Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren was caught on tape saying that she is not committed to all the details of Senator Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan despite previously calling it “my plan.”
“So, it’s not that I have a plan that says we’re going to do this part and then we’re going to do this part and then we’re going to do this part. No, instead my plan is we’re going to get to a table like this,” the Massachusetts senator says in leaked video from an August 23 closed-door meeting with members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union executive board, which was obtained by Mediaite.
“That’s what Medicare for All is all about,” she added.
Warren has by turns embraced Sanders’ Medicare for All plan and distanced herself from it, calling it a just a “framework.” She has also expressed goals that go beyond Sanders’ plan, including making every doctor and specialist available under the plan and making sure no medical service or prescription is ever refused to a patient.
Many unions have balked at Medicare for All over concerns that the plan could compromise the high-quality private insurance plans unions painstakingly negotiate for their members. Sanders’ plan would virtually eliminate the private health insurance market, forcing union members into the public market.
“The way I see it is we need to know what the goal is, and that goal has got to be that we’ve got to be in a place where we get coverage for everybody at the lowest possible cost,” Warren said.
Warren added on Sunday in remarks to reporters that, “I’ve been working for a long time on this question about what the cost will be and how to pay for it, and I’m getting close.”
Warren’s remarks in the leaked video are a departure from her reputation as the Democratic candidate with detailed policy proposals. Her frequent remark that, “I’ve got a plan for that” has even turned into a catchphrase for her campaign.
The senator said she plans to release her proposal on how to pay for health insurance reform will be released within the next few weeks.