New Warren plan splits Medicare for All into two bills, preserves private plans at first

[brooklynite]

NBC News

WASHINGTON — Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released her plan for transitioning the country to a Medicare For All health care system Friday, splitting the effort into two legislative pushes that would happen over her first term in office, but holding off — at first — on ending the role of private insurance companies.

Instead, she would pass legislation to offer new Medicare benefits to everyone first and then follow up with legislation to end existing employer plans by her third year in office, once the new system has a foothold.

The two-stage approach could make it easier to pass legislation and give Warren a hedge against attacks that she would eliminate existing plans, but is a departure from legislation by Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that would transition to Medicare for All over four years but lock everything into one bill.

“The Affordable Care Act made massive strides in expanding access to health insurance coverage, and we must defend Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act against Republican attempts to rip health coverage away from people,” Warren writes in a Medium post Friday. “But it’s time for the next step.”

The ice starts to crack.....

[evertonfc]

1. The voters

have no idea what she is talking about. She is sinking.

[HerbChestnut]

2. Not a fan of this and her financing plan.

There's too many moving parts, which gives the effort a greater chance of failure. Bernie's bill is better.

[highplainsdem]

3. Not ice cracking, but the fragile limb she went too far out on, so she's trying to

retreat toward a less extreme plan, but IMO it's simply too late.

She's spent too much time wrapping herself in a Medicare-For-All flag, and deriding candidates who've said it's too extreme.

Her goal is still eliminating private insurance. That's a loser in the general election, and most voters know that.

But her coming out with this new plan shows she realizes she's in trouble on that issue.

[PhoenixDem]

4. Backtracking .. but the damage is done. n/t

[crazytown]

6. The second part is after the midterms.

People will get a vote on it. Sound politics.

[Hoyt]

5. Glad she's backtracking a bit, but she'll be labeled as pushing "MFA even if you don't want it."

[crazytown]

8. The second part is after the midterms.

People will get a vote on it. Clever politics now. Not so good for the 2022 midterms

[Hoyt]

16. "MFA, even if you don't want/trust it" is a loser in General Election.

Personally support MFA -- actually supported Medicaid for All since early 1980s -- but we won't win Presidency on that.

People are just skeptical, and we'll put House and gains in Senate at risk, not to mention local races.

[crazytown]

17. It will be a test of how good a politician Warren is

& how effective the messaging of her campaign. We will see.

[Hoyt]

27. Not interested in experiments at this time, general election is too important. n/t

Last edited Fri Nov 15, 2019, 03:15 PM - Edit history (1)

[crazytown]

32. This is what the primaries are all about

testing candidates under pressure.

[Hoyt]

33. Yeah, but they have to be able to win the general election -- part of the test.

[crazytown]

34. Agreed.

[Demsrule86]

29. Nope, this election is too important...no time to test this approach.

[Demsrule86]

31. We may not get the Senate in 20...tough thing to do. So the 2022 midterms are so important. I can't

imagine why Sen. Warren thinks this is a good idea...it is not. We still risk losing over M4A in 20 and now we increase the chances for a truly awful result for us in 2022. Sen. Warren is smart...not sure about her political instincts though...

[The Valley Below]

7. She had a moment where she could have credibly argued that there are multiple paths...

to universal heath care. But in my estimation she blew that moment by doubling down on the deeply unpopular MFA plan (including making private insurance illegal).

Unsurprisingly, Warren's support has cratered since that moment.

Now that her support is in free-fall, she intends to alienate the "purists?"

I dunno man.

Makes me sad, as I've long been a fan of Sen Warren.

[crazytown]

9. Free fall?

As per RCP 2020, Warren's support has stabilized at 20%. Free fall was Biden after the June debate. Not fatal for him, or her.

[The Valley Below]

12. I don't know how a nearly linear downward slide since her MFA plan broke can be called "stable."

And after hurting herself with the great mass of voters who oppose MFA, I don't think alienating "the purists" is going to blunt a continuing slide in her support.

Too bad.

[crazytown]

13. Here

[The Valley Below]

15. LOL. As I said, a nearly linear downward slide.

Thanks for making my point for me.

