Sanders defends his ‘Medicare for All’ proposal
WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders vigorously defended his signature “Medicare for All” proposal on Wednesday while hitting back at his critics who say his push amounts to both bad politics and bad policy.
The Vermont senator’s speech came as the fight over how to best provide health care for Americans has become an animating focus of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The fight is pitting Sanders, with his push for a singlepayer system of health insurance, against former Vice President Joe Biden, who is embracing a socalled public option that would give people the option of retaining private coverage.
“The current debate over Medicare for All has nothing to do with health care. We are not in a debate about which health care system is working well or which is better,” Sanders said at George Washington University. “What the debate that we are currently having in this campaign and all over this country has nothing to do with health care, but it has everything to do with the greed and profits of the health care industry.”
Sanders also insisted that despite what some people may be hearing, coverage would actually increase under Medicare for All, not decrease. And he said that Medicare for All would end up reducing overall health care spending in the United States while lowering the number of uninsured and underinsured people.
“Medicare for All critics tell us that Americans just love their private insurance companies. You know what, I have never met one person that loves their insurance companies,” Sanders said. “I have met many people that do love their doctors and their nurses, who have very good experiences in their hospitals, and what we do is to say you can go to those doctors, you can go to those hospitals, but you’re not going to have to deal anymore with ripoff insurance companies.”
Sanders also announced he plans to reject campaign donations from health insurance and pharmaceutical industry executives, lobbyists and political action committees.