Sanders suggests an "incremental" approach to healthcare for Biden

[UncleNoel]

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/494671-sanders-outlines-steps-on-health-care-for-biden
Original title: Sanders outlines steps on health care for Biden
By Tal Axelrod - 04/25/20 04:38 PM EDT

Sanders, a vocal progressive and advocate for “Medicare for All,” recognized that Biden, a centrist, is unlikely to adopt a single-payer system. However, he said decreasing the age to qualify for Medicare from 65 to 55 and expanding coverage for children would be positive steps.

“My best outcome is to go forward in the direction of Medicare for All but not do it perhaps as quickly as I would want,” Sanders said on MSNBC on Saturday.

“At least what we should do is lower the eligibility of Medicare from 65 to 55 and cover all of the children in this country. And then we can figure out ways that we can expand and improve the [Affordable Care Act]," he continued. "Those are some of the things Joe Biden can do without embracing a full Medicare for All concept.”

This is certainly within the view that Biden has previously supported. Glad to see Sanders recognizing the political expediency of compromise. We are on the way to full unity if this view can be adopted widely by Democrats.

[DURHAM D]

1. lol

I'm sorry but that is funny.

Sanders tells Biden to go slow.

[UncleNoel]

17. It is ironic isn't it! LOL!

Some hard-liners will have a tizzy-fit over this.

[thesquanderer]

37. He's saying go slow by Sanders standards, but quickly by Biden standards,

relative to the platforms each had put forth in the campaign.

[LizBeth]

2. Not even Sanders is getting single payer. Biden already said he was dropping age Medicare.

Last edited Sat Apr 25, 2020, 08:37 PM - Edit history (1)

[TexasTowelie]

8. Really?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your comment. When has Biden said he was dropping Medicare?

[Hoyt]

14. I think she meant Biden already proposed decreasing Medicare age, but to 60

to start.

[LizBeth]

16. Joe Biden has unveiled a proposal to make people eligible for Medicare when they turn 60.

https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-wants-to-let-people-enroll-medicare-age-60-2020-4

[TexasTowelie]

20. Okay, your original statement made it appear that Biden favored eliminating Medicare for everyone.

Last edited Sat Apr 25, 2020, 08:39 PM - Edit history (1)

That's why I reacted with a bit of dismay.

[LizBeth]

35. I added age. Sanders has nothing to add, just trying to get in front of camera.

[The Magistrate]

3. So It's Come To This, Sir --- Sanders Sells Out 'Bernie'

There'll be some hot times in the 'red rose' choir tonight....


"Defeat of a dangerous enemy is something to be for."

[UncleNoel]

7. You nailed it, Magistrate!

[Cha]

10. No kidding.. Krystal Ball will certainly pitch more fits..

Link to tweet

[Me.]

22. So Now He's A Loser

Just like Tim Ryan. She sure can't pick 'em, but then maybe...like attracts like.


Aloha Cha

[Cha]

25. Kball is a gaslighting idiot, imo.

Aloha, Me~

[mvd]

4. Well, if we lower it to 55 first, and then..

people see how good it can be, perhaps we can still get to Medicare For All that way. Like Sanders, I am all for Medicare For All, but I can see this working in the end.

[DURHAM D]

13. Just curious...

Are you 65 or older?

[UncleNoel]

21. I'm 84, but live in Taiwan where we have single-player national health insurance. It works here

because of relatively low drug costs, modest health care worker salaries, and inexpensive hospitalization. These are issues that would needed to be solved in the US to make it work there.

On a trip to the US I only managed a severe sickness because of Medicare and believe that this is a direction we need to move toward.

[DURHAM D]

27. When all the seniors I know hear how wonderful Medicare for All is

they just roll their eyes.

We pay into it all of our work lives and when we reach 65 we are offered an opportunity to pay in more to get coverage.

The amount taken from my SS check is $144.60. My supplemental is $267. My Part D is 31.00 (which doesn't cover much) the Total = $442.60 a month. I have no health issues and do not take any medications.

