Sen. Elizabeth Warren acknowledged in an interview that "Medicare for all" would cause two million jobs to be lost because of the disruption to the healthcare industry.
"Regardless of what kind of money is involved, 'Medicare for all' would likely result in a pretty significant kind of shift in how our healthcare system is structured, and even supporters of that approach within the health policy world have said that would likely mean lost jobs in some form," Casey McDermott, a reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio, told the Massachusetts Democrat during a Wednesday interview. "An economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told Kaiser Health News earlier this year that that could result in about two million jobs lost."
"So I agree," Warren responded to McDermott. "I think this is part of the cost issue and should be part of a cost plan."
The 2020 contender has struggled to explain how she would pay for her "Medicare for all" plan. Warren has dodged whether middle-class taxes would be raised to pay for universal healthcare.
"I want to get insurance that covers everybody. I don't want to tax anybody. I'm not trying to make this harder on your family. I just want it to cover all the families," she said at a recent town hall in New Hampshire.
When pressed on the topic, Warren responded by saying it would be "Big corporations and really wealthy people are going to see their costs go up."
Fellow 2020 presidential contender, Sen. Bernie Sanders, is the author of the current legislative version of Medicare for All. The Vermont independent admitted in the June presidential debate that the middle class would have to pay more in taxes for his universal healthcare plan.
Warren and Sanders are both top contenders in the Democratic primary polling at 21% and 17%, respectively, according to RealClearPolitics.
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