Bernie Sanders Takes Aim at Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All Plan
Bernie Sanders Takes Aim at Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All Plan
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that his plan to finance Medicare for All is
"much more progressive" than the pay-for released last week by his 2020
Democratic presidential rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who called for a head
tax on employers and new levies on the wealthy as key parts of her proposal
to fund a comprehensive single-payer system.
In an interview with ABC News, Sanders warned Warren's proposed head
tax-which she terms an "employer Medicare contribution"-could harm workers'
wages and suppress job growth.
"I think that that would probably have a very negative impact on creating
those jobs, or providing wages, increased wages and benefits for those
workers," Sanders said. "So I think we have a better way, which is a 7.5%
payroll tax, which is far more I think progressive, because it'll not impact
employers of low-wage workers but hit significantly employers of
upper-income people."
"The function of healthcare is to provide healthcare to all people, not to
make $100 billion in profits for the insurance companies and the drug
companies," said the Vermont senator. "So, Elizabeth Warren and I agree on
that. We do disagree on how you fund it. I think the approach that [I] have,
in fact, will be much more progressive in terms of protecting the financial
well-being of middle income families."
In a white paper (pdf) released in April after the introduction of the
Medicare for All Act of 2019 in the Senate, Sanders proposed a 7.5% payroll
tax on employers that would exempt the first $2 million in payroll "to
protect small businesses."
On Friday, Matt Bruenig of the left-wing People's Policy Project think tank
similarly argued that a payroll tax would be significantly more progressive
than Warren's proposed head tax.
"Under the 8 percent employer-side payroll tax, the employer taxes paid for
a worker earning $15,000 per year is $1,200, while the employer taxes paid
for a worker earning $200,000 per year is $16,000," Bruenig wrote. "Under
the $9,500 employer-side head tax, the employer taxes paid is $9,500 for
both workers."
Sanders' remarks to ABC were his first public comments on Warren's
9,000-word proposal. The Vermont senator said he spoke to Warren on the
phone after she released her plan last Friday.
Asked about Sanders' criticism of her plan, Warren said Sunday that "Bernie
may have a different vision of how to pay for it, but let's be really clear:
Bernie and I are headed in exactly the same direction."
"And that is the $11 trillion that families are going to pay over the next
10 years in out-of-pocket medical costs will go away," said the
Massachusetts senator. "Bernie and I, we're out there for strengthening
America's middle class. I love it."
Jake Johnson / Common Dreams
