Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a 2020 White House hopeful, reportedly said Saturday that she remains "fully committed" to "Medicare for All" after her implementation plan drew criticism.

"My commitment to Medicare for All is all the way," Warren told reporters in Iowa, according to The Associated Press. She also defended provisions of her plan that call for building on existing health care programs before implementing Medicare for All because "people need help right now."

Warren's more centrist Democratic 2020 competitors, Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, criticized her plan, which would allow Americans to buy into a public option in its initial phase, similar to plans issued by Biden and Buttigieg themselves. Biden's campaign accused Warren of "muddying the waters" while Buttigieg's campaign called it "transparently political."

"Look, I've shown how we can do this without raising middle class taxes by 1 penny. I've shown how we can do this to get help immediately for people," Warren said on Saturday, the AP noted. "It's all laid out, it's all on the website."

Warren also drew a distinction between her proposal and Biden's and Buttigieg's, saying "mine is about actually giving people Medicare for All that is going to be full health care coverage."

Under her proposal, a full Medicare for All program would not be implemented until years into a Warren presidency, but Warren denied that the timeline rolled out Friday was an acknowledgement that passing such a measure would be an uphill struggle.

Warren told reporters on Saturday she saw an "intense need ... for relief, so my plan is first to do the things that as president I'll be able to do on my own," according to the AP.

"When we've got tens of millions of people in the system, we've got lots of allies in the system," she added. "We'll transition to Medicare for All."