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Warren Announces Support for Sanders' Single-Payer Health Care Plan

Elizabeth Warren / Getty
September 7, 2017

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) on Thursday morning announced her intention to support Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I., Vt.) single-payer health care plan.

Warren told supporters in an email that she will co-sponsor Sanders' forthcoming "Medicare for All" legislation, the Boston Globe reports.

"There is something fundamentally wrong when one of the richest and most powerful countries on the planet can't make sure that a person can afford to see a doctor when they're sick," Warren wrote. "This isn't any way to live. Health care is a basic human right and it's time to fight for it."

Sanders plans on formally introducing his proposal in the Senate next week.

"Medicare for All is one way that we can give every single person in the country access to high quality health care. Everyone is covered," Warren wrote. "Nobody goes broke paying a medical bill. Families don't have to bear the costs of heartbreaking medical disasters on their own."

Warren lauded the accomplishments of Obamacare in her email and said former President Barack Obama "deserves tremendous credit," the Hill noted.

"But there's so much more we could do right now to bring down the costs of quality health care for every American," she added.

Warren is not the first Democratic senator to publicly back Sanders' proposal. Last month, Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) announced that she intends to co-sponsor the "Medicare for All" bill, calling it "the right thing to do."

Warren, Sanders, and Harris are all considered potential 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, and may be positioning themselves to appeal to the party's progressive grassroots movement, which helped Sanders launch a strong but ultimately failed White House bid in 2016.