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 Liberal candidates favor the sweeping proposal, which would replace
private health insurance with a single government-run plan. Moderate
candidates have embraced less drastic measures they say would
achieve broader healthcare coverage while allowing individuals to
choose their plan.
Here is where the top eight contenders stand on Medicare for All:
MEDICARE FOR ALL OR BUST
Bernie Sanders
The U.S. senator from Vermont authored Medicare for All legislation
that would essentially abolish private insurance in favor of a
single government-run plan that covers every American. The ambitious
proposal would cost more than $30 trillion over 10 years, according
to independent analyses.
Sanders has acknowledged he would impose higher taxes on families to
help pay for the program, but has argued the typical middle-class
family would save overall by eliminating virtually all health
expenses.
The bill would transform Medicare - now primarily for Americans aged
65 and over - into a universal system and ban employers from
offering healthcare plans to compete with the government. Aside from
prescription drugs, patients would face no out-of-pocket costs when
accessing medical services.
Several Democratic rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden,
have criticized Sanders' plan as unrealistic.
Elizabeth Warren
Perhaps more than any other candidate, Warren, a U.S. senator from
Massachusetts, has grappled with the issue of Medicare for All.
After initially saying she was "with Bernie," she released a
detailed financial proposal in November with a price tag of $20.5
trillion in additional government spending over a decade.
Warren vowed to finance the plan with higher taxes on the wealthy
and corporations while avoiding "one penny" more in middle-class
taxes.
The idea was met with skepticism by some of her Democratic rivals,
including Biden.
Warren subsequently released a transition plan. It would create a
public option - similar, albeit more ambitious in scope, to that
proposed by more moderate candidates like Biden. It would preserve
private insurance for three years before fully implementing Medicare
for All.
That proposal drew some criticism from the left, with Sanders
supporters claiming she had backed down from her Medicare for All
stance. Warren has said she remains committed to Medicare for All
and that her plan would provide more coverage to more Americans in a
shorter time frame.
PREFERRING A PUBLIC OPTION
Joe Biden
The No. 2 to Democratic President Barack Obama has criticized
Medicare for All as an effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA),
Obama's signature healthcare law.
Instead, Biden has vowed to "build on" the ACA, popularly known as
Obamacare, by adding a public option that would leave the current
private insurance system in place.
His healthcare plan, estimated to cost $750 billion over 10 years
and paid for partly by higher taxes on the wealthy, would let people
enroll in a paid government healthcare plan as an alternative to
private insurance. The government plan would be modeled on Medicare
and available even to workers with employer-provided policies.
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The proposal would also expand the ACA's subsidies for private
policies, making them more generous and extending them to more
people.
Michael Bloomberg
The billionaire former mayor of New York, who entered the campaign
in November and is skipping the first four state contests, released
a healthcare plan in December that would create a public option but
preserve the current system of private and employment-based
insurance.
Bloomberg has advocated building on the ACA, rather than scrapping
it in favor of a Medicare for All plan that he says is unaffordable.
He has called for increasing subsidies to cover low-income families'
premiums.
His plan would cost $1 trillion in additional government spending
over 10 years. Bloomberg's campaign aides have said he will release
details on how he would finance it in the coming weeks.
Pete Buttigieg
Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, favors a public
option, which would allow individuals to opt into a government plan
but would preserve the existing role for private insurers.
Buttigieg, who coined the phrase "Medicare for all who want it" to
describe the concept, has argued that a public option will
eventually lead to a single-payer system because individuals will
find that Medicare is more cost-efficient than private policies.
The plan would cost $1.5 trillion in additional spending over 10
years, according to the campaign. Buttigieg has said he would pay
for the plan by rolling back President Donald Trump's corporate tax
cuts.
Amy Klobuchar
Klobuchar, a moderate U.S. senator from Minnesota, has said she
would improve on the ACA by adding a public option that would be
available through either Medicare or Medicaid, giving people the
chance to choose a government-backed plan. She has called Medicare
for All a "pipe dream."
She has said she would finance her legislation in part by raising
taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
Tom Steyer
Steyer, a billionaire who entered the race in July, favors a public
option that would allow Americans to choose a government-backed plan
while expanding on the ACA.
His proposal would cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years, according to
his campaign.
STAKING OUT A MIDDLE GROUND
Andrew Yang
Yang, an entrepreneur, has said he supports "the spirit of Medicare
for All." He has argued that the prevailing job-based insurance
system discourages businesses from hiring due to ever-rising costs,
while forcing people to stay in jobs they dislike to protect their
healthcare coverage. However, he has said he would not seek to ban
private insurers.
He has bemoaned the amount of time that Democrats have spent
debating Medicare for All and has focused instead on issues like
lowering drug costs, improving technology and transitioning doctors
from a fee-for-service model to a salary-based system.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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