Bernie Sanders
[Elections 2016]
Here is what I believe: the greed of the pharmaceutical and health care industries in this country is killing Americans.
It is a national disgrace that, despite great gains made under the Affordable Care Act, 29 million of our neighbors are still without care.
That is why I am, frankly, a bit surprised that with less than three weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the Clinton campaign is attacking our belief that health care must be recognized as a right, not a privilege, for every man, woman and child in our country.
We cannot wait to realize that goal, and the best way to get there is a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system.
Yesterday, one of Hillary Clinton’s several super PACs took aim at us, saying our plan would “require tax increases on working families.”
It would be a terrible setback for our shared values and for our movement to reform a corrupt political system if we lost because a super PAC scared voters into thinking our plan would take away people’s coverage or cost them more money.
Under my plan, we will lower the cost of health care for the typical family by nearly $5,000 a year. It is unfair to say simply how much more a program will cost without letting people know we are doing away with the cost of private insurance and that the middle class will be paying substantially less for health care under a single-payer system than Hillary Clinton’s program.
Attacking the cost of the plan without acknowledging the bottom-line savings is the way Republicans have attacked this idea for decades.
Taking that approach in a Democratic primary undermines the hard work of so many who have fought to guarantee health care as a right in this country, and it hurts our prospects for achieving that goal in the near future.
Real change comes about when large numbers of ordinary Americans speak, vote and get involved in the democratic process. If we stand together, we win. If we are divided, the big-money interests win.
And we have a real shot to deliver a big victory in the fight for health care as a right for all Americans in this campaign.
