Democratic 2020 Candidates Inch Away From Medicare for All

In April, many of the top Democratic presidential candidates eagerly lined up to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill — a vast restructuring of the U.S. health-care system that would go far beyond Obamacare.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with Representatives Tim Ryan and Tulsi Gabbard, all co-sponsored the bill with an eye toward the upcoming presidential primaries.

“It was a recognition that the center of gravity in the party has moved in a much more progressive direction,” said Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to the Sanders campaign. “Many candidates wanted to position themselves with the vast majority of Democratic primary voters by supporting real Medicare for All.”

But as this week’s Democratic debates in Detroit illustrated, many of those initial co-sponsors, fearful of blowback from voters — particularly those who have satisfactory private health insurance they’re reluctant to give up for something unknown, as they would have to under Sanders’s plan — have begun backing away.