(CNSNews.com) – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told “Fox News Sunday” that he would “absolutely” support Medicare for all and did so when he was in Congress.
“Oh, absolutely,” Becerra said when asked whether he would personally support a Medicare for all health care plan like what Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has called for. “I've been a supporter of Medicare for all for the 24 years that I was in Congress. This year, as attorney general, I would fight for that if we had an opportunity to put that forward in the state of California, because I think what we do is we give people that certainty that they're going to able to access a doctor or a hospital.”
“The worst thing we used to have was situations were young families wouldn't know if they should take their children to the hospital because it can lead to personal bankruptcy. That ended with the Affordable Care Act. We can't go back to those days,” he said.
“And so, absolutely, when you give people access to Medicare and talk to seniors who have their Medicare who say keep your hands off my Medicare, I think it would have the same effect for most Americans if they knew they could depend on something like Medicare for themselves as well,” Becerra added.
Becerra led a coalition of 18 states and the District of Columbia in suing the Trump administration over the cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments that President Donald Trump ended recently. Becerra and his coalition is asking for an emergency ruling to keep the federal government from stopping the CSR payments.
“So, a federal court had ruled that the payments that actually I was talking about with Mick Mulvaney, the CSRs, these subsidies for health care payment, that they themselves were unlawful because they were never appropriated by the Congress. So, tell me about your lawsuit and how you expect to win it given that information?” Fox News host Dana Perino asked.
“So, that decision had been put on hold. The Obama administration first, now, the Trump administration are in court against that decision, and we have now states joined in that effort as well to try to keep not only that decision on hold but permanently on hold and to move forward with the Affordable Care Act, because millions of people depend on it,” Becerra said.
“Some 7 million will probably be affected if the Trump administration's efforts to kill the cost-sharing subsidy that people depend on to afford their deductibles and their copayments and their insurance are taken away,” he said.