ALEXANDRIA, Va. — South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, said the federal government should work to “decouple” most benefits from the workplace.
During a presidential campaign fundraiser, Buttigieg described some of his proposals to help low-income Americans. He said South Bend is working on a program with ride-sharing companies that asks companies to contribute money to help their employees get to work.
“Most things I think we need to decouple from the workplace. I was saying before, your health benefits, your vacation, your retirement shouldn’t depend on the idea that you’ve got a full-time job and it stays the same but actually transportation as a benefit might be the future of how we get a lot of people to work,” he said on Friday. “Hopefully we’ll have more results to show from South Bend and then I’ll be a position to replicate them across the country.”
Buttigieg said a “version of Medicare” should be available as a public option on the Affordable Care Act exchange, which he predicted would be a “glide-path to a Medicare for all environment” if enough people purchase that insurance plan.
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