Bernie Sanders will no longer support changes to Obamacare, ‘get rid of the insurance companies’
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is again seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, and has reiterated his call for the elimination of private health insurance companies and calls for moving to a single-payer, “Medicare for all” system of health care.
When pressed to respond to a Republican National Committee (RNC) Research tweet Sanders said: “You’re damn right,” doubling down on his stance which would cost millions of health care jobs.
In that MSNBC interview, Sanders said the “current system is incredibly dysfunctional and wasteful” and said universal health care can’t be achieved “unless you get rid of the insurance companies.”
“You are not going to be able, in the long run, to have cost-effective, universal health care unless you change the system, unless you get rid of the insurance companies, unless you stand up to the greed of the drug companies and lower prescription drug costs,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes.”
“That’s the only way that you can provide quality care to all people,” he said.
For years, analysts breakdown the health care program into three components: quality, access and cost. You can improve increase two without negatively effecting the third. So, Sanders in interested in more access, “provide quality care to all people,” but appears naive on the cost, both in dollars and in jobs.
Sanders also indicated that he wouldn’t support a House bill to strengthen the Affordable Care Act in the Senate.
“No, I support the Medicare for All single-payer program,” he said when Hayes asked if he backed the legislation.
“Yes, it does, because you’re not going to a have a need for private insurance,” he said earlier this month during an interview with NPR when asked if private insurance “goes away” under Medicare for All.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), another 2020 presidential candidate, has also called for the elimination of private health insurance companies.
“The idea is that everyone gets access to medical care, and you don’t have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require,” she said during a CNN town hall in January.