Over a decade before becoming the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed acknowledged that his vision for healthcare would require different costs for patients depending on wealth status.
"We're actually just going to give other people access to what you have and make yours more expensive. We're not asking you to lose access. We're just making yours more expensive. And not that much so, in fact. We're making it marginally more expensive," El-Sayed said in a 2011 appearance on the "Sense and Sustainability" podcast.
His resurfaced comments, made as part of a program on inequalities in healthcare, reveal El-Sayed's long-standing thinking behind his proposed policy changes.
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Fifteen years later, El-Sayed has made an expansion of healthcare in the U.S. a key part of his platform as he wages a bid to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.
In particular, he has championed Medicare-for-all, an expansion of the federal program that covers healthcare costs for U.S. citizens over the age of 65 and for some younger recipients with long-term disabilities.
El-Sayed's plan would expand public coverage for everyone, regardless of income, age or job.
"Medicare-for-all means no premium, no co-pay, no deductible. Doesn't matter if you get a job, lose a job, turn 26, turn 65, get married, get divorced - it is there for you," El-Sayed said in a post to X earlier this year.
Skeptics of the plan argue it is too expensive and does little to address existing inefficiencies in the American healthcare system.
In 2019, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., took to the Senate floor to blast the idea, calling it a straitjacket solution that would undermine health care quality.
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"The [Congressional Budget Office] projects in its report on a single-payer plan that government spending on health care would increase substantially. They go on to say to cover the massive cost of government-run care, income taxes would have to at least double. Income taxes, American families - at least double," Barrasso said.
"Mark my words, Medicare-for-all would soon become Medicare for none."
Despite its hefty price tag, in El-Sayed's view, the plan is key to ensuring equality of outcomes, even if individual patients are charged differently. He expounded on his design in the 2011 interview.
"We wouldn't necessarily be 'stealing from the rich to give to the poor' in the U.S. because the rich will always have the ability to pay for the care that they need," El-Sayed said.
"The argument would be that everyone's premiums would go up a little bit. But for the people who actually have premiums now, what they're losing in terms of the added costs on their health plans are more manageable to them than is the absolute lack of access to healthcare among the people that don't have it now."
El-Sayed argued that his vision would make costs only marginally more expensive for top earners.
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His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it could expand on the costs of El-Sayed's vision. Having cleared the Democratic primary in Michigan, El-Sayed will face Republican challenger Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in the state's Nov. 3 general election.
