House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Friday said she is “not a big fan of Medicare-for-all” — but a resurfaced clip from a 1993 news conference showed her advocating for a single-payer health care system.
In a Friday interview with Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Pelosi said she supported the idea of universal health care, but she parted ways with multiple presidential candidates from her party who’ve called for plans that would eliminate private health insurance for Americans.
“I’m not a big fan of ‘Medicare-for-all,’” she said. “I welcome the debate. I think that we should have health care for all. I think that the Affordable Care benefit is better than the Medicare benefit,” she said, a reference to ObamaCare.
But, in 1993, Pelosi supported a proposal for a single-payer health system that went further than what the Clinton administration was offering at the time.
“I think the closer [President Clinton] moves toward the single-payer [model], the better,” Pelosi said, while surrounded by other lawmakers, including then-Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
“As I’ve said before, I hope that this plan — when I say ‘hope,’ I mean I will join with my colleagues here to see that the plan that the Congress passes contains as many of the provisions of single-payer as possible, that it does not foreclose on an eventual single-payer, and that it does not throw up obstacles to states easily establishing their own single-payer,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi’s Friday comments came as the presidential candidates from her party have debated whether to implement a single-payer system or a health plan that would let people keep their private insurance.
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Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have supported “Medicare-for-all” during the primary campaign. Fox News previously reported that Warren’s plan would cost roughly $52 trillion over the next decade.
Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
Fox News’ Ben Florance contributed to this report.
