Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Monday he is still against a single-payer healthcare system. The comments come as he remains in a two-way race for the Democratic nomination and while many parts of the U.S. have battled a growing number of coronavirus cases.

“Single-payer will not solve that at all," Biden said in an interview with MSNBC. “The thing that is needed is, for example, we have a whole number of hospitals that are being stretched, including rural hospitals, they are going to need more financing. That doesn’t come from a single-payer system.

“That comes from the federal government stepping up and dealing with concerns that they have. The reimbursement they are going to get, how they’re going to be able to move forward.”

Biden’s Democratic rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has advocated a “Medicare-for-all” single-payer healthcare system, with every American covered by a public insurance plan. Currently, most Americans receive health insurance through their employer, which can be lost once an employee leaves their job.

“A Medicare-for-All system is designed to provide quality care for all,” Sanders said on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” late Monday. “To do preventative work in order to prepare for some types of pandemics, not simply to make huge amounts of money for the insurance companies and the drug companies.”

A national poll released in January by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation showed that most Americans support the idea of “Medicare for All” but the majority disapprove of the idea if it results in higher taxes or longer wait times for medical care.

Biden and Sanders are now only campaigning with digital events, as the coronavirus continues to spread. Biden, 77, and Sanders, 78, are in an at-risk age group for the virus, which doctors say can cause serious health complications for the elderly.

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