For the first time Thursday, frontrunner Joe Biden faced his two leading left-leaning competitors on the debate stage: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
The argument between the former vice president and his two main competitors went quickly towards their competing health care policy proposals, after an opening question from the moderator that all-but invited Biden to ask how Warren and Sanders would pay for universal coverage.
Biden did ask, and Warren and Sanders replied, initially leading the discussion into the weeds of how the government could finance public health care – be it increased payroll taxes or savings from squeezing rent-seeking health care providers.
Another exchange between Biden and Sanders brought the discussion to the ongoing toll of health care costs in the U.S., with the senator from Vermont citing a statistic that 500,000 Americans declare bankruptcy each year because of medical costs, bringing up cancer while making the point.
Biden, whose son died of cancer, replied that he “knows a lot about cancer.” Biden suggested that because his plan requires less of a fundamental shift in health care policy, it could be implemented faster than the years it would take to switch to a full Medicare for All system.
For a few moments, the candidates meandered towards a more revealing discussion that went to the intersection of the values that motivate each politician’s policy choice and how they want to expand coverage.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, for example, plugged his own Medicare buy-in proposal while lambasting the left alternative as “my way or the highway.” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) attacked President Trump and the GOP for repeatedly trying to reduce coverage, while plugging her own version of Medicare For All, which would offer a choice between private insurance and a public option.
But overall, the discussion stayed in trench warfare.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang made a proposal that sounded like paying doctors a flat rate per patient, though the specifics were unclear. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) endorsed a Medicare buy-in, without picking up any flack from his competitors.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) closed out the discussion by saying “we cannot sacrifice progress on the altar of purity.” He did not endorse any single plan.
Stephanopoulos: Can all of you sling poo all over yourselves for the next 45 minutes? Vice President Biden, you start.
Just what I’d expect from George, he is lite lite lite weight and tries to be cute but he is only after getting a food fight started.There is much more to HC and medical induced bankruptcies than most people realize and/or are willing to admit. If any candidate can get that message across that will be the end of any arguments.
I for one am tired of the we can’t, it’s too hard, it cost money, it will disrupt profits, etc, etc, etc and it is just not spoken about Health Care but also rebuilding highways, education, you just about name it, including the Green New Deal. What happened to the America I grew up within, the America that REPUGS continually say they want to return to. We are the wealthiest nation and we are afraid of our shadows, afraid to try to accomplish anything, we want the other guy to develop the ideas then we want to claim them and say look how great we are. I am tired of that. I don’t want to “return to normalcy” that is a slow death and you may as well dig the grave. Give me ideas, give me plans if they work great, if they fail, then they fail, try something else. You can not progress without failures, being afraid of failures, as I told my kids growing up, is failure.
On Sat I read an article that reported on studies that show within 15 years fossil fuel infrastructure will cost more than firms could receive in revenue and the article specifically mentioned NG pipelines. Already we see that renewable energy is cheaper than coal and nearly on par with natural gas so the article did not leave me with skepticism. Then the next day I read about the natural gas pipeline National Grid wants Williams to build into NYC costing nearly $1B just to go under the Hudson. It left me wondering if investors in either company were taking into account the that the window to make the investment and any return is quickly narrowing. I can’t see how something that would take 5 years to build, leaving a 10 year window based on the afore mentioned article could recoup $1B.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-09/gas-plants-will-get-crushed-by-wind-solar-by-2035-study-says
I wish Warren and Sanders had made a few points, like…
All of the “private insurance” plans wind up with tax dollars subsidizing insurance company profits.
Their plans provide health CARE for everyone. (don’t use the word “access”) Perhaps offer an unserious “compromise” that will make it legal for people to hire companies to tell them “no, you can’t see that doctor”, and make it legal for Americans to write checks to insurance companies for doing nothing at all.
Ask if all americans will be required to have access to the same levels of coverage that their “public options” provide. Ask if insurance companies will be required to provide that same level of access to care in all its plans, without costing Americans more out-of-pocket than their “private options”. Ask if employers will be required to provide employees insurance, without costing those employees more.
The only real problem I have with the Sanders/Warren plan is the speed at which it is implemented. Four years is probably too fast for the current lumbering health care infrastructure to adapt to a new way of doing things.
I think this might be the best next step after Obamacare and when folks see how good it is and it starts outdoing the insurance companies we’ll then be able to transition to medicare for all.
I am pleased that we’re finally trying to have a substantive debate about Medicare for All. It’s a great slogan, but there’s a lot of tough mudding underneath it. When presented as policy rather than as mantra, the nuts and bolts don’t always appeal to people.
For as long as a mainstream political party takes as gospel the idea that many critical medical procedures are immoral and should be illegal, I do not want the federal government to be the sole provider of medical insurance. Frankly, the idea seems ludicrous. You first need to believe in rainbow-farting unicorns which will ensure that Republicans never again simultaneously control the legislative and executive branches.