industries, Republicans, do: ignoring the fact that people will save money on their healthcare because they will no longer have to pay premiums or out-of-pocket expenses,” said the Vermont senator. “They will no longer have high deductibles and high co-payments.”
“The charge that he’s making,” Sanders added, “is exactly what the Republicans are saying.”
Biden’s remarks in New Hampshire capped off several days of attacks on Medicare for All by the former vice president, even as polling released last week showed that two-thirds of Democratic voters support moving to a single-payer system that abolishes private insurance.
In a CNN interview published online Monday, Biden—who came under fire in April for attending a fundraiser hosted by a health insurance CEO just hours after launching his 2020 presidential bid—said it would be a “sin” to attempt to replace the ACA with Medicare for All.
Following that remark, Medicare for All advocates pounced on Biden’s characterization of the proposal:
On Friday, Biden told a crowd in New Hampshire that while Medicare for All proponents “mean well,” he doesn’t “want to start over.”
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