President Trump Praises Australia's Universal Health Care System

President Trump praised Australia's system of universal health care immediately after celebrating the House of Representatives' passage of the American Health Care Act. Many observers pointed out the irony in Trump's remarks, given that the AHCA moves the country further from a system of universal coverage than the status quo.

During his Thursday night meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump said the American health care system is "failing." He continued: "I shouldn't say this to a great gentleman and my friend from Australia because you have better health care than we do." (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Then on Friday, he tweeted out: "Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we do --everybody does. ObamaCare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent who ran in the 2016 Democratic primary on a platform of Medicare for all, jumped on the president's remarks:

When Sarah Sanders, principal deputy press secretary, was asked about Trump's Thursday remarks in a briefing on Friday, she said the president "was just being complimentary." She said that what works for Australia might not work for other places; party of the problem with Obamacare, she said, is that it imposes the same solution everywhere.

Trump has praised universal health care systems before. At a presidential primary debate, he said, "As far as single payer, it works in Canada," Trump replied. "It works incredibly well in Scotland. It could have worked in a different age, which is the age you're talking about here."

Most conservatives in the United States argue that single-payer systems represent government overreach into the health care market anywhere and would be loathe to praise countries that have universal systems. His praise for these systems was one way in which Trump was an unconventional Republican, in addition to his promises to provide everyone with health care coverage and not to cut Medicare or Medicaid.

But it's worth noting that the AHCA brings the country further away from a system of universal coverage, not closer to one.

Governments that provide universal health care systems tax citizens so that they can pay for health care services for everyone. Under the AHCA, the United States would lower the taxes that it collects for health care purposes, and it reduces the amount of spending that goes out to cover its citizens' health care needs.

In other words, it makes American health care less like Australia's health care.

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