Ocasio-Cortez Suggests Presidential Hopeful Delaney 'Sashay Away' After Saying Medicare-For-All 'Not Good Policy'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday took to social media to suggest former Maryland representative and presidential hopeful John Delaney “sashay away” after making comments at the California Democratic Convention in San Francisco over the weekend that Medicare-for-all was “not good policy.”

Delaney was booed during his comments at the convention when he raised concerns that an abrupt transition to Medicare-for-all would kick off 150 million Americans from their current insurance. He added the plan may sound good but “it’s actually not good policy, nor good politics.”

Many of the frontrunners for the Democratic presidential nomination support a single-payer universal health care program, and Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Kristen Gillibrand have promoted a phased-in approach that leaves room for private insurance companies to play a role in the system. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has proposed dropping the age for eligibility for Medicare by five years, though has shied away from the more strident position of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, who has made single-payer healthcare a signature issue in the both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

Medicare-for-all is one plan for a switch to universal health care that would put the government in charge of most health benefits. Until 2013 when the major coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act went into effect, non-elderly Americans were uninsured. In 2016, that total dropped to 27 million, but recent congressional efforts to make receiving benefits contingent on work added about 700,000 to the uninsured rolls in 2017, the first uptick since ACA went into effect.

Universal health care is commonplace throughout Europe and in other developed countries. Delaney attempted to clarify his position during the convention speech.

“We should have universal health care,” he said. “We should have universal health care,” he repeated. “We should have universal health care, but it shouldn’t be a kind of health care that kicks 150 million Americans off their health care. That’s not smart policy.”

The debate continued Monday on social media after a Hill-HarrisX poll showed only 13% of respondents preferred a health care system that covered all Americans and didn’t allow the option of private plans. Thirty-two percent of respondents preferred a government system that allowed for the purchase of supplemental private insurance.