Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren appeared to change her stance on single payer health care Monday, also known as “medicare for all,” when she dodged a question on the subject at a campaign event.
Warren did not confidently show her support on single payer when asked a question on the issue at an East Boston Neighborhood Health Center where she was campaigning for Senate. “I think of this as less about politics and more about values,” she said. “We are all part of the human family, and health care is a basic human right … As Democrats, we need to keep talking about our values.”
Just a month prior, Warren confidently said she wanted the Democratic party to run on single payer for the 2018 and 2020 elections, in an interview in her Senate office. That was after Warren refused to back single-payer in her 2012 Senate run.
“President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts,” she said. “Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer.”
Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, a known opponent of the single-payer system, sponsored an amendment to the Senate Obamacare repeal bill that would institute a single-payer system in late July, a move meant to tempt Democrats into exposing a policy split in their party. (RELATED: Senate Votes Against ‘Single-Payer’ Amendment)
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Warren and her staffers specifically about her stance on single payer but did not receive a statement in time for publication.
Warren’s uncertainty on the Obama mandated issue could cause concern from voters who are in support of medicare and single payer healthcare.