Booker defends middle-ground health care approach: ‘We’re going to fight to get there’

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a 2020 White House hopeful, defended his middle ground approach to universal health care Sunday. 

NBC’s Chuck Todd said Booker seems to be trying to “bridge a divide” between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) the three top candidates in the race. 

“Yeah, look. I can’t stand these people that say these bright lanes. For me, I feel it when I talk to really good people on that stage that I know, that there is a unifying message here that, look, we are a nation with a savagely broken health care system. Not the guy that’s trying to take it away that’s in the White House right now,” Booker said on Meet the Press.

WATCH: Sen. Cory Booker says Democrats are putting “forth a vision” to fix the healthcare system #MTP #IfItsSunday@CoryBooker: “We’re going to fight to get there. We can put the ideal out there … in other words, not sacrifice progress for purity.” pic.twitter.com/Mnp3a43JxW

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 15, 2019

“We’ve seen since Obama Affordable Care Act number uninsured  in this country go down significantly. We’re the party that’s trying to say, ‘Everybody should have health insurance.’ We’re going to fight to get there. We can put the ideal out there but walk and chew gum at the same time. In other words, not sacrifice progress for purity.”

Booker’s health care proposal falls between what the top candidates are proposing. While he advocates for a goal of achieving “Medicare for All,” he doesn’t go so far as Warren and Sanders in calling to eliminate private insurance companies. {mosads}

It’s similar to approaches other candidates, including Sen. Kamala Harris who like Booker signed onto Sanders’ Medicare for All bill, have taken during the primary.