Presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) dodged a question on her healthcare proposal during an AARP/Des Moines Register Presidential Forum last week, refusing to specify if her plan would kick millions of Americans off of their private insurance plans.
Warren participated in the presidential forum in Sioux City, Iowa, last week, and a moderator asked if her healthcare proposal would “eliminate private insurance.” Warren dodged the question, opting for a more politically ambiguous answer.
“What it does is it transitions people to more complete insurance coverage — more complete health care coverage — at a lower cost, which I think is what we all want,” Warren said. “Everyone gets covered, but we do it at the lowest possible cost.”
“Would that also include Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D, which have private providers … insurance within the Medicare umbrella,” a moderator asked.
“So the basic structure of the plan is to get everyone covered,” Warren responded in part:
During last month’s Democrat presidential debate, NBC’s moderator Lester Holt asked candidates if they were willing to abolish private insurance altogether.
“Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?” he asked. “Just a show of hands, start off with.”
Sen. Warren raised her hand.
The top tier candidate has long-supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All, but she failed to provide specifics for her plan during the debate.
“Look at the business model of an insurance company. It’s to bring in as many dollars as they can in premiums and to pay out as few dollars as possible for your health care,” she told Holt.
“That leaves families with rising premiums, rising copays, and fighting with insurance companies to try to get the health care that their doctors say that they and their children need. Medicare for All solves that problem,” she said, failing to explain how it would specifically solve the problem.
“There are a lot of politicians — who say, “Oh, it’s just not possible. We just can’t do it’ — have a lot of political reasons for this,” she continued.
“What they’re really telling you is they just won’t fight for it. Well, health care is a basic human right, and I will fight for basic human rights,” she added.
Her answer left more questions.
As Breitbart News added:
- How will the U.S. pay for this long-term?
- What will this do to the quality of health care?
- Will wait times for urgent medical needs increase?
- Will Medicare for All cover illegal aliens?
- Will it force taxpayers to completely fund abortion?
- How will this incentivize people to become doctors?
If Warren does, in fact, support the abolishment of private insurance altogether, it would result in 150 to 180 million Americans losing their current private plans tailored to their specific needs.