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1 / 20Health care
- Joe Biden: Biden has pushed for a health care plan that would offer Americans the opportunity to buy into Medicare, saying it would provide more consumer choice than a blanket “Medicare for All” plan. “If the insurance company isn't doing the right thing by you, you should have another choice,” he said in April. Biden's campaign website also states that the Affordable Care Act should be defended and built upon.
- Pete Buttigieg: Buttigieg told Fox News that a single-payer health care system is “probably the right answer in the long term,” and said that it could be a step to getting toward a “Medicare for All” system. But he wouldn't immediately implement a single-payer system and suggested starting instead with a system that wouldn't eliminate private health insurance. “You take some flavor of Medicare, you make it available on the exchange as a kind of public option, and you invite people to buy into it,” he said in March.
- Tulsi Gabbard: Gabbard has suggested that Medicare should be able to negotiate with prescription drug companies to lower the cost of health care, and proposed that the U.S. should be able to re-import drugs from countries like Canada at a cheaper price. She posted on Facebook in March: “It is unacceptable in this country that we have people who are sick or in need of care and are unable to get it because they don't have enough money. #MedicareForAll”
- Kamala Harris: Harris is in favor of a “Medicare for All” system. In March, she tweeted: “No American should ever go bankrupt or be without health care in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. We need Medicare for All—and we need to fight for it.” She also took to social media in March to advocate for lower prescription drug prices, calling it “outrageous” that some Americans have to choose between medication and necessities like food.
- Amy Klobuchar: Klobuchar supports an expansion on Medicare, as well as improving Obamacare, but has focused much of her energy on prescription drugs. “As your president, I'll work for you,” she tweeted in March. “That means not kicking people off their insurance for preexisting conditions, lowering prescription drug prices, and universal coverage.”
- Beto O'Rourke: O'Rourke has retreated from his previous support of a single-payer health care system, saying in March that he was no longer sure it was the quickest way to achieve universal health care. Instead, he has championed the “Medicare for America” legislation in Congress that would open Medicare to everyone, but would allow businesses to continue offering private insurance as a benefit. “It complements what already exists with the need that we have for millions of Americans who do not have insurance and ensures that each of them can enroll in Medicare,” he said.
- Bernie Sanders: Sanders has based much of his campaign on his proposal to transition to a single-payer health care system that would provide universal insurance coverage where Americans would be required to pay nothing out of pocket for medical care. The plan would prevent employers from offering separate competing insurance plans and would include a long-term care benefit for people with disabilities. Sanders has proposed that the new system would be paid for by new income taxes on both employees and employers.
- Elizabeth Warren: In March, Warren introduced the Consumer Health Insurance Protection Act, which does not suggest a single-payer system, but instead proposes making insurance within Obamacare more affordable by increasing federal subsidies. The plan would also cap insurance premiums at no more than 8.5% of a person's income and provide more funding for the Affordable Care Act outreach and enrollment efforts. Warren also remains a co-sponsor of Sanders' “Medicare for All” bill.
- Andrew Yang: Yang has promoted a “Medicare for All” health care system, claiming it would raise the quality of life and increase access to preventive care. He has proposed directly setting prices for medical services so that doctors would be paid a flat salary, as well as providing holistic approaches to health care. “By providing holistic health care to all our citizens, we'll drastically increase the average quality of life, extend life expectancy, and treat issues that often go untreated,” he says on his campaign website.



























