Khanna on Cost Criticisms of ACA: ‘Private Health Insurance Is What’s Bankrupting America’, Need Medicare for All

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) responded to arguments that the Affordable Care Act hasn’t worked by saying that “private health insurance is what’s bankrupting America.”

Host Maria Bartiromo asked, “I wonder what your answer to the cost of healthcare is, because, right now, we’re looking at 2026 and the midterm elections, and, of course, President Trump talks a lot about how the Democrats are messaging affordability. What do you want to say to those who are critical of the Democrats who say, you’re talking about affordability, it was, in fact, your plan, Obamacare, which bankrupted businesses and continues to be incredibly expensive, the high cost of the Democrats’ healthcare plan did not work?”

Khanna responded, “That’s just not true, look, private health insurance is what’s bankrupting America. It was happening before the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act helped slow the growth of private insurance, but, of course, it’s not the solution. The solution, as everyone knows, in my view, who’s studied this, is Medicare for all, people should have national health insurance, healthcare is a human right, you should not be subject to these private insurance companies that have 18% administrative costs, that are making billions of dollars of profits, whose executives are making millions of dollars, they’re hurting our manufacturing, it’s one of the reasons jobs are offshored, they’re hurting workers’ pay going up, they’re sucking out money from our economy, and they’re denying people care. Even on the MAGA right have recognized that the system is not working, the system is broken, it’s time to get Medicare for all in this country.”

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