Sanders interrupted by union protesters against ‘Medicare for all’

By | December 10, 2019

LAS VEGAS — Bernie Sanders’s pitch on “Medicare for all” was partially drowned out by protesters during a speech at a union event.

On Tuesday, after the Vermont senator, 77, received a question from a Frontier Communications employee about if his plan would change her healthcare coverage, members of the audience began cheering and clapping in support. In the middle of his response, roughly a dozen members of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 began chanting “union healthcare, union healthcare” in protest.

“How are you gonna pay for it?” yelled one man.

The interruption lasted about 20 seconds before other members of the audience began shushing the protesters. Shortly after, Sanders ended his remarks, and the Culinary Union president, Ted Pappageorge, scolded those who spoke out.

“We’re gonna let candidates speak without any kind of heckling. If you want to heckle, go outside and heckle. We want to learn. The town halls are to learn. Frankly not to learn from the hecklers, but the candidates,” he said. “Second, I want to be very clear to everybody, this union stands very strongly that every American deserves to have good, quality healthcare. It’s a right, it should never be a privilege in this country.”

The episode reflects uneasiness that some in the Democratic coalition have with the notion of “Medicare for all,” which would effectively end private health insurance in favor of a government program. Another top-tier 2020 Democrat, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has seen her polling support drop precipitously since she began pushing “Medicare for all” over the summer.

In the past, Sanders has avoided citing his support for a government-run healthcare system at union events. During his remarks at an AFL-CIO convention in Iowa last August, Sanders omitted his healthcare plan entirely.

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Many unions, such as the International Association of Firefighters, which has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, has called backing of “Medicare for all” a nonstarter. A central feature of the vice president’s campaign has been attacking Sanders and Warren over their positions on healthcare, saying their plans would take away a benefit that unions have fought decades to secure.

“You’ll be able to keep your negotiated plans,” Biden said to a group of union members in August. “You’ve worked like hell, you gave up wages for it.”

Healthcare