Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick co-sponsors Medicare For All bill, appealing to Democratic base

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick has signed on as a co-sponsor on the Medicare For All bill, taking a more solid stance on the idea than she did last year on the campaign trail in Arizona's centrist 2nd Congressional District.

Medicare For All is a progressive initiative championed by liberal-leaning Democrats and opposed by Republicans.

Kirkpatrick, a Democrat who previously represented Arizona’s moderate 1st Congressional District from 2009 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2017, said during the 2018 campaign that she could not support Medicare For All because Congress had not nailed down a way to fund it.

Kirkpatrick said she opposed the idea of taxpayer funding for health care, as opposed to corporations providing options for their employees. Her 2018 congressional campaign called Medicare an earned benefit, not an entitlement. But she also opposed the GOP push for a Medicare voucher system.

Kirkpatrick won her 2018 race and now represents southern Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, which, like her previous district, is one of the more politically divided districts in the state.

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Signing on to Medicare For All now is likely a move to appeal to her Democratic base, despite her history as a more moderate Democrat.

Kirkpatrick said she doesn't think she necessarily flipped on the issue, but she acknowledged that the Medicare For All campaign took off more than she expected it to a year ago. She called the current legislation a "work in progress," but said she had to get behind it because health care is the No. 1 issue she hears in her district.

"Talking to my constituents, they love their Medicare," Kirkpatrick said. "It’s not reinventing the wheel. It's an existing system that works."

And health care for all Americans is something she's always fought for, she said, pointing to her support of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

Kirkpatrick still doesn't want health care to be funded by taxpayer dollars, but said the group of co-sponsors on the bill are discussing alternative funding options, including funding from corporations or higher taxes on the wealthy.

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The change of heart on Medicare For All isn't the first time Kirkpatrick has evolved on an issue. 

For example, her 2010 re-election campaign in the 1st District focused heavily on her support of the National Rifle Association, which she called a “civil liberties organization.”

Running in the 2nd District in 2018, she ran a campaign that promised to ban assault weapons and implement universal background checks. Kirkpatrick said she changed her mind after a number of mass shootings across the country, including the 2011 attack near Tucson that nearly killed then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.

Kirkpatrick initially was elected to Congress in 2008, but was ousted after just one term. She won back her House seat in 2012. In 2016, she unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Last year, she relocated to Tucson and won re-election in her new district.

Many Democrats have lined up behind Medicare For All, touting promises of affordable health care for all Americans. They want to eliminate employer-provided insurance and move all Americans under the federally run Medicare system instead.

Torunn Sinclair, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the bill is a sign that Kirkpatrick is veering toward socialism.

“Ann Kirkpatrick’s allegiance is to the socialists commandeering her party, not to the Arizonans who will be stripped of their health care plans if Medicare For All passes," Sinclair said.

Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Ruben Gallego, two other Arizona Democrats, also co-sponsored the bill.

Rep. Tom O'Halleran, D-Ariz., who replaced Kirkpatrick in the 1st Congressional District, did not sign on to the bill, despite the fact that he is facing a progressive primary challenger. His Democratic challenger, Eva Putzova, supports Medicare For All.

Reach the reporter at alexis.egeland@azcentral.com or 909-635-9146. Follow her on Twitter @alexis_egeland.

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