A spokeswoman for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday characterized the versions of “Medicare for All” put forth by other Democratic presidential candidates as “meager at best.”
“These people’s imitations are meager at best,” Briahna Joy Gray, a national press secretary for Sanders’s presidential campaign, told Hill.TV. “They know that Bernie Sanders’s ideology is good marketing, that he’s done a really great job of explaining to the people that, yes, they deserve health care as a human right. And Medicare for All is that, so much so that they feel the need to adopt that label.”
“But at bottom, they haven’t actually adopted what it means at its core,” she added, saying some of the candidates haven’t pledged to reject money from pharmaceutical companies.
She did not mention any candidates by name.
Gray’s comments come as an increasing number of White House hopefuls have endorsed versions of Sanders’s Medicare for All bill, which aims to expand health care coverage to more Americans by adopting a government-run plan that would effectively eliminate private insurance.
Sanders’s plan is backed at least in part by other Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-N.Y), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
The legislation also boasts more than 100 co-sponsors in the House.
But while many Democratic candidates support the idea of universal health care, not all are on board with Sanders’s plan to eliminate private insurance.
Harris, who has gone back and forth on the issue, unveiled a health care plan this week that seeks to transition to a Medicare for All system over a 10-year period, while also preserving private insurance.
Both Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden have slammed the proposal.
Sanders’s campaign said Harris’s plan relied too much on private insurance, while Biden’s team accused her of backtracking on her initial pledge to support Medicare for All.
The issue, which has divided moderates and progressives, is likely to come up during the second Democratic presidential debate. Twenty candidates will be on stage over the course of two nights, starting Tuesday.
Sanders and Warren are two of the top-tier candidates participating in Tuesday night’s debate, while Biden and Harris will likely command much of the spotlight on Wednesday evening.
—Tess Bonn
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