Bernie Sanders said, “I want to move from” Obamacare Sunday on “Meet the Press.”
Sanders told host Chuck Todd, “I want to build on the Obamacare… But I do believe that when 29 million people still have zero health insurance, and when many more are underinsured with large deductibles and copayments, and when we pay much more per capita, and when we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, you know what, Chuck? I think we can do a little better.”
Todd then pressed Sanders, “So it’s fair to say, yeah, you want to replace Obamacare?”
Sanders claimed, “I want to move from. It’s not my– the Republicans want to throw millions of people off their health insurance. I want to cover everybody.”
Chuck Todd: Let’s go to– now you pushed back hard on “The Wall Street Journal” when they tallied up all your proposals. And it was mostly the Medicare For All proposal on that one. By the way, on Medicare For All, why should we interpret your call for Medicare For All as basically you’re saying, “You know what? I’d repeal and replace Obamacare too”? You’re calling for the repeal and replace of Obamacare with Medicare For All. Why is that not a unfair characterization?
Bernie Sanders: My Republican friends want to throw millions of more people off of health insurance. And what I want to do is have the United States of America join the rest of the industrialized world, every other country in guaranteeing health care to all people. We spend far more per capita on health care as do the people of other countries. And yet, in many cases, they have better healthcare outcomes than we do. So what do I want to do? I want to build on the Obamacare, which I supported, as you know. But I do believe that when 29 million people still have zero health insurance, and when many more are underinsured with large deductibles and copayments, and when we pay much more per capita, and when we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, you know what, Chuck? I think we can do a little better.
Chuck Todd: So it’s fair to say, yeah, you want to replace Obamacare?
Bernie Sanders: I want to move from. It’s not my– the Republicans want to throw millions of people off their health insurance. I want to cover everybody.