Elizabeth Warren Co-Sponsors Bernie Sanders’ ‘Medicare for All’ Bill

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is the second senator to publicly announce her endorsement for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for all” legislation. She joins Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who announced her intent to co-sponsor the legislation at a town hall last week.

In a blog post on her website, Warren writes:

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? 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. …

We owe a huge debt to President Obama. Because of the Affordable Care Act, health care coverage is better – more people can get the treatment they need and families are less vulnerable to the financial fallout from a serious illness or accident. Senate Democrats will keep doing everything we can to stop Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and the Republicans from rolling back these gains. They are too important for all of us.

But there’s so much more we could do right now to bring down the costs of quality health care for every American. We could start by ending health insurance company price gouging – ending high deductibles, surprise bills, and endless fights with insurance companies over coverage for critical medical procedures or out-of-pocket costs. We could also cut the cost of prescription drugs by importing drugs from Canada, where the same prescription can sometimes cost far less than in the US. Bipartisan improvements are possible – in fact, just a few weeks ago, President Trump signed my bill with Republican Chuck Grassley to make hearing aids more affordable by allowing certain hearing aids to be sold over the counter.

Medicare for All is one way that we can give every single person in the country access to high quality health care. Everyone is covered. Nobody goes broke paying a medical bill. Families don’t have to bear the costs of heartbreaking medical disasters on their own.

Sanders, a Vermont independent, celebrated Warren’s public announcement on Twitter. “The momentum is on our side,” he tweeted Thursday morning. “Let’s make health care a right.”

The news comes a week after Harris’ announcement and just one day after a moderate Democrat, Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, declared that single-payer health care deserves a “solid look.”

Warren has been vocal in her support for such legislation, calling it “the next step” in a June interview with The Wall Street Journal.

In her blog post, she urges anyone who supports the idea of Medicare for all to become a “citizen co-sponsor” of the incoming bill.

“There is something fundamentally wrong when one of the richest and most powerful countries on the planet can’t make sure that a person can afford to see a doctor when they’re sick,” Warren writes. “This isn’t any way to live.”