Dean Phillips, an upstart challenger to Biden, embraces 'Medicare for all'

A longtime moderate, the Democratic congressman now claims to have been “convinced by propaganda” that calls for universal health care were “a absurd left-wing notion." As he mounts a long-shot challenge to President Biden, Rep. Dean Phillips says he had an epiphany about politics America's health care system.

Gone is his years-long skepticism about adopting a single-payer national health care system. Today, Mr. Phillips, a moderate Democrat from Minnesota, embraces the “Medicare for All” proposal championed in two presidential campaigns by Senator Bernie Sanders — whose former senior adviser now advises Mr. Phillips's campaign.

Mr. Phillips said in an interview Tuesday that he would join as a co-sponsor of a House proposal that would expand Medicare by creating a national health insurance program available to all Americans, a change that comes seven weeks after the start of a presidential campaign which has not yet been carried out. show significant progress in public polls.

“I was a good example of someone who had been convinced by propaganda that it was a left-wing notion absurd,” Mr. Phillips said. "It's not. It's really not. And I think that's part of my migration, if you will, a migration of understanding and due diligence and intellectual curiosity and, more importantly, d 'listen to people."

Passing the House bill is a low-stakes maneuver . With Republicans controlling the House, this is unlikely to come to a vote. Even when Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California was speaker, Democrats never voted on the Medicare for All proposals championed by their progressive caucus — largely because President Biden did not support such a move and that centrist Democrats thought it was also a bridge. far.

Mr. Phillips – who spoke in the videoconference interview, from an on-screen profile identifying him as a “generic Democrat” in a sly nod to the party’s better showing in the polls – said argues that his recent move on health care was not an effort to outflank Mr. Biden. of the left.

Instead, he said, he became convinced that expanding Medicare, the government insurance program for the elderly, to cover all Americans would end up saving the federal government money and is expected to attract support not only from progressives but also conservatives – including supporters of former President Donald J. Trump.

“This is in no way a Hail Mary,” Mr. Phillips said. “This is not a branch of olive tree for progressives. Do you know what this really is? It's an invitation to the Trumpers."

Mr. Biden campaign spokesperson, Kevin Munoz, declined to comment on Mr. Phillips.

Mr. Phillips, a businessman who got rich helping run the family distilling empire of alcohol and later helped build an ice cream giant, is a former chairman of the board of Allina Health, one of Minnesota's largest health systems. He said his beliefs began to change about 10 years ago, when his daughter Pia, then 13, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, and he saw "the gap between the haves and the poor. ="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In July 2020, as a first-term congressman, he passed a "state public option" that would allow Americans to enroll in Medicaid. More recently, he said, he consulted with Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is a major sponsor of...