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McAuliffe Announces Support of Medicare for All

Former DNC Chair: Time to take Obamacare to the next level

December 30, 2018

Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) came out in support of Medicare for all in a Sunday interview on CNN's "State of the Union."

McAuliffe announced his support for the single-payer system after CNN host Dana Bash asked him if he was going to announce he's running for president.

"You sound like a man running for president. Are you going to announce right now?" Bash asked.

"I'm not going to announce right now. I'm obviously looking at it," McAuliffe responded, and then he continued on to talk about how governors have to "get results."

"I look at my record as in Virginia, amount of jobs created. People want politicians to get results. That's why governors are always important. We have to balance budgets. We have to build roads, clean the roads, fund education. Very results oriented. We don't have filibusters as governors. We can't be making promises that are not realistic," McAuliffe said. "I like the idea of free college but there's no way the Democratic Party should support paying for children of wealthy parents to go to school. I can afford to send my children to school. The federal government shouldn't be paying for my kids. There are things we need to do."

"What about Medicare for all?" Bash asked.

"Huh?" he replied.

"What about Medicare for all?" Bash repeated.

"I support Medicare for all," McAuliffe announced, before also saying he supports Obamacare. "I support that everybody in this country gets access to quality, affordable health care. Whatever you may want to call it. The system today—I was a big supporter of the ACA. We do need to tweak it take it to the next level. We need to fix it. Am I for health care for all individuals, affordable quality health care? You bet I am."

Before his comments, McAuliffe never signaled that he supported Medicare for all or a similar single-payer system.