ADVERTISEMENT

Delaney: Cost of Medicare for All 'Takes Your Breath Away'

$33 trillion price tag ‘a detail that a lot of people don’t focus on’

June 28, 2019

Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney said during a Friday interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the cost of Medicare for all "takes your breath away."

"What would Medicare, yeah, what would Medicare for all cost?" Hewitt asked.

"Thirty-three trillion dollars," Delaney said.

"Wow," Hewitt responded.

"I know. It kind of takes your breath away a little bit, doesn't it?" Delaney said.

A growing number of Democrats have embraced Medicare for all, including eliminating private insurance. Democratic 2020 candidate who said during the debates that they favor eliminating private insurance and replace it with Medicare for all include; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). Although, Harris has flip-flopped on the issue numerous times.

Delaney argued that the Democratic party shouldn't be the party of taking away things from Americans and that there was an alternative way to provide universal coverage without stripping people of their private insurance.

"Does anyone in your party understand that's not tenable?" Hewitt asked.

"I don't think—that's a detail that a lot of people don't focus on," Delaney said. "You know, as I said the other night, we have to be the party that has workable solutions. We've got to tell people how we're going to pay for them."

One study estimates Sanders's Medicare for all plan would cost the U.S. $32.6 trillion over the next 10 years.

"Its all about choices. The American people want choices. And they ought to have them," Delaney said.