Center for American Progress CEO says Dems will have debate on single-payer health care ahead of 2020

Neera Tanden, the CEO of the Center for American Progress, said in an interview that aired Thursday on “Rising” that she expects Democrats will have a debate over single-payer health care ahead of the 2020 presidential elections. 

“I think the Democratic Party is actually unified around universal health care, and believing that universal health care is what we should have in the United States,” Tanden told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on Wednesday.

“There’s a wide variety of views on that. There’s a lot of people who support single-payer. I don’t think single-payer has been a really important issue, at least on the Democratic side, in the congressional races. I know Republicans are really attacking on that issue, but it’s not really an issue that candidates are talking about,” she said. “A lot of them have opposed single-payer. A lot of congressional candidates throughout the country have opposed single-payer.”

“I think we’ll have a rich presidential debate, which we should probably try to have after the midterms instead of before…but I think there will be a debate in 2020 about what the best to get to a system where every single person has health care,” she said. 

Tanden’s comments come less than a week before the midterm elections. 

Democrats have worked to make health care a central issue on the campaign, especially so-called “Medicare for all.” 

Republicans have attacked the idea while at the same time trying to fend off Democratic attacks over GOP votes to repeal ObamaCare. 

— Julia Manchester