Medicare for All is shaping up to be one of the biggest political issues for Democrats this year. Major 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker all support some form of government-run healthcare. In February, more than 100 Democratic House members co-sponsored a Medicare for All plan introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a notable exception. She did not endorse the House bill, and she’s been openly skeptical of the costs. In fact, a top Pelosi aide privately sought to undermine Medicare for All at a private health policy meeting in November, several sources told Politico.
No on Medicare for All
Pelosi’s longtime adviser on health care policy, Wendell Primus, attended the private meeting on Nov. 30 and cautioned the roughly two dozen people in attendance about the risks of Medicare for All, both financial and political, and encouraged them to speak out publicly against the proposed single-payer health care scheme, according to “multiple people familiar with the session.”
Primus was said to have explained that House Democratic leadership did not support the push from some in the party’s caucus toward socialized Medicare for All, in part because it risked drawing attention away from the leadership’s true focus on protecting and strengthening the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.
That summation came from six unnamed individuals — four who were in the meeting and two who’d been briefed on it. The general consensus on the true thrust of Primus’ comments fell somewhere between a request for the health policy groups to provide more analysis and data on the plan, versus a more underhanded invitation for those groups to openly discredit and distance themselves from the costly Medicare for All proposal.
One attendee said, “It came across as, we need this so we can get on with our agenda. Can you help us point out the problems?”
Denial from Pelosi’s office
Pelosi’s office denied the report in a statement to Politico. “Wendell absolutely did not ask for any kind of one-sided analysis of Medicare for All, and anyone who says otherwise wasn’t actually listening. As Democrats, across the entire spectrum, we believe in legislating based on facts, data and honest analysis,” said Henry Connelly, spokesman for the speaker.
“No one has anything to fear from good faith research on Medicare for All,” Connelly added, in reference to the suggestion that Primus had encouraged the health policy groups to dig in to the details of the single-payer health care proposals and share what had been learned with the public.
But this isn’t the only report of such behind-the-scenes meetings. According to a February report from The Intercept, Primus met with major health insurers in early December and assured them “that party leadership had strong reservations about single-payer health care and was more focused on lowering drug prices.”
Focus on saving Obamacare
Pelosi and other top Democratic leaders would prefer to spend their efforts on saving Obamacare from the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal it, Politico reported. Options include smaller movements centered on lowering prescription drug prices or protecting individuals with pre-existing conditions from being denied insurance coverage.
Politically, it’s a safer route than embracing the controversial Medicare for All scheme, which would completely surpass Obamacare in terms of government control over the nation’s health care system, and which would admittedly force tens of millions of unwilling Americans off their preferred private health insurance plans.
While a significant percentage of Americans approved of Medicare for All’s promised benefits, once they were informed of the cons — cost, increased taxes, loss of private insurance, delays in getting care — most people disapproved of it, according to a Kaiser poll in January.
This allegation of shadowy sabotage of Medicare for All proposals by a top Pelosi aide will likely not sit well with the far-left progressives in the Democratic Party, and given the manner in which the more radical progressives have been so outspoken in recent months, it will be interesting to see if a challenge toward Pelosi’s leadership is mounted by those who feel they’ve been scorned by the head of the party.
1,588 Responses
Highly descriptive post, I enjoyed that bit. Will there be a part 2?|
My spouse and I stumbled over here by a different web page and thought I might as well check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to checking out your web page for a second time.|
Good site you have here.. It’s difficult to find high-quality writing like yours these days. I truly appreciate individuals like you! Take care!!|
My brother recommended I might like this website. He was entirely right. This submit truly made my evening. You cann’t believe merely how a lot time I had spent for this information! Thanks a lot!
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a coworker who had been doing a little homework on this. And he actually ordered me lunch due to the fact that I found it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending the time to discuss this matter here on your web page.|
Great beat ! I would like to apprentice whilst you amend your website, how could i subscribe for a weblog website? The account helped me a applicable deal. I have been a little bit familiar of this your broadcast provided brilliant clear concept|
Hello there, I discovered your blog by the use of Google at the same time as searching for a similar matter, your site got here up, it seems good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
F*ckinà remarkable things here. I am very satisfied to peer your post. Thank you a lot and i’m having a look forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a mail?
