The Detroit Debate Quickly Turned Into A Big Scrum Over Health Care

LOADING ERROR LOADING DETROIT ― If you want to know what an argument about “Medicare for All” would look like in a general election, the Democratic primary debate on Tuesday gave you a pretty good preview. When Rep. Tim Ryan suggested Sanders didn’t understand the proposal, the Vermont senator shot back: “I wrote the damn bill.” Sanders also challenged Tapper, who kept asking candidates whether they supported the tax increases that Medicare for All would require for financing. Tapper was careful to note that the taxes would replace existing premiums people pay, but Sanders said the framing shifted focus away from the real issue: whether poor and middle-class people would have to pay more or less for their health care. “The basic profit model of an insurance company is taking as much money as you can in premiums and pay out as little as possible in health care coverage,” Warren said. “Medicare for All will fix that.” And while Sanders and Warren correctly pointed out the problems with “good” private insurance ― namely that it’s at the whim of employers and frequently leaves very sick people with huge bills ― they never acknowledged the core political reality that polls have shown repeatedly and as recently as this week: Support for Medicare for All drops dramatically when people hear that enrollment in a new government plan would be mandatory.