In Joe Biden, the Health Care Industry Has Found Its Guy

A new survey conducted by a Biden-linked firm is workshopping Biden’s own attacks against Medicare for All. His campaign is part of a multifront corporate effort to defeat the policy.

Presidential Candidates Attend Polk County Democrats' Steak Fry In Des Moines

Democratic presidential candidate, former vice president Joe Biden speaks during the Democratic Polk County Steak Fry on September 21, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa.Joshua Lott / Getty


Since 2016, as Bernie Sanders has risen in national prominence and his Medicare for All proposal has gained increasing momentum, corporate America has been gearing up for a war over the policy. And now, as the health and pharmaceutical industries align themselves with Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, we have a clearer idea of what their battle plan will look like.

As Bloomberg first reported Monday, the neoliberal think-tank Third Way has been polling Americans to figure out which attacks will be most effective in a coming public relations campaign against the policy. The survey builds on documents leaked to the Intercept in 2018, detailing the contours of a planned campaign by the private health care sector to “change the conversation around Medicare for All” and prevent it from “becoming part of a national political party’s platform in 2020.”

While billing itself as a “national think tank that champions modern center-left ideas,” Third Way is a conduit for a panoply of corporate interests that campaigns against left-wing policies — in 2013, two of its highest-ranking officials wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed warning that “economic populism is a dead end for democrats.” One of those officials, Executive Vice President Jim Kessler, the former longtime aide of Wall Street’s favorite Democrat Chuck Schumer, has admitted the majority of Third Way’s financial support comes from Wall Street, which views the health insurance industry as a great investment. At least as far back as 2013, it was staffed with Republicans and fundraising from a variety of corporations, donations that the companies themselves sometimes listed as part of their lobbying budgets.

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