Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders admitted Friday that his Medicare for All plan would cover the nearly 11 million illegal immigrants present in the United States.
Sanders has routinely campaigned on his plan to nationalize the U.S. health care system and provide so-called “free” health insurance to every individual. The plan is estimated to cost more than $32 trillion over the next decade.
“We’re gonna … create a Medicare for All health care system which guarantees health care to every man, woman, and child,” Sanders said during the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials’ (NALEO) presidential candidate forum Friday. “We will organize the American people around the idea that all people in this country have the right to health care.”
The moderator of the event asked Sanders if his plan would apply to illegal immigrants in the U.S. (RELATED: Bernie Sanders Says ‘Health Care For All’ Will Require Tax Increases)
“Absolutely, absolutely,” Sanders replied. “When I talk about health care being a human right, last time I heard that undocumented people are human beings as well.”
According to Pew Research Center, there were 10.5 million illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. in 2017.
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Sanders also admitted during the event that every national health care system has “problems,” and insisted that those are just “the nature of health care.”
Sanders’ health care bill is cosponsored by other Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Kamala Harris.