Warren's Medicare for All plan attacked, parodied by Republicans, Democrats and 'SNL' show

[November 04, 2019]  By Heather Timmons

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. presidential contender Elizabeth Warren's $20.5 trillion plan to provide healthcare for all Americans was attacked on the weekend by Republicans and fellow Democrats and parodied on "Saturday Night Live," the long-running network television comedy show.

The "Medicare for All" proposal, which Warren's 2020 presidential campaign released on Friday, calls for cuts in defense spending and passing immigration reform to increase tax revenue from newly legal immigrants, two steps that would face an uphill battle (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-warren-medicare/warren-details-medicare-for-all-payment-plan-with-no-new-taxes-for-middle-class-idUSKBN1XB466) in Congress.

It would also be funded by cost-cutting, business contributions and new taxes on Wall Street, big businesses and wealthy individuals, all of which carry their own challenges https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-warren-feasibility-analy/warrens-big-healthcare-plan-relies-on-big-assumptions-idUSKBN1XB52O.

Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, has emerged as a front-runner along with former Vice President Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic nomination to face Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.

Warren, a former law professor, has become known for a bevy of detailed policy proposals. But she had faced criticism for not detailing how she would pay for the Medicare for All plan. The proposal was introduced in the U.S. Senate by rival Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Her healthcare overhaul would replace private health insurance, including employer-sponsored plans, with full government-sponsored coverage, and individuals would no longer have to pay premiums, deductibles, co-pays or other out-of-pocket costs.

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks at a Democratic Party fundraising dinner, the Liberty and Justice Celebration, in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. November 1, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Thayer

It would extend Medicare, the U.S. government's health insurance program for people 65 years and older and the disabled, to cover all Americans.

Warren has said it would provide healthcare coverage for some 27 million Americans who are currently uninsured and that the taxes would not affect the middle class, while saving American households $11 trillion in out-of-pocket healthcare spending over the next decade.

She released letters from experts including Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, supporting her calculations.

Biden took issue with Warren's explanation of who would pay for her proposal.

"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," Biden said in a statement on Saturday.

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