$442 a month does not sound like much I guess but when I add in what I paid in over a 50 year work period to arrive at the invite to pay in more I, like every senior I know, thinks - Good God Stop It With the MFA. We Must Do Better.

iows - When it comes to messaging if the Democrats want to get more seniors to vote for them stop pushing "Medicare for All". Seniors are thinking about their kids and their grand-kids and they don't want them to think it is somehow wonderful. It isn't.

Biden needs to find a new message.

[moose65]

36. That's not how Medicare works though

Medicare doesn’t care that you paid in for 50 years. The money that you paid in was used to pay for health care for people on Medicare at that time. Your money didn’t go into some account with your name on it, to be used for your healthcare when you retired. With that being said, though, I agree that we need to do better. What you’re paying per month IS too much.

[Cha]

5. First of All.. the hill.. Joe Biden Is Not a "centrist"..

secondly.. glad on you're on Joe Biden's train, Sanders.

[UncleNoel]

9. Thanks for clarifying Politico's slant, Cha!

[Cha]

19. You're Welcome, Noel..

But it's, The Hill.. krystal ball's stomping grounds..

Link to tweet

Not that it couldn't be "politico", too..

[Hortensis]

32. Yup. Calling Biden "centrist" is proof of dishonest and hostile slant.

50 years of solidly documented moderate liberal ideology.

Available within a few keystrokes to all.

[BlueLucy]

6. Bernie embraces pragmatism

[UncleNoel]

12. Just what we need in totday's polarized politics!

[Tom Rinaldo]

18. Bernie long ago embraced pragmatism. That's why, unlike other avowed leftists, he's a U.S. Senator

Bernie's strategy has always been to radically stretch the limits of what can pass as a pragmatic act. That has been his primary role as a change agent. Consistent with that, I approve of this statement by him.

[Kahuna]

11. Really??? Never heard that before. nt

[ismnotwasm]

15. Jesus.

[Me.]

23. So, Is He Going To Try & Claim Credit For Whatever JB Does?

[mcar]

24. "Biden, a centrist,"

[Cha]

26. I know right? The media shows they Once Again..

haven't been paying the slightest bit of attention to what the hell is going on.

[mcar]

28. They gotta have their labels

Biden, like HRC before him, has the most liberal platform the party has seen in generations. But because he doesn't go to Bernie's extremes, he's a centrist.

[Cha]

30. Exactly, Well said! Those media types are just showing off

their own incompetence.

[Hortensis]

34. You're too nice. They're LYING to sabotage us and elect Republicans.

The anti-Democratic left, RW, and foreign enemies are all pushing the same synergistic and very deliberate lies to splinter away support for Democrats. The same lies that elected Trump and McConnell and company.

Bastards.

[Tribetime]

29. I don't care who proposes it but it needs to get done

Until we can provide healthcare for all our citizens we are not the greatest country and I'm tired of the defeatist attitude that we can't get it done every other country figured it out.
God bless Saint Jude's hospital but why do we need to resort to that how many children aren't lucky enough to go there and end up dying because this country cannot provide insurance for them organized and covers for an operation

[Tink41]

31. Be a load off my mind and my brothers, sisters

Per the health insurance qualifications in my local, we must be covered last two years before retirement to receive our benefits til medicare kicks in. It is VERY difficult to get the hours needed for coverage especially for our 50 and over members. By the time we reach 62 it's over for most of us. Our bodies are so beat up and abused waiting another 3-5 yrs for retirement would put us in the ground.

[betsuni]

33. Similar to what he said in 2017.

That Medicare for All was long term, but the short-term was ACA with public option and Medicare at 55.

Hillary writes in her book: "We recently shared a smile and a sigh when we heard Bernie called for improving the Affordable Care Act immediately by embracing the approach that I proposed as a candidate: a public option in fifty states and lowering the Medicare age to fifty-five."