White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders clearly is not a fan of the single-payer healthcare plan Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-V.t) introduced on Wednesday.
In fact, Sanders said a majority of Americans would agree with her and President Donald Trump that a single-payer healthcare option is a “horrible idea.” However, most recent polling shows the exact opposite.
“I think that the president, as well as the majority of the country, knows that the single payer system that the Democrats are proposing is a horrible idea,” she said at Wednesday’s press briefing. “I can’t think of anything worse than having government more involved in your healthcare instead of less involved.”
As Republicans continue to try to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Sanders introduced a “Medicare for all” bill that has gained traction among several prominent Democrats including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), among more than 30 others.
Sanders continued:
“Not only does the president not support it, but America doesn’t support it or Bernie Sanders would be sitting in the Oval Office right now,” she said. “He pushed these ideas forward during the campaign – they were rejected. Not just by America, but Democrats. He didn’t make it through the primary, he didn’t make it into the Oval. I think that’s a pretty clear indication of what America wants to see and its not a single-payer system.”
Huckabee-Sanders slams Sen. Sanders, single-payer health care: "America doesn't support it." https://t.co/0wXHzN8JVh
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 13, 2017
While Sanders and Trump may think America is on their side, the numbers say otherwise. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 53 percent of Americans support a national healthcare plan, and a Pew Research Center poll found 60 percent of Americans thought the government had a responsibility to provide healthcare coverage for all.
Sanders said Trump continues to view repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act as a “priority.”
The bill proposed by Sen. Sanders has become something of a litmus test for Democrats who are rumored to possibly challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential election. The “Medicare for all” bill would give every American a card that would give them access to basic healthcare.