South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday that his plan to provide “Medicare for all who want it… will be a better option” than Medicare for all or private health care.
"You're going to see, in addition to the national conversations that I'm having in places like the Democratic candidate debates, you're going to see me on the ground, here in Iowa, directly making the case to voters," Buttigieg told CBS while campaigning in Iowa.
"'Medicare for All Who Want It' means we take a version of Medicare and we make it available for every American. I believe that this will be a better option than any of the private plans out there. I also believe Americans ought to be able to decide for themselves," Buttigieg said.
"I think that it's going to lead toward everybody, or almost everybody opting into that public plan, but you're not required to. So the important thing to me is not whether or not the government's the main insurer. The important thing to me is that everybody get care,” he added.
The mayor, who is 37, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and openly gay, added that he thinks voters are looking for a different kind of person than President Donald Trump to lead the country.
"I think people are not only looking not only for a set of policies but for a kind of leader that is going to lead us in a very, very different place than this current president is. And this is my opportunity to show, as well as tell, what kind of leader I would be for the American people," he said.
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