Buttigieg releases ad in Iowa highlighting health care plan

White House hopeful and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday released a new ad in Iowa highlighting his health care plan as the issue continues to be one that divides the Democratic primary field.

The ad, which highlights support for Buttigieg’s “Medicare for All Who Want It” proposal, will run on both digital and television platforms in the Hawkeye State. Buttigieg’s presidential campaign told The Hill the ad purchase was a “substantial statewide buy.” 

{mosads}“Medicare for All That Want It is very important. We have to have people have the choice to keep their private health insurance or to go on the Medicare plan,” one Iowa Democrat says in the ad.

“He seems sensible. Not going to promise something that he cannot deliver,” adds another.

The issue of health care has emerged as a top fault line within the crowded 2020 Democratic primary field, with the candidates fighting over how far government care should go in covering Americans.

Buttigieg and several other candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), have introduced plans to offer a public plan to Americans while allowing them to remain on their private insurance if they choose. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have introduced their own plans to institute a single-payer system that would eliminate private insurance.

Buttigieg has ripped the plans that would cancel citizens’ private insurance plans in the past, noting that some employees have negotiated with their employers to gain their coverage.

“I think the best approach is to make this Medicare option available to everybody, but not command everybody to adopt it,” Buttigieg said last month. “There are a lot of labor union members who have negotiated very good health plans that are part of their compensation, and I don’t think they want to be forced into a plan they don’t know.”

Buttigieg has doubled down on his efforts in Iowa as polls have showed him surging in the state.

His campaign released another ad in the state last week highlighting national unity. 

A Monmouth University poll released Tuesday found Buttigieg surging to the front of the pack in Iowa with a narrow lead over Biden and Warren.

“Buttigieg is emerging as a top pick for a wide variety of Iowa Democrats,” Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said. “While he has made nominally bigger gains among older caucusgoers, you really can’t pigeonhole his support to one particular group. He is doing well with voters regardless of education or ideology.”