Viewpoints: With This ‘Medicare For All’ Plan, Warren Can’t Win Presidency; All Americans, Including The Middle Class, Will End Up Paying For Single Payer
Opinion writers weigh in on these health care ideas and others.
The Washington Post:
When It Comes To Medicare-For-All, Listen To Nancy Pelosi
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.” (Ruth Marcus, 11/4)
The Wall Street Journal:
Warren Asks What The Country Can Do For You
Elizabeth Warren’s release Friday of a more specific health-care platform only raised more questions about Medicare for All and its effects on the middle class. Conservatives as well as Ms. Warren’s Democratic opponents questioned the assumptions behind her claim that she can enact a single-payer plan without raising taxes on the middle class. Yet the harshest critic may be Ms. Warren herself. “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” John F. Kennedy, who once held Ms. Warren’s Senate seat, urged. She refuses to ask the middle class to pay a dime for her costly proposal. (Chris Jacobs, 11/4)
The New York Times:
The Warren Way Is The Wrong Way
Senator Elizabeth Warren has unveiled her vision for how to pay for “Medicare for all” — a daunting mountain of new taxes and fees. Thanks for providing us, Ms. Warren, with yet more evidence that a Warren presidency is a terrifying prospect, one brought closer by your surge in the polls. Left to her own devices, she would extend the reach and weight of the federal government far further into the economy than anything even President Franklin Roosevelt imagined, effectively abandoning the limited-government model that has mostly served us well. (Steven Rattner, 11/4)
The Washington Post:
Democrats Have A Dangerous Misconception About Policy And Campaigns
We’re now moving into the phase of the presidential campaign in which Democrats begin a round of furious hand-wringing and doomsaying, although in fairness that characterizes just about every phase of the campaign. The proximate cause at the moment is the fact that Elizabeth Warren, who has a good chance to become the party’s nominee, has just released a Medicare-for-all plan, and polls indicate that Medicare-for-all is less popular than a public option of the kind being advocated by others such as Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg. The appropriate response to this fact is obviously to cry, “We’re doomed!” (Paul Waldman, 11/4)
The New York Times:
Elizabeth Warren Throws Down The Gauntlet
Laying the table for the next Democratic debate, Elizabeth Warren has issued a plan that explains how she would fund what she calls Medicare for All. She had studiously avoided saying whether it would raise taxes for the middle class, and in her proposal, she says (repeatedly) it will not. It will instead be financed by a mix of wealth taxes, employer transfers of money they currently spend on health care and reductions of the many inefficiencies in our current byzantine system — among other initiatives. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 11/4)
Meanwhile, on other health care issues —
The Hill:
It's Time To Protect US And The World Against Global Pandemics
In the aftermath of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the U.S. began building systems that could better respond to future infectious disease outbreaks. Yet the current administration has repeatedly proposed cuts to these programs and prospects for true U.S. leadership in this area have dimmed as agencies face shortfalls.In fact, these shortsighted budget cuts along with reversals of U.S. commitments to combatting climate change are creating precisely the right conditions for the next infectious pandemic to thrive. (Charles B. Holmes, 11/4)
The Hill:
At-Risk And Unaware, Consumers Need CBD Regulation
Cannabidiol — known and CBD — has gone mainstream. You can find it for sale anywhere from gas stations to grocery stores to farmers markets across the country, rocketing ahead of scientific research, regulatory oversight and consumer knowledge. New research from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (where I am president and CEO) reveals that four-in-ten Americans who have heard of CBD believe it’s another name for marijuana. More than half (51 percent) think it can get you high. Seventy-six percent assume CBD is regulated at the federal level, including 53 percent who rest easy thinking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees CBD’s safe use and marketing. They’re wrong on all counts. (Geoff Freeman, 11/4)
