Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz debate Obamacare: universal health care versus the free market

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz debated the future of health care in the US Tuesday night during an event hosted by CNN. The Global Dispatch fact checking of CNN’s analysis can be read HERE

“2010, 2014, 2016, I believe were a mandate from the voters. We’re tired of the premiums going up. We’re tired of deductibles going up,” Cruz said at a CNN town hall debate with the Vermont senator over the future of Obamacare. “Should Congress move swiftly to repeal Obamacare? Absolutely.”

“If you are one of 20 million Americans who finally has received health insurance, forget about it — you’re gone,” Sanders warned about repealing Obamacare. “That means when you get sick, you ain’t gonna be able to go to the doctor. And when you end up in the hospital, you’ll be paying those bills for the rest of your life, or maybe you’ll go bankrupt.”

Cruz and Sanders are polar opposites on ideology and it’s interesting to see a live debate rooted in truth, not in the politics and campaign rhetoric. Check out the short summation released by This Week.

photo/ donkey hotey

“The United States is the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a right,” Sanders said. Cruz countered that health care is NOT a right, but you have a right to access.

“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” Cruz said. “Millions discovered that was not true.”

Sanders, who repeatedly stressed that Obamacare was far from perfect, said it is “totally absurd” that one woman in the audience’s deductible was enormous, was an “outrageous deductible.”

“If you were in Canada, you know what? You would get the health care that you need,” he said. “The idea that we have policies like that, like the one you describe, is clearly an outrage.”

On a question about employer mandates, Sanders responded with what he prefaced would be “an answer you will not be happy with.”

“I’m sorry, I think that in America today, everybody should have health care. And if you have more than 50 people, you know what, I think I’m afraid to tell you, but I think you will have to provide health insurance,” Sanders said.

Cruz shot back that Democrats have turned small businesses into a “bad actor.”

“Millions of businesses are being told by Democrats: tough luck,” Sanders said. “It’s one of the most damaging things about Obamacare.”

Cruz referred to Medicaid as a “profoundly troubled program” akin to “rationed care.”

“We should have a system that allows as many people as possible to be on the private health insurance of your choice rather than Medicaid,” Cruz said, noting that wait times under the program has gone up.

photo/ donkeyhotey

photo Will O’Neill via Flickr

photo Andrew Aliferis via Flickr

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Brandon Jones - Writer and Co-Founder of The Global Dispatch, Brandon has been covering news, offering commentary for years, beginning professionally in 2003 on Crazed Fanboy before expanding into other blogs and sites. Appearing on several radio shows, Brandon has hosted Dispatch Radio, written his first novel (The Rise of the Templar) and completed the three years Global University program in Ministerial Studies to be a pastor. To Contact Brandon email [email protected] ATTN: BRANDON