NASHUA – Just when it looked like Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of Vermont’s $32 trillion Medicare for All plan might break the bank, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts unveiled a $52 trillion version on Friday.

Of her Medicare for All, single-payer system, Warren said it would “cost the country just under $52 trillion over 10 years.” This would consist of about $20 trillion in federal spending, the campaign estimates.

“When it comes to health care, what’s broken is obvious: A fractured system that allows private interests to profiteer off the health crises of the American people. A system that crushes our families with costs they can’t possibly bear, forcing tens of millions to go without coverage or to choose between basic necessities like food, rent, and health – or bankruptcy,” Warren stated of her strategy.

Warren claims that her plan includes, “not one penny in middle-class tax increases.”

“Every American should be able to see the doctors they need and get their recommended treatments, without having to figure out who is in-network. No for-profit insurance company should be able to stop anyone from seeing the expert or getting the treatment they need,” Warren added.

Of the top three Democrats in the race, both nationally and in New Hampshire, Warren and Sanders support Medicare for All.

Former Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware does not.

“For months, Elizabeth Warren has refused to say if her health care plan would raise taxes on the middle class, and now we know why: because it does. Senator Warren would place a new tax of nearly $9 trillion that will fall on American workers,” Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said on Friday in response to Warren’s plan.

Biden emphasizes he wants to provide health coverage to “more than an estimated 97% of Americans.” He plans to do this via a public option to be added to Obamacare, which is formally known as the Affordable Care Act.

The Biden campaign estimates his plan’s net cost at $750 billion over 10 years, paid for by raising taxes on upper-income people and on investment income. If the estimate is correct, this cost is minuscule compared to that projected for Medicare for All.

“It’s impossible to pay for Medicare for All without middle class tax increases,” Bedingfield added. “To accomplish this sleight of hand, her proposal dramatically understates its cost, overstates its savings, inflates the revenue, and pretends that an employer payroll tax increase is something else.”

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