El-Sayed TORCHED over ‘selective socialism’ platform
Michigan’s 2026 Senate race heats up as progressive nominee Abdul El-Sayed faces intense criticism over his policy platform. Florida Representative Kat Cammack rails against El-Sayed’s socialist agenda, comparing his campaign tactics to a used car salesman. Cammack warns that these progressive policies will ultimately drain the wallets of working-class families while offering nothing but empty promises in return.
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Over a decade before becoming the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed acknowledged that his vision for healthcare would require different costs for patients depending on wealth status.
“We’re actually just going to give other people access to what you have and make yours more expensive. We’re not asking you to lose access. We’re just making yours more expensive. And not that much so, in fact. We’re making it marginally more expensive,” El-Sayed said in a 2011 appearance on the Sense and Sustainability podcast.
His resurfaced comments, made as part of a program on inequalities in healthcare, reveal El-Sayed’s long-standing thinking behind his proposed policy changes.
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Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, speaks at the Michigan Democratic Nominating Convention in Lansing, Mich., on Aug. 29, 2026. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
Fifteen years later, El-Sayed has made an expansion of healthcare in the U.S. a key part of his platform as he wages a bid to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.
In particular, he has championed Medicare for All, an expansion of the federal program that covers healthcare costs for U.S. citizens over the age of 65 and for some younger recipients with long-term disabilities.
El-Sayed’s plan would expand public coverage for everyone, regardless of income, age or job.
“Medicare for All means no premium, no co-pay, no deductible. Doesn’t matter if you get a job, lose a job, turn 26, turn 65, get married, get divorced — it is there for you,” El-Sayed said in a post to X earlier this year.
Skeptics of the plan argue it is too expensive and does little to address existing inefficiencies in the American healthcare system.
In 2019, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., took to the Senate floor to blast the idea, calling it a straitjacket solution that would undermine health care quality.
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Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, speaks during a primary election night event Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
“The [Congressional Budget Office] projects in its report on a single-payer plan that government spending on health care would increase substantially. They go on to say to cover the massive cost of government-run care, income taxes would have to at least double. Income taxes, American families — at least double,” Barrasso said.
“Mark my words, Medicare for All would soon become Medicare for none.”
Despite its hefty price tag, in El-Sayed’s view, the plan is key to ensuring equality of outcomes, even if individual patients are charged differently. He expounded on his design in the 2011 interview.
“We wouldn’t necessarily be ‘stealing from the rich to give to the poor’ in the U.S. because the rich will always have the ability to pay for the care that they need,” El-Sayed said.
“The argument would be that everyone’s premiums would go up a little bit. But for the people who actually have premiums now, what they’re losing in terms of the added costs on their health plans are more manageable to them than is the absolute lack of access to healthcare among the people that don’t have it now.”
El-Sayed argued that his vision would make costs only marginally more expensive for top earners.
SOCIALISM’S WAR ON SUCCESS HAS A NEW CHAMPION — AND HE’S RUNNING FOR SENATE IN MICHIGAN
Abdul El-Sayed, candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, speaks before U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., takes the stage at Mumford High School on May 3, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. (Sarah Rice/Getty Images)
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His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it could expand on the costs of El-Sayed’s vision. Having cleared the Democratic primary in Michigan, El-Sayed will face off against Republican challenger Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in the state’s Nov. 3 general election.