Report: Top Pelosi aide tried to sabotage Medicare for All

Make sure to let us know what you think... we now have comments turned ON below the article!

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

  1. Pingback: UFABET
  2. Hello, There’s no doubt that your site may be having web browser compatibility issues. Whenever I take a look at your web site in Safari, it looks fine however, if opening in IE, it has some overlapping issues. I just wanted to provide you with a quick heads up! Other than that, fantastic website!

  3. Pingback: รับทํา
  4. I blog frequently and I seriously appreciate your information. Your article has really peaked my interest. I am going to bookmark your blog and keep checking for new information about once a week. I opted in for your RSS feed as well.

  5. Pingback: 7M
  6. Pingback: chudjenbet
  7. Your style is unique in comparison to other people I’ve read stuff from. I appreciate you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I’ll just bookmark this blog.

  8. Howdy! I understand this is sort of off-topic but I had to ask. Does building a well-established website like yours take a lot of work? I’m completely new to running a blog however I do write in my journal everyday. I’d like to start a blog so I can share my own experience and views online. Please let me know if you have any kind of ideas or tips for brand new aspiring blog owners. Thankyou!|

  9. My developer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a variety of websites for about a year and am worried about switching to another platform. I have heard great things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts into it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!|

  10. Pingback: check it
  11. Pingback: check it
  12. Having read this I thought it was rather informative. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this information together. I once again find myself spending a lot of time both reading and leaving comments. But so what, it was still worthwhile.

  13. Can I simply just say what a relief to discover an individual who actually understands what they are discussing on the net. You certainly understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important. A lot more people really need to look at this and understand this side of the story. I was surprised that you are not more popular given that you certainly have the gift.

  14. I’m amazed, I must say. Seldom do I encounter a blog that’s equally educative and engaging, and without a doubt, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The problem is something that too few people are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy I stumbled across this in my search for something regarding this.

  15. I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this site. I’m hoping the same high-grade site post from you in the upcoming as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own blog now. Actually the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your write up is a great example of it.

  16. Hi, I do believe this is an excellent blog. I stumbledupon it 😉 I will return yet again since I book marked it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to guide others.

  17. Hey there! I’ve been following your web site for a long time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Huffman Texas! Just wanted to say keep up the excellent job!

  18. Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this board and I to find It really useful & it helped me out much. I hope to offer one thing back and help others like you helped me.

  19. Good day! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?

  20. Hey very nice web site!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…I am glad to find so many useful info right here in the submit, we need develop more strategies in this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .

  21. Great post. I was checking continuously this blog and I’m impressed! Very useful information specially the last part 🙂 I care for such info a lot. I was looking for this certain info for a long time. Thank you and good luck.

  22. I like what you guys are up too. Such smart work and reporting! Carry on the excellent works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it will improve the value of my website 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Popular