Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday she is co-sponsoring Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) “Medicare for All bill,” the latest Democrat to back a signature Sanders campaign issue.
“I believe it’s time to take a step back and ask: what is the best way to deliver high quality, low cost health care to all Americans?” Warren, often considered a potential presidential candidate in 2020, said in a statement Thursday.
“Everything should be on the table — and that’s why I’m co-sponsoring Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill that will be introduced later this month.”
{mosads}Warren joins Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and even more moderate Senators like Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who this week said that the idea deserves attention.
Warren said Sanders’s plan is a way for every person in the country to have access to high-quality health care.
“Everyone is covered,” she said. “Nobody goes broke paying a medical bill. Families don’t have to bear the costs of heartbreaking medical disasters on their own.”
Warren called health care a basic human right, adding that it’s “time to fight for it.”
She touted the accomplishments of ObamaCare, saying former President Barack Obama “deserves tremendous credit.”
“But there’s so much more we could do right now to bring down the costs of quality health care for every American,” she wrote.
Last month, Harris announced during a town hall her support behind Sanders’s “Medicare for All” bill.
“I intend to co-sponsor the ‘Medicare for All’ bill because it’s just the right thing to do,” Harris, another potential Democratic presidential hopeful, announced Wednesday at a town hall in Oakland.
“It’s not just about what is morally and ethically right, it also makes sense just from a fiscal standpoint,” she said.