Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont on Tuesday said that his “Medicare for All” plan will create more jobs in health care than it will end up costing.
“We have built in a very generous transition period,” Mr. Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said on “PBS Newshour.”
“At the end of the day, Medicare for All will create more jobs in health care than we will lose, because when you open the doors to health care for all Americans, we’re going to need more practitioners, more people providing health care, not just filling out forms and having a massive bureaucracy,” he said.
Mr. Sanders has acknowledged that there will be some job loss under his plan, which effectively does away with private health insurance except for a limited number of services. He has talked about a transition period to provide job training for people in the industry who could be affected.
He said “the vast majority of people in the Democratic primaries” absolutely support Medicare for All.
“And my own view is that, after 100 years of talk in this country about the need to guarantee health care for all, now is the time to take on the greed and corruption of the drug companies and the insurance companies, expand Medicare and provide a Medicare for All, single-payer system for all,” he said.
Several of Mr. Sanders’ rivals, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, have argued that a move to single-payer would be too big of a shock to the system.
Mr. Sanders has said Mr. Biden isn’t going to bring the kind of energy to the table that will be needed to defeat President Trump, but the senator said Tuesday that he will support any Democrat who wins the nomination.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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