Delaney: Medicare For All proponents have ‘hijacked the good name of Medicare’

Former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) on Sunday blasted his fellow Democratic presidential candidates’ support of Medicare for All proposals, saying the voters “will reject” them.

“This is [Sen.] Bernie Sanders’s [I-Vt.] plan, it will take private insurance away from half the people in this country,” Delaney said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” adding that Democrats who support such proposals have “outsourced” health care policy to the Vermont senator.

{mosads}“They’ve hijacked the good name of Medicare and applied it to a law that will cause upheaval in our health care system,” he added. “Now we’re seeing the debate change on this issue as people start to realize.”

Challenging his fellow #Democratic candidates, @JohnDelaney says many of them have “outsourced” their #HealthCare plan to @BernieSanders. “They’ve hijacked the good name of Medicare and applied it to a law that will cause upheaval in our healthcare system.” pic.twitter.com/P0JQgi471k

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 7, 2019

Several 2020 White House contenders have expressed support for Medicare for All, including Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Candidates have been cagier on whether they support eliminating private insurance, with Warren and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) saying they would favor such a move and Harris initially expressing support but later backtracking.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) took a similar stance to Delaney’s in the first Democratic presidential debate in June, saying that while he supports allowing anyone who chooses to join Medicare, “I think the choice is fundamental.”