WASHINGTON — For Elizabeth Warren, it was supposed to be one more big idea in a campaign built around them: a promise that everyone could get government-funded health care, following the lead of her friend and fellow White House hopeful Bernie Sanders. Instead, “Medicare for All” is posing one of the biggest challenges to the Massachusetts senator’s candidacy.
Persistent questions about whether she would raise taxes on the middle class to pay for universal health coverage have dominated her campaign in recent weeks. Warren has refused to answer, arguing that it’s more important to note that overall costs would fall for nearly everyone but large corporations and the wealthy.
That hasn’t quelled the criticism and, recognizing the push for specifics isn’t going away, Warren is promising to soon unveil details about how she would cover the costs of what would be a massive new federal entitlement. The release will test Warren’s ability to navigate the Democratic primary as she balances the demands of progressives who are open to new taxes against skepticism from moderates who say such levies would doom her in a general election.
“She’s trying to thread the needle between the electorate that wants a simple answer and the facts that she knows and that she has to live with at some point down the road,” said Jim McDermott, a former Democratic congressman from Washington state who spent most of his career trying to move a “single-payer” plan.
With the first votes just over three months away, Warren could leave many disappointed.
If she aligns with Sanders, who acknowledges taxes will have to go up, she could further alarm Democrats worried she’s pushing the party too far to the left. If she doesn’t, that could alienate progressives who may accuse her plan of not going far enough. And any combination of the two might leave virtually everyone else still confused — wondering how to make the program’s eye-popping math work.
That Warren is having to address health care questions on such starkly political terms may recall another, early campaign test she flunked: releasing the results of a DNA test last fall. Meant to quiet critics who questioned her past claims to Native American heritage, the move angered tribal leaders and energized critics like President Donald Trump who still gleefully deride Warren as “Pocahontas.”
Warren says that, far from having boxed herself in politically, she’s been working on her health care plan for months and still sees it as a winning issue. Her campaign has consulted experts, is reviewing Sanders’ funding options on universal coverage going back to his 2016 presidential run and says it will always stay true to Warren’s promises that health care costs rise for the rich and big firms while falling for “hard-working families.”
One expert Warren’s team has consulted is Robert Pollin, a University of Massachusetts Amherst economist who supports Medicare for All and has called for partially helping to pay for it using a sales tax.
“We should all pay something,” said Pollin, who is a past donor to both Warren and Sanders but declined to discuss the specifics of his conversations with Warren’s campaign. “You’re going to get health care with no premiums, no deductibles, no fear of bankruptcy if you have a health emergency.”
Warren has refused to commit to the idea of everyone paying a little. But presenting the payment specifics she’s promised means necessarily grappling with the possibility of higher overall costs for the program, since making health care free for the patient would encourage people to use more services.
