ATLANTA — Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana on Wednesday made the case that his Medicare opt-in proposal would help unify the country without the “divisive” step of ordering people to accept government-run insurance.
“That is something that as a governing strategy we can unify the American people around,” Mr. Buttigieg said at the Democratic presidential debate in Atlanta.
Mr. Buttigieg has warned that the “Medicare-for-All” health care vision of Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernard Sanders of Vermont would be too big of a shock to the system.
“I believe that commanding people to accept that option, whether we wait three years as Sen. Warren has proposed or whether you do it right out of the gate, is not the right approach to unify the American people around a very, very big transformation that we now have an opportunity to deliver,” he said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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