Sen. Bernie Sanders To Introduce Single-Payer Health Care Plan

WASHINGTON, DC — Sen. Bernie Sanders will soon introduce a single-payer health care reform bill in the Senate, according to an interview he did with CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday.

"Where we should be going is to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a right," said the Vermont Independent and former Democratic candidate for president. "That's why I'm going to introduce a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program."

As a candidate in the Democratic primary, Sanders' defense of a single-payer health care plan was one of his defining issues, distancing himself from eventual nominee Hillary Clinton, who favored more incremental changes to existing law.

In the CNN interview, Sanders criticized the American Health Care Act, the Republican health care bill that was pulled from the House floor Friday in an embarrassing defeat for President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan. The senator said the bill was mostly a $300 billion tax cut for rich people.

But Sanders also noted that the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, has its own share of problems.

"Deductibles are too high," Sanders said. "Premiums are too high. The cost of health care is going up at a much faster rate than it should."

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that the president was interested in working with congressional Democrats to reform health care.

Talking with Sanders, Bash noted, "The president wants to work with you, but obviously doesn't want to go as far as you do: insurance for everyone."

But while the president supported the American Health Care act, which would have resulted in 24 million fewer people having health insurance by 2024 according to the Congressional Budget Office, he has very recently explicitly supported "insurance for everyone."

"We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump said an interview with the Washington Post published Jan. 15, 2017. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

Does this mean Trump is going to support Sanders' plan?

It's not likely. Sanders's policies and ideology are anathema to wide swaths of the Republican party, and Trump would be sure to face outrage from his own allies if he indicated support for the Vermont senator's ideas.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty News Images/Getty Images