Trump says Australia’s universal health care better than U.S. system, a position at odds with GOP stance
President Donald Trump’s praise of Australia’s governmentfunded health care system has raised the ire of Sen. Bernie Sanders, a leading advocate of such single-payer systems.
Republicans have strongly opposed calls by Sanders and others to create a similar “universal” health care system in the U.S.
Trump’s praise for the Australian system came as he met Thursday in New York with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hours after the U.S. House narrowly passed a bill to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, the health care law enacted by former President Barack Obama.
Trump described the U.S. health system as failing, and added that “I shouldn’t say this to a great gentleman and my friend from Australia because you have better health care than we do.” He said the U.S. would have “great” health care very soon.
Sanders, the Vermont independent who sought the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, tweeted in response Friday: “Yes, Mr. Trump, the Australian health care system is a lot better than ours and infinitely better than the disastrous bill you supported.”
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders cautioned Friday against reading too much into the president’s comment. She said he was complimenting a foreign leader on the “operations of their health care system” and that he “didn’t mean anything more than that.”
Trump seemed to contradict his spokeswoman a short time later, tweeting “Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we do — everybody does. ObamaCare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great.”
Australia has a government-funded system that provides free or subsidized care for all Australian citizens and permanent residents, which is partially funded by income taxes.