CNN panel compares Medicare for all policy proposals to Trump’s wall and GOP “repeal-and-replace slogan”

Alex Burns: “There is always the Donald Trump option, right, of just promising everything ... but we have seen pretty clearly over time that that has been kind of a trap for the president.”

From the January 31 edition of CNN's New Day with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman:

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ERICA HILL (GUEST CO-HOST): There's also -- there's also a really important question about messaging, right? I mean as Democrats try to figure out who is going to be their option, who is the best person to put forth their message, this is a message they have to get right because otherwise this could very easily become their version of the wall that Mexico was going to pay for. If we don't know what it is, who's going to pay for it, and if you can keep your plan, OK, what are you promising? 

ALEX BURNS (CNN POLITICAL ANALYST): Well, and the wall is a really interesting comparison. The one I was going to make was the Republican repeal-and-replace slogan, right, that it sounds great because you can imagine that 'replace' is whatever you want it to be, right? And if you like a public option, if you like, you know, just lowering the medicare eligibility age, if you like sort of Obamacare plus, you can imagine that Medicare for all means any of those things, right? But over the course of a long campaign, candidates are going to have to be pretty specific and very articulate about exactly what changes they would make to the health care system, and change tends to freak people out. There is always the Donald Trump option, right, of just promising everything, that you're going to get rid of Obamacare, lower costs, improve service, improve benefits, but we have seen pretty clearly over time that that has been kind of a trap for the president. 

Related:

Vox: We read Democrats’ 8 plans for universal health care. Here’s how they work.

Previously:

CNN anchor suggests “bold” policies like Medicare for all might pull Democrats “too far to the left”

CNN host tells Democratic lawmaker that not giving in to Trump's border wall demand is “just not working”

CNN's Rick Santorum lies about Republican opposition to protecting coverage for those with pre-existing conditions