Progressives Support Shoring Up ACA Before Tackling Medicare For All [View all]

[Power 2 the People]

“I’m happy to support any provision that strengthens the ACA and plug some of the gaps that we’re seeing, particularly as it’s under assault by the president,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told HuffPost on Wednesday. “I think it’s part of a longer-term vision, at least for me, towards guaranteeing ― truly guaranteeing ― health care for all Americans.”

No less than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose 2016 primary campaign arguably mainstreamed Medicare for All among Democrats, also backed the idea of Congress shoring up the ACA rather than focusing all its energies on enacting single-payer.

Other progressives ― like the lead author of a yet-to-be-released Medicare for All bill, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) ― said Wednesday that it wasn’t “contradictory in any way” to support strengthening the ACA while still pushing for a transformation of the health care system to universal coverage.

“I told the speaker ― and I said in caucus yesterday ― we are completely united, as I’ve said for a while, on shoring up the ACA. Like, that cannot wait,” Jayapal said.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-aca-democrats-array-ocasio-cortez-health-care-medicare_n_5c9bc9f9e4b072a7f603a718