Tipsheet

So, Bernie's Medicare for All Plan Just Got More Radical

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) claimed on Friday at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Presidential Candidate Forum in Miami that healthcare is a human right that should extend to everyone in the nation including illegal aliens. 

Sanders discussed his view that everyone in the nation has a right to healthcare and his goal of establishing Medicare for All.

“Now to answer your question, I will not deny that every country on earth that has a national healthcare program all have problems, that’s the nature of healthcare and a changing technology,” Sen. Sanders said. 

“But what I want everybody to understand, is literally starting yesterday, the insurance companies and their drug companies are starting to spend tens and tens of millions of dollars to fight against Medicare for All," he continued. "And we will organize the American people around the concept that all people in this country have the right to healthcare. And at the end of the day, we are going to win that struggle.”

When asked if he would “include the 11 million undocumented immigrants,” Sanders responded strongly in the affirmative.

“Absolutely, absolutely," the Democratic Socialist asserted. "When I talk about healthcare being a human right, last time I heard that undocumented people are human beings as well.”

The senator went on to say that public college should be tuition-free, including for illegal aliens. 

“We need the best-educated population in the world, and that means we’re gonna make our public colleges and universities tuition-free and open that to the undocumented as well," the 2020 presidential candidate said. 

Sen. Sanders also blasted President Trump, saying that the president “demonizes immigrants and tries to bring people against them so that he can get a few more votes.”