Klobuchar knocks ‘Medicare-for-all’: ‘While Bernie wrote the bill, I read the bill’

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HOUSTON – Sen. Amy Klobuchar blasted "Medicare-for-all" as a “bad idea” during Thursday night’s 2020 Democratic presidential debate, accusing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders of leaving out an important caveat to the plan while making his pitch to voters.

“While Bernie wrote the bill, I read the bill,” Klobuchar, D-Minn., said. “And on Page 8 of the bill it says we will no longer have private insurance as we know it. And that means 149 million Americans will no longer be able to have their current insurance.”

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She added: “I don’t think that’s a bold idea. I think that’s a bad idea.”

Klobuchar went on to outline her plan for a public option, which she said is what former President Barack Obama worked for “from the beginning.”

“A public option,” she said, “a nonprofit choice.”

Klobuchar said her plan would cover millions more people than the current plan. “Now that is a bold idea,” she said.

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The first half of Thursday night’s debate featured the 10 candidates on the stage outlining their plans for health care, with the frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, challenging his rivals — especially Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who are touting a Medicare-for-all plan — to explain how they will pay for their proposals.

Candidates like Biden, Klobuchar and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg called for keeping private insurance as an option for those who prefer to keep their existing plans.