Warren Admits Universal Medicare Would Result in Two Million Lost Jobs
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) agreed on Wednesday with an assessment that a “medicare for all” plan would eliminate roughly two million jobs.
Warren was speaking during an interview at New Hampshire Public Radio.
“An economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told Kaiser Health News earlier this year that that could result in about 2 million jobs lost,” mostly within the healthcare industry, said NHPR reporter Casey McDermott.
“So I agree,” Warren replied. “I think this is part of the cost issue and should be part of a cost plan.”
The economist cited by McDermott, Robert Pollin of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, had stated politicians who want to set up a “medicare for all” system would need a plan for how to treat those who would lose their jobs.
Warren previously said she hasn’t nailed down the specifics of her medicare proposal. The Senator has vacillated between endorsing Bernie Sanders’s plan and calling it a “framework,” whose details she plans to fill out.
In the Wednesday interview, McDermott asked Warren when prospective voters would be able to see her full medicare proposal.
“Soon,” Warren answered. She also declined to specify whether the plan would raise taxes on middle class workers.
“We will see most likely rich people’s costs go up, corporations costs go up, but the costs to middle class families will go down,” Warren asserted. “I will not sign any legislation into law for which costs for middle class families do not go down.”
Sanders on Tuesday also declined to provide specific details as to how he would pay for his universal medicare plan.
“”You’re asking me to come up with an exact detailed plan of how every American — how much you’re going to pay more in taxes, how much I’m going to pay,” Sanders told CNBC. “I don’t think I have to do that right now.”
