Presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) dodged on whether she supported eliminating private insurance companies in a Medicare for All bill during a Tuesday night CNN town hall.
"You call insurance companies, though, the middleman," host Erin Burnett said. "Under a President Gillibrand, would they be gone? No private insurance companies, yes or no?"
Gillibrand replied that she wants to keep private insurance companies during a transition period to keep Medicare for All a choice for Americans.
"If the insurance industry wants to continue to participate, to offer some kind of coverage for some kind of thing, they'll have to compete for those customers," Gillibrand said. "But if you let America choose basic care through Medicare which is higher quality and much more affordable, I can't imagine that most Americans won't choose it."
Gillibrand's comments at the town hall walked back her statements from February, in which she said that eliminating private insurance was "an urgent goal."
"One of the most recent debates we've had recently is what happens to private insurance. Should ending private insurance, as we know it, be a Democratic goal? And do you think it's an urgent goal?" podcast host Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, asked Gillibrand.
"Oh yeah, it is a goal. An urgent goal," Gillibrand said. "But let me explain. I ran on 'Medicare for all' in 2006 in my upstate New York two-to-one Republican district. And the reason I ran on that message was because I listened first. I traveled around the district asked people 'What's on your mind? What's your worry?' and they overwhelmingly said 'I'm worried about access to health care.'"
Gillibrand has called for ending private insurance plans along with fellow presidential contenders Sens. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), both of whom support Medicare for All.