How a fight over health care entangled Elizabeth Warren

[brooklynite]

Washington Post

In mid-November, a few dozen of the country’s most influential advocates of Medicare-for-all were reviewing details of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan to finance the proposed government-run program when they learned that she had unexpectedly changed her position.

Warren (D-Mass.), who had excited liberals when she initially embraced a Medicare-for-all idea first proposed by rival presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was suggesting a more centrist idea: to delay enactment of the single-payer system and, in the interim, give consumers the choice to opt in. The change might have seemed insignificant to most Americans, but to many in the suburban Washington conference room, Warren’s new stance marked an abrupt retreat, according to several people in attendance.

That moment highlighted the political turbulence that Warren has experienced in recent weeks as she has attempted to extricate herself from a policy dilemma that has blunted her steady rise to the top ranks of the Democratic nominating contest.

Warren had pleased many on the left with proposals to take on entrenched corporate and political power. But she was being warned that support for Medicare-for-all, including the elimination of private health insurance used by more than 150 million Americans, could cost her support among Democrats looking for the strongest candidate to take on President Trump.

[crazytown]

1. Warren was asked to give details of a payment plan

that no one demanded of Sanders, this year or in 2015/16. All her competitors wanted was a 'I will raise your taxes' Mondale moment, excepting Pete, who properly focused on choice and disruption during transition.

[ritapria]

2. Many have concerns over the seemingly reasonable sounding Public Option

Many fear our adorable private health insurance companies will price out the high risk, sick people they don't want to cover on to the public option ; resulting in a tidal wave of red ink and cuts in the quality of healthcare for those who need it most .. Not to mention the Republicans crowing ever more of the "folly" of government intervention in healthcare …….Meaning the transition to MFA will turn into the graveyard of MFA ……….

[Hoyt]

3. Surprised her campaign let her fall into that trap. Besides finding out a lot of people aren't quite

ready for mandated MFA -- with no choice -- she also came up with funding sources that few people believe will work like she says.

At least Sanders was honest and said most folks' taxes would increase.

[emmaverybo]

4. It exactly.

[Gothmog]

5. When it comes to Medicare-for-all, listen to Nancy Pelosi

Link to tweet

When it comes to Democrats’ obsession with Medicare-for-all, listen to Nancy Pelosi. The House speaker put it more politely, but on the very day that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled her plan to remake the U.S. health-care system for the lowball price of $20.5 trillion, Pelosi made it clear that she thought this was political insanity.

“I’m not a big fan of Medicare-for-all,” Pelosi told Bloomberg TV on Friday. She cited the cost. She noted the “comfort level that some people have with their current private insurance.” And she cautioned, “Remember November.” Pushing Medicare-for-all “would increase the vote in my own district,” the California Democrat said, “but that’s not what we need to do in order to win the electoral college.”

Indeed. For years after passage of the Affordable Care Act, Democrats paid a steep, and unfair, political price for enacting the law. Then the electoral calculus flipped. Health care became a political winner for Democrats, and the Trump administration offered the party a gift with its continuing crusade against the ACA.....

A smart party would seize this opening and go on the offensive against the Republican effort to take popular coverage away from millions. Instead, the Democratic presidential field is immersed in a destructive internecine battle over the wisdom of a massive entitlement expansion. Imagine President Trump hammering Democratic nominee Warren in a general-election campaign. He would accuse her of plotting to take away your private insurance, dangerously hiking federal spending and, citing Warren’s primary rivals, ultimately socking the middle class with a tax increase when she can’t raise enough otherwise.

[question everything]

6. I hope that many will

[Gothmog]

7. Nancy Pelosi is "not for doing away with Obamacare" and prefers to give people choices.

Link to tweet

[peggysue2]

8. This is the House that Elizabeth Built

For herself and her campaign. She had a window to pivot. It was something I fully expected her to do. Why? Because she's whip smart, can read the lay of the land better than most. Instead, she got herself tangled in a complicated, back-engineered funding plan that hit a critical wall, and then backtracked on implementation and suggested a public option for the first three years.

And that cha-cha move pleased absolutely no one.

Which quite honestly, flabbergasted me. Harry Reid said quite clearly that Elizabeth Warren was not wedded to Medicare for All, that she was pragmatic. Yet she allowed herself to become tangled up in a plan that is a loser for 2020. I sensed this would be her Achille's heel. Sadly, that's the way it's worked out. I say 'sadly' because Warren was number 3 on my list as a candidate preference. Kamala Harris was my number 2 and now she's gone.

(sigh)

I'll be so glad when this primary is over!

[MineralMan]

9. Yes, and now Mayor Pete is knocking on her door.

And then there were four.