BY JESSIE HELLMANN - 01/14/20
10:48 PM EST
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg tangled
over the costs associated with their health care proposals at Tuesday's
Democratic debate.
Warren,
who supports "Medicare for All," said Buttigieg's plan to create a
public option costs less because it's only a "small improvement" over
the current system.
"They're
improvements over where we are now but they are small improvements,"
Warren said. "That's why they cost so much less."
Medicare
for All would cover every American and replace private insurers, at a cost
of about $30 trillion over 10 years, according to some estimates.
Buttigieg's
campaign has said his plan, which would create a public option to compete with
private insurance, would cost $1.5 trillion over a decade.
"We've
got to move past the Washington mentality that suggests that the bigness of
plans only consists of how many trillions of dollars they put through the
Treasury," Buttigieg said Tuesday.
Warren
has talked less about Medicare for All on the campaign trail amid
declining poll numbers.
While
she defended the cost of her health plan during Tuesday's debate, she shifted
the conversation toward defending and building on the 2010 Affordable Care Act
and lowering the costs of prescription drugs.
"I
have a plan to expand health care. But let's keep in mind when it comes to the
general election, we Democrats are up against a Republican incumbent who has
cut health care. I'll take our side of the argument any day," she said.
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