Sen. Sanders Issues Statement on President Trump Op-Ed on Medicare for All

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, issued the following statement on President Trump's op-ed in USA Today about Medicare for All:

"Donald Trump led the effort to throw 32 million Americans off of the health care they have in order to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires and large corporations. Fortunately we were able to defeat his proposal by one vote.

"In his last budget, Donald Trump, in absolute violation of his campaign promises, proposed a $1 trillion cut to Medicaid, a $500 billion cut to Medicare and a $72 billion cut to the Social Security disability fund. Now the president, who has a very difficult time telling the truth about anything, is lying about the Medicare for All proposal that I introduced, which poll after poll after shows has strong majority support among the American people.

"No, Mr. President. Our proposal would not cut benefits for seniors on Medicare. In fact, we expand benefits. Millions of seniors today cannot afford the dental care, vision care or hearing aids they desperately need because Medicare does not cover these vitally important needs. Our proposal covers them. In addition, Medicare for All would eliminate deductibles and copays for seniors, and significantly lower the cost of prescription drugs.

"Medicare for All allows seniors and all Americans to see the doctors they want, not the doctors their insurance companies have a contract with.

"Our current dysfunctional health care system is designed to make huge profits for insurance companies and drug companies, rather than provide quality care for every man, woman and child. The result: we spend nearly twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other nation, while 30 million Americans have no health insurance and many more are underinsured.

"The time is now for the United States to join every other major country on Earth and guarantee health care to every American as a right not a privilege, and Donald Trump, the insurance companies and the drug companies will not stop us."