by Evie Fordham
Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow appeared to show support for a single-payer health care system, in a video that surfaced Sunday.
“There’s no way it is going to go anywhere with Republicans in office, so let’s get in office,” the senator responded when an unknown individual asked Stabenow about supporting a single-payer bill.
Stabenow’s campaign webpage on health care mentions lowering prescription drug prices, women’s reproductive rights and support for a universal, but not single-payer, health care system.
“Sen. Stabenow supports a government takeover of health care that would cost $2 trillion dollars per year and add trillions to the national debt,” Stabenow’s GOP challenger John James said in a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Stabenow wants to impose a single-payer, government-run system that would hurt Michigan families and stifle economic growth.”
James’ campaign website focuses on giving families “choice” when it comes to health care.
TheDCNF reached out to Stabenow’s office but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Stabenow has called attention to her health care record throughout her campaign, but the James campaign dinged her for spreading the false claim that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it” during the early days of the fight to pass the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
“I’m very pleased that we are working on an approach that would give people choice allow people to keep their insurance if they wish to,” Stabenow said on the Senate floor in 2009. “We know that many people would say that they’re satisfied, that they like what they have, and I say ‘great’ to that. We want to make sure, number one, that people can keep what they have.”
Stabenow currently leads James in the polls by double digits, according to RealClearPolitics.
The idea of single-payer health care gained traction in the U.S. thanks to Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose “universal Medicare” plan would cost the country approximately $32 trillion over the next ten years, according to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Health care is a key topic for many U.S. voters this election cycle. Failed Michigan gubernatorial candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Shri Thanedar, who supported single-payer health care systems, lost the 2018 nomination to less progressive candidate Gretchen Whitmer, according to the Detroit Metro Times.
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Evie Fordham is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Evie on Twitter @eviefordham.
