2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang appeared Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” and defended his newly released healthcare plan.
Guest host Jonathan Karl began the conversation by saying that he was a “little bit confused” about where Yang stands on health care and played two of the presidential candidate’s campaign ads where Medicare for All is advertised.” The ABC host followed by stating that “I looked at your health care plan … This plan does not call for Medicare for All, in fact it doesn’t even have a public option. Why the dissident here?” (RELATED: ‘Our Message Is Too Important’: Andrew Yang Ends His MSNBC Boycott)
Yang defended his plan, saying, “We need to move towards universal health care that’s high quality and nearly cost free for Americans around the country. But reality is we have millions of Americans who are on private insurance right now and taking those plans away from them very quickly would be untenable for many, many Americans. To me the goal of the government has to be that we can demonstrate that we can out compete private companies and push them out of the market over time.”
Karl pushed back, saying, “but again, I’m confused, your ad is explicit. Your ad says Medicare for all, your plan is not Medicare for All, it’s not even Medicare for some because in your plan there’s not even a public option.”
The candidate responded by saying that his plan would expand a “universal health care system to all Americans.” He further explained that his health care plan would be “based on Medicare” and would expand over time to more Americans through lowering the eligibility age.