I don't see todays announcement will comfort the large majority of Democrats who oppose MFA as presented now, nor will it do anything but alienate those who strongly support MFA.

I expect her slide will continue.

I wish she'd adopted a "multiple paths" approach earlier. That would have been credible.

Instead she's got a lose-lose approach going. I don't think her campaign can recover from these mistakes.

[crazytown]

18. "I don't think her campaign can recover from these mistakes"

I didn't expect you to say anything else.

[The Valley Below]

19. Good. I see you understand that I'm a truth-teller.

Thank you for your support.

[crazytown]

21. We.ill see won't we?

I don't 'understand' anything from 42 posts.

[The Valley Below]

22. You don't "understand anything" yet you just claimed "I didn't expect you to say anything else."

Which is it? Or are you just trying to make unfounded smears?

I'm a person of integrity. I call 'em as a see 'em.

I'd strongly hoped Elizabeth Warren would had announced a flexible approach for how to get to universal healthcare. Had she done so, I think the race would be neck-and-neck and that she would have built on her strong momentum.

Instead I'm seeing two blunders. One (the first) a major blunder.

This is a self-inflicted would in my estimation, as Warren has a long history of supporting "multiple paths."

We will see how this flip-flopping plays out. I think it is a blunder from which her campaign will not recover.

[crazytown]

23. CU again no doubt,

[beastie boy]

10. A major, and welcome, step back towards the realm of ahievable. At least the first part.

Can we now dismiss Warren as a moderate incrementalist?

[ritapria]

11. The public option for 2 years and then the voters decide via the 2022 midtems

whether MFA goes through …..I hope I am interpreting her plan correctly.....

[crazytown]

14. You are correct.

And if part 1 does not get through with the 2020 congress, campaigning on it in the 2022 midterms. Clever politics.

[Demsrule86]

28. No, we would likely lose.

[comradebillyboy]

25. The 2022 referendum will never happen even if Warren is elected. Why

would a hypothetical President Warren push an unpopular idea that would likely cost her party control of the House and go nowhere in even a Democratic Senate?

[ritapria]

30. If she can't persuade The American people to support MFA

We will get the Public Option …...She is banking on the hope that the Public Option will prove so popular that voters will become more amenable to MFA ..

[comradebillyboy]

36. If she's elected that may be her best strategy....

[peggysue2]

20. Not surprising

Warren and her staff can read the polls as well as anyone. Her position was unpopular and cost her any forward momentum she was counting on. M4A is a loser for 2020. Warren had every opportunity to pivot; instead she dug in. Until now. Because even she knows that she went a step too far.

No one can out-left Bernie Sanders. She tried and failed miserably.

Will this latest announcement make a difference? I don't think so. She locked herself in and now is scrambling to undo the damage. Voters have not only her healthcare decision to look at but her funding strategy with numbers that do not fly and the dubious Wealth Tax underpinning all her social programs.

The shine is off the apple.

[Sloumeau]

24. I think people are starting to realize that M.F.A. is D.O.A. :)

[Demsrule86]

26. This would be a nightmare and many employers would stop providing healthcare...it doesn't matter

as we will never past such a thing. Keep the ACA ...add a pubic option...and we will eventually end up with universal coverage. And how would seniors fare in this? Medicare is not a great program. So many issues with this...the most important being ...we will lose f we run on a campaign in the general.

[Unclephil]

35. The only way it will ever get implemented is if business endorses it.

or their is a revolt of the private system. Here is an idea. End tax incentives to private business and tax everyone who receives an insurance plan from a company as income. After all it is income.

People would be demanding single payer two tears after they have to pay for their own insurance. As someone who has bought insurance for 20 years people would be in shock if they saw the plans that people who buy individual plans have to purchase.

[Aaron Pereira]

37. A gradual phase in seems like a reasonable plan.

Unfortunately, over a multi-year time frame politics will intervene against any effort to make M4A a reality. What she's left with is essentially the Buttigieg plan which is nice but not what I expected her to fight for.