Joe Biden sought to distance himself from some of the more liberal policies espoused by fellow Democrats, including a single Medicare for All health care system — and said he would bring back the individual mandate.
“I have a plan [on] how to do that that’s rational, that will cost a hell of a lot less and that will work,” the Democratic presidential front-runner said in an interview on CNN.
The former vice president blasted Medicare for All, the liberal-backed plan that would mandate Medicare as the single-payer system for all Americans.
He also said he would bring back the individual mandate, the penalty for not having insurance in the Affordable Care Act. The mandate was the main target of Republicans in their efforts to repeal the ACA, commonly known as ObamaCare.
The individual mandate would be popular now “compared to what’s being offered,” added Biden, who played an integral part in crafting ObamaCare.
The GOP tax bill, which was signed by President Trump in 2017, eliminated the mandate.
Biden has talked about health care on the trail — but has yet to announce a formal plan.
But several of his Democratic opponents — including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — have embraced Medicare for All.
Biden said he would not abolish private insurance but would offer Medicare as “an option for anybody who in fact wants to buy into Medicare for All.”
“But if they like their employer-based insurance, which a lot of unions broke their neck to get, a lot of people like theirs, they shouldn’t have to give it up,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
Biden added that if Medicare for All were to pass, the US would “have 300 million people landing on a health care plan. How long is that going to take? What’s it going to do?”
Biden also addressed a moment in last week’s presidential debate when he and the other nine Democrats raised their hands when asked if undocumented immigrants should have government-subsidized health care.
“I think undocumented people need to have a means by which they can be covered when they’re sick,” he said. “That’s what I think we should be doing, by building more clinics around the country, not just for undocumented but for other people. When they’re ill, when they’re sick, it’s just common decency.”
Cuomo said the idea is unpopular, which Biden acknowledged.
“In an emergency, they should have health care,” Biden said. “Everybody should. Anybody here in the country. How do you say, ‘You’re undocumented, I’m going to let you die, man’?”
ObamaCare largely excluded the undocumented from buying into US health care programs.
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