Amazing blog! Do you have any helpful hints for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m totally overwhelmed .. Any suggestions? Cheers!|
Thank you, I’ve recently been searching for info about this subject for a while and yours is the greatest I have found out till now. However, what about the conclusion? Are you positive about the source?
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit, but instead of that, this is excellent blog. A fantastic read. I’ll definitely be back.|
Howdy! I could have sworn I’ve been to your blog before but after browsing through many of the articles I realized it’s new to me. Regardless, I’m definitely delighted I discovered it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back regularly!|
Good day! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I truly enjoy reading through your posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same topics? Thank you so much!|
hey there and thank you for your information – I have certainly picked up anything fresh from right right here. I performed however know-how several technical problems using this internet site, since I experienced to reload the blog many times past to I could obtain it to load appropriately. I had been wanting to know if your hosting can be OK? Certainly not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will very regularly affect your placement in google and can harm your high quality rating if advertising and advertising with Adwords. Well I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can appear out for much more of your particular interesting articles. Ensure that you update this again soon.
Why people still make use of to read news papers when in this technological world the whole thing is presented on web?|
Hi there colleagues, its enormous piece of writing on the topic of educationand entirely explained, keep it up all the time.|
This is really fascinating, You are an excessively professional blogger. I possess became a member of your feed and glance onward to in the hunt for extra of your wonderful content. Likewise, I’ve shared your internet site in my social systems
I’m not sure exactly why but this blog is loading extremely slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a problem on my end? I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.
It’s actually a cool and useful piece of information. I am glad that you shared this useful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
Today, while I was at work, my sister stole my iphone and tested to see if it can survive a 30 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My iPad is now destroyed and she has 83 views. I know this is completely off topic but I had to share it with someone!|
Hiya! I know this is kinda off topic however I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest authoring a blog post or vice-versa? My site addresses a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you might be interested feel free to send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you! Great blog by the way!|
Hi there, I check your new stuff daily. Your humoristic style is awesome, keep it up!|
Together with every thing that appears to be building within this particular subject matter, all your opinions are very exciting. However, I appologize, but I do not subscribe to your whole suggestion, all be it refreshing none the less. It would seem to everyone that your commentary are actually not entirely rationalized and in actuality you are generally your self not really completely certain of your point. In any case I did enjoy reading it.
What’s up, the whole thing is going fine here and ofcourse every one is sharing facts, that’s really excellent, keep up writing.|
It’s hard to find knowledgeable people in this particular topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks|
I have been exploring for a little for any high quality articles or weblog posts on this kind of house . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this website. Studying this information So i am happy to convey that I have a very good uncanny feeling I discovered exactly what I needed. I such a lot surely will make sure to don?t overlook this site and provides it a look on a constant basis.|
Thanks for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do a little research on this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such excellent info being shared freely out there.
Hello there! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could get a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one? Thanks a lot!
Wow! This could be one particular of the most useful blogs We have ever arrive across on this subject. Actually Great. I’m also an expert in this topic therefore I can understand your hard work.
Very quickly this site will be famous amid all blog viewers, due to it’s good posts|
Great beat ! I wish to apprentice while you amend your web site, how could i subscribe for a blog site? The account aided me a acceptable deal. I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered bright clear idea
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is excellent blog. A great read. I’ll certainly be back.|
I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare to see a nice blog like this one these days.|
I will immediately seize your rss feed as I can not in finding your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Please allow me recognise so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.|
Great site! I am loving it!! Will be back later to read some more. I am bookmarking your feeds also.
I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this blog. I’m hoping to check out the same high-grade blog posts by you in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has motivated me to get my own, personal site now ;)|
I’ve been exploring for a bit for any high quality articles or blog posts on this kind of space . Exploring in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this website. Reading this information So i am happy to express that I have a very just right uncanny feeling I came upon exactly what I needed. I such a lot unquestionably will make certain to do not disregard this site and provides it a look on a relentless basis.
Hi, i think that i saw you visited my weblog thus i came to “return the favor”.I am attempting to find things to improve my site!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!
Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site by chance, and I’m stunned why this accident didn’t came about earlier! I bookmarked it.
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your website? My website is in the exact same niche as yours and my users would truly benefit from a lot of the information you present here. Please let me know if this alright with you. Regards!