Sanders proposes single-payer healthcare

WASHINGTON—Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced new legislation Wednesday, pitching a Medicare-for-all solution for healthcare. The bill seeks to establish a single-payer system for health insurance. Under the Sanders plan, Medicare would gradually expand to cover all Americans. The legislation would shift trillions of dollars of healthcare costs to the federal government. Individuals would no longer bear costs for health premiums, co-pays, or deductibles, though they would likely pay increased taxes. The bill does not detail how much of a tax increase for businesses and individuals would be needed to pay for it. “Healthcare must be a right and not a privilege,” Sanders said. Sanders has campaigned for a single-payer healthcare system since joining Congress in 1991. He introduced a different iteration of Medicare-for-all in 2013, but none of his colleagues in the Senate chose to support him at the time. So far, 16 Senate Democrats have co-sponsored Sanders’ latest version. They include several Democrats eyeing a 2020 run for president: Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Republicans still control both chambers of Congress, and Sanders’ bill has virtually no chance of passing.