Joe Biden's campaign is dismissing as "mathematical gymnastics" Elizabeth Warren's promise of financing a single-payer government insurance system without a middle-class tax hike.
A top Biden presidential campaign deputy said Warren's plan understates the cost and overstates savings while obscuring the costs to the middle class.
Kate Bedingfield on Friday dismissed Warren's idea of having employers transfer to the government almost all of the $8.8 trillion she estimates will be spent on private insurance for employees. Bedingfield argues that's a "sleight of hand."
Health care is perhaps the starkest policy difference between Warren and Biden. The former vice president backs a "public option" plan that would introduce a government insurance option to compete alongside private insurers.
Biden and other more moderate Democrats point to a public option's lower cost and say it allows Americans more choice.
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