Feel the Bern: Union worker would 'absolutely' lose plan

FPI / August 20, 2019

During campaign stops in Iowa on Aug. 19, which included a visit to the Field of Dreams baseball facility in Dyersville, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed to “go the distance” on “Medicare For All”, even if it means taking away union workers’ health plans.

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate told a union worker that he would “absolutely” take away his union’s right to bargain for health care plans.

“Okay. All right, Somebody tell me why I’m crazy,” Sanders said.

Sanders: “I want to be frank I don’t want to…oh I guess the guy could tell me why I’m crazy. All right, there’s a Cubs fan…”

Union worker: “Wouldn’t the Medicare health care plan … wouldn’t that take away our right to bargain for our — our medical benefits?”

Sanders: “Yeah, absolutely it would. It’s not a bad thing.”

“In making it happen, I’m not just talking about this campaign. I’m talking about transforming America,” Sanders said.

“If we have the courage to think big, if we have the courage to take on the greed of the powerful special interests who dominate our economic and political life … If we stand together for a common purpose, we can fulfill that dream,” the millionaire Sanders said.

Sanders has also proposed that illegal immigrants be included in his Medicare For All plan.

“When I talk about health care being a human right, last time I heard that undocumented people are human beings as well,” he said in June.

Medicare For All has become a key issue in the race for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination.

California Sen. Kamala Harris initially supported a Sanders-style universal health care program, but recently backtracked, telling a group of wealthy donors that she has “not been comfortable” with Sanders’ health care plan.

During a campaign visit to a nursing home earlier this month, Harris was confronted by an elderly woman who implored the Democratic candidate to “leave our health-care system alone.”

Woman: “Can I ask you a question?”

Harris: “Yes, of course.”

Woman: “I understand that you are advocating health care for everyone.”

Harris: “Yes, ma’am.”

Woman: “Who’s going to pay for it?”

Harris: “Well, we’re gonna pay for it because, right now, let me tell you something, we’re all paying for health care and it’s in the emergency room.”

Woman: “No we’re not. No we’re not. Leave our health-care system alone. We don’t want you to mess with it.”

Harris: “Okay, I don’t intend to mess with it.”

The Federalist’s Chrissy Clark noted that Harris “lied right to the woman’s face” when she said “I don’t intend to mess with” Americans’ health care.

Harris’s “twist on socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan would disadvantage private health insurance and ultimately lead to its demise, as analyst Chris Jacobs explained,” Clark wrote. “The proposal would dramatically change U.S. health care.”

After the second round of Democratic debates, Harris’s polling numbers slipped. She had been polling near the top of the field at 17 percent in June but has dropped to 5 percent, the most recent CNN poll shows.

Sanders is among the frontrunners but still trails Joe Biden, the CNN poll shows. Biden is at 29 percent, Sanders 15 percent and Sen. Elizabeth Warren 14 percent.

Free Press International