PORTSMOUTH — Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the nation needs to buck up and invest in health care to deal with the deadly addiction crisis that causes tens of thousands of deaths each year.

Overdoses kill about 193 people daily, Warren said during a conversation Saturday with Seacoast Media Group's editorial board.

“That’s like a plane crash, and it will happen again tomorrow and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, unless we make some real changes,” she said.

“We can’t wish this crisis away. It’s going to take money for outreach. … It takes money for long-term treatment. We have to be willing, as a country, to put the resources in to do that.”

Warren, who spoke via video conference because she was on the campaign trail in Iowa, made the comments in response to a question about U.S. life expectancy, which has declined for three years straight.

Trends have been especially dire in New Hampshire, where mortality among adults age 25 to 64 has risen faster than any other state, due to drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicide and a variety of organ system diseases, according to a study published last fall.

Warren said she began working on a legislative solution to this problem a few years ago with Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who died in October.

“I started talking about how it was a lot like the AIDS crisis of the late 1980s: a lot of stigma and, constantly, our government always a day late and a dollar short,” she said.

Warren and Cummings each introduced a bill titled the Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act. They drew inspiration for the bill's name and its substance, Warren said, from the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, which Congress enacted in 1990.

The new CARE Act, which would provide financial assistance for local efforts to meet the needs of individual and families grappling with the fallout of substance use disorders, is pending in the House and Senate.

Warren spoke about how she intends to nudge Americans toward a "Medicare for All" system during her first term, if elected, beginning with a public option. Her administration would begin by offering coverage for free to everyone younger than 18 and to families who earn less than $50,000 per year. Adults who earn more than that would be eligible to buy coverage at a low cost, she said.

"Nobody has to take it," she added.

Once millions of Americans experience what Medicare for All would be like, then voters will overwhelmingly approve an overhaul of the existing system, cutting private insurers out of the equation, Warren added.

Warren said she would foot the bill for her health care proposal by cracking down on tax evaders and by raising taxes on corporations and the nation's wealthiest people.

"If we do that, we've got enough money, enough resources to be able to cover the cost of health care for the people of America," she said.

Warren declined to comment on recent contention between her campaign and that of fellow progressive presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Sanders, who denies claims he told Warren a woman couldn't be elected president, attended the fourth annual Portsmouth Women's March on Saturday and later made a campaign stop in Exeter.

Warren and Sanders have consistently polled among the top four candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire. The other two are former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Warren and Sanders have another thing in common: Both were sworn in Thursday to act as jurors in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial.

Warren criticized those who have said the Senate shouldn't call any witnesses, and she dismissed suggestions Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden should be on any witness list.

“The issue on impeachment is what Donald Trump said to the president of Ukraine and then subsequently how he withheld aid from Ukraine," she said.

In a report released last week, the Government Accountability Office concluded the White House broke the law when it withheld security assistance from Ukraine for the president's own policy priorities.

"That's what this impeachment is about," Warren added. "It's about Donald Trump breaking the law."

Trump contends his actions were legal and appropriate.