Bernie Sanders Says 'Thousands of People Will Literally Die' If Trump Healthcare Agenda Succeeds

If President Donald Trump "gets his way" on healthcare by fully repealing the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday, "thousands of people will literally die."

"I think we should join the rest of the industrialized world, guarantee healthcare to all people as a right."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders"Trump has an idea on healthcare. His idea is to throw 32 million Americans off of their health insurance they have, doing away with insurance for kids who are 26 years of age or younger who are on their parents' plan, doing away with the protections that the ACA has for pre-existing conditions," the senator from Vermont and 2020 presidential candidate said during an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"That means if you have cancer, if you have heart disease, you have diabetes—if Trump gets his way, the cost of health insurance for you will be so high that many people literally not be able to afford it," Sanders said. "Thousands of people will literally die. That's Trump's health insurance plan."

Sanders went on to lay out his alternative vision for healthcare, one that is shared by a growing number of lawmakers and a majority of the U.S. public.

"My plan's just a little bit different," said the senator, confirming that he will unveil an updated and more comprehensive version of his Medicare for All bill in the coming weeks. "I think we should join the rest of the industrialized world, guarantee healthcare to all people as a right, end the absurdity of the United States spending twice as much per capita on healthcare as any other nation while our life expectancy is actually going down and our healthcare outcomes are worse than many other countries."

Sanders vowed that, if elected president, he will "cut prescription drug prices by 50 percent."

Sanders' condemnation of Trump's healthcare agenda comes after the Justice Department ramped up its legal attack on the ACA by pushing for full repeal of the law in a court filing last week.

Mick Mulvaney, Trump's budget director and acting White House chief of staff, appeared on ABC's "This Week" Sunday to defend the administration's push to invalidate Obamacare.

According to the New York Times, Mulvaney led the push inside the White House for an aggressive legal attack on the ACA.

Mulvaney claimed Sunday that every healthcare plan advanced by the Trump administration would protect people with pre-existing conditions. He also said he can guarantee that, if the ACA is repealed, everyone who had coverage under the law would not lose their health insurance.

Both claims were quickly called out as blatant falsehoods.