{"id":1311947,"date":"2019-06-29T21:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T03:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/polman-column-uh-oh-elizabeth-warren-wants-to-abolish-private-health-insurance\/"},"modified":"2019-06-29T21:00:01","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T03:00:01","slug":"polman-column-uh-oh-elizabeth-warren-wants-to-abolish-private-health-insurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/polman-column-uh-oh-elizabeth-warren-wants-to-abolish-private-health-insurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Polman column: Uh oh, Elizabeth Warren wants to abolish private health insurance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Is it possible to pluck one newsworthy moment from Wednesday night\u2019s cacophonous 10-contestant Democratic quiz show? You bet. Here we go:<\/p>\n

Moderator Lester Holt asked, \u201cWho here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan? Just a show of hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Warren raised hers.<\/p>\n

Uh oh. Warren is a solidly top-tier candidate, with a decent shot at winning the nomination, but, politically speaking, I seriously question whether someone who wants to abolish the private health care of 180 million Americans can actually win a general election.<\/p>\n

Warren was the sole candidate on stage who\u2019s polling in double digits, crowding Bernie Sanders for second place behind Joe Biden. Her words counted the most. She was also the sole person on stage (except for one-percent candidate Bill de Blasio) who called for the abolition of private health insurance \u2013 a stance she hadn\u2019t articulated on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the business model of an insurance company. It\u2019s to bring in as many dollars as they can in premiums and to pay out as few dollars as possible for your health care. That leaves families with rising premiums, rising co-pays, and fighting with insurance companies to try to get the health care that their doctors say that they and their children need. \u2018Medicare for all\u2019 solves that problem,\u201d Warren said.<\/p>\n

Her stance may enhance her nomination prospects,within a party that has moved leftward since 2016. Most grassroots Democrats likely won\u2019t fault her critique of the private insurance companies, and lots of centrist swing voters with private coverage have their own complaints about the status quo system.<\/p>\n

But in politics, you don\u2019t necessarily win awards for great intentions, or for articulating the most rational arguments. Warren conceded that there are \u201cpolitical reasons\u201d for not supporting government health care, but she didn\u2019t say what they are.<\/p>\n

So I will.<\/p>\n

A landslide majority of Americans like their private health coverage, and they don\u2019t want it taken away. Indeed, voters in general don\u2019t like it when politicians try to take something away.<\/p>\n

Granted, most Americans reportedly support the nebulous concept of \u201cMedicare for all,\u201d but as soon as they\u2019re confronted with caveats, it\u2019s a different story. According to the nonpartisan Kaiser Tracking Poll, \u201cMedicare for all\u201d gets a thumbs-up rating, 56 to 42 percent. But when Americans are told that the program could eliminate private health insurance \u2013 as Bernie Sanders\u2019 agenda envisions, phasing out private coverage within four years \u2013 most people run for the hills. The numbers are suddenly reversed: 37 percent yes, 58 percent no.<\/p>\n

Imagine what Trump and the Republicans would do with that, if Warren or Sanders were nominated. And on this issue, they wouldn\u2019t even need to lie. Warren is confident about her powers of persuasion, but it\u2019s hard to foresee her winning the argument for government health care. Fairly or not, \u201csocialism\u201d is a word that\u2019s easy to demagogue, and Americans (especially those 45 and older, the most reliable voters) simply don\u2019t like the word. They may be blind to the socialistic initiatives that they\u2019ve long enjoyed (from Social Security to the interstate highway system), but that\u2019s just political reality. Which is why candidate Kamala Harris has walked back her early support for abolishing private health insurance.<\/p>\n

Amy Klobuchar, who has gotten little traction in the race thus far, said on stage Wednesday night: \u201cI am just simply concerned about kicking half of America off of their health insurance in four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Trump campaign and the GOP, that\u2019s the perfect video clip \u2013 an acknowledgment, from a Democrat, that Warren would imperil \u201chalf of America.\u201d And Joe Biden\u2019s campaign is drawing a sharp contrast with Warren, endorsing the more incremental approach to health reform. In a statement, it said: \u201cThe Biden administration will give every American the right to choose a public option like Medicare.\u201d (Clever use of \u201cright to choose.\u201d)<\/p>\n

So we did get some clarity last night, at least on the top-tier issue of health care: government coverage versus incremental reform. Should the Democrats go boldly leftward, or practice prudent moderation?<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Warren wowed the liberal base, but she may have teed up the GOP\u2019s top attack ad and rendered herself less electable.<\/p>\n

Dick Polman can be reached at dickpolman7@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it possible to pluck one newsworthy moment from Wednesday night\u2019s cacophonous 10-contestant Democratic quiz show? You bet. Here we go: Moderator Lester Holt asked, \u201cWho here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan? Just a show of hands.\u201d Elizabeth Warren raised hers. Uh oh. Warren is a solidly top-tier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 20:29:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}