Biden continues  opposing  single-payer health system

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, told MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian  on Monday, March 30 that he did not believe the U.S. needs a single-payer healthcare system, even in the face of the coronavirus outbreak that has already killed over 3,000 people in the country.

“Are you now reconsidering your position when it comes to single-payer healthcare?” asked Vossoughian.

“Single-payer will not solve that at all,” Biden replied, referring to the strained U.S. healthcare system.

The former vice president’s rejection of Medicare for All in the midst of a global pandemic was not lost on observers  reports Common Dreams

Biden’s remaining rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders has made his outspoken support for Medicare for All a central plank of his campaign.

“This is a losing politics,” tweeted The Nation literary editor David Marcus. “In almost every state that’s held a primary so far, including those Biden has won, exit polls show a majority of Democrats prefer single-payer.”

The question of whether the U.S. would be better suited to handle the crisis with a Medicare for All system has persisted throughout the coronavirus outbreak, which is expected to get worse and peak in the coming weeks and months. Progressives mourned a California teen who died last week, likely from the coronavirus, after being turned away from a hospital for a lack of insurance and questioned the viability and morality of a healthcare system where something like that could happen during a raging pandemic.

CNBC reported: The coronavirus pandemic is likely to kick millions of Americans off their health insurance as the disease’s economic toll sweeps through the nation.

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