By Jennifer
Earl | Fox News Published March 6
Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos weighed in on the hotly
debated "Medicare-for-all" bill — a sweeping
overhaul of the nation’s health care system — on Tuesday, shrugging
it off as just one idea.
Bustos, who was elected chairwoman of the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for the House of Representatives in
late November, said in an interview with The Hill on Wednesday that the estimated
$33 trillion price tag was "a little scary" and suggested there may
be alternative options.
“The Green New Deal is an idea. ‘Medicare-for-all’ is an idea.
But there are many others that are out there,” Bustos told the
publication.
"Medicare-for-all" would expand benefits beyond
what is already offered under former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care
Act. It would require significant tax increases since the government would
essentially take over premiums now paid by employers and individuals as it
replaces the private health insurance industry.
"The transition from what we
have now to Medicare for all, it’s just hard to conceive how that would
work."
— Cheri Bustos
“What do we have — 130 million-something Americans who get their
health insurance through their work? The transition from what we have now to
'Medicare-for-all,' it’s just hard to conceive how that would work. You have so
many jobs attached to the health care industry," Bustos commented.
On her campaign website, Bustos touts her previous career in the
health industry, working for "one of the nation’s largest
non-denominational, non-profit health care systems" to help families find
affordable coverage. She worked in the health field "before, during and
after the passage of the Affordable Care Act," her biography states.
A study released last summer by the Mercatus Center at
George Mason University estimated it would cost $32.6 trillion ($3.26
trillion per year) over 10 years. For comparison, the federal budget proposal
for the fiscal year 2019 was $4.4 trillion, the Congressional Budget
Office states.
However, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who first drafted the
proposal, has blasted the Mercatus Center's analysis as “grossly
misleading and biased."
More than 100 House Democrats including a handful of 2020 presidential hopefuls have already agreed
to co-sponsor the legislation — which is strongly opposed by
President Trump and the GOP — that would move the U.S. to
a virtual single-payer system.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has yet to endorse the
bill but indicated she would allow hearings on the legislation to
proceed. Bustos said she, too, would be open to holding discussions on
"Medicare-for-all" in the near future.
“The vast majority of Democrats in the U.S. House of
Representatives want to see us fix the Affordable Care Act and make it
functional ... so we can protect people with pre-existing conditions and so
people have affordable health care," she told The Hill.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed
to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cost-of-medicare-for-all-health-care-plan-is-a-little-scary-democratic-campaign-chief-says
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