Medicare for All Tops Sanders' Prescription to 'Make America Healthy Again'

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has an ambitious New Year's resolution: a nine-point policy proposal to "Make America Healthy Again" by reforming the United States' "broken and dysfunctional healthcare system."

In an op-ed published in The Guardian on Tuesday, Sanders said his ideas were informed by his time serving as the chair of the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which will end in 2025.

"We are the wealthiest nation on Earth," Sanders wrote. "There is no rational reason as to why we are not the healthiest nation on Earth. We should be leading the world in terms of life expectancy, disease prevention, low infant and maternal mortality, quality of life, and human happiness. Sadly, study after study shows just the opposite. Despite spending almost twice as much per capita on healthcare, we trail most wealthy nations in all these areas."

"Working-class Americans live far shorter lives than the rich because of the stress of trying to survive on a paycheck-to-paycheck existence."

Sanders first prescription for a healthier nation? Medicare for All.

"Healthcare is a human right," Sanders argued. "The function of a rational healthcare system is to guarantee quality healthcare to all, not huge profits for the insurance industry. The United States cannot continue to be the only wealthy nation that does not provide universal healthcare."

The other eight reccomendations on Sanders' list are:

1. Lower the cost of prescription drugs;
2. Paid family and medical leave;
3. Reform the food industry;
4. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage;
5. Lower the workweek to 32 hours with no loss of pay;
6. Combat the epidemic of loneliness, isolation, and mental illness;
7. Address the climate and environmental crisis; and
8. Create a high-quality public education system.

In the aftermath of the killing and the online response, Sanders called for a political movement to reform the nation's healthcare system.

"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said at the time. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."

Sanders' agenda is also a clear rejoinder to Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign. Kennedy, who President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has a record of pushing dangerous health-related conspiracy theories, in particular by questioning the effectiveness and safety of vaccines. While Kennedy has voiced criticisms of the food, agriculture, and chemical industries shared by many environmentalists, he has also advocated for harmful practices such as drinking raw milk and downplayed the climate emergency.

Trump has signaled that any environmental policies Kennedy might implement during his administration would take a backseat to his commitment to Big Oil.

"Bobby, stay away from the liquid gold," he said in his election night victory speech. "Other than that, go have a good time, Bobby."

Sanders, in contrast, made tackling the climate emergency one of his priorities and called out the fossil fuel industry specifically.

"The fossil fuel industry cannot be allowed to continue making us sick, shortening our lives, and destroying the planet," he wrote Tuesday.

He also emphasized working conditions as a public health issue.

"Working-class Americans live far shorter lives than the rich because of the stress of trying to survive on a paycheck-to-paycheck existence," he wrote in his call for a higher minimum wage.

In general, Sanders argued that it was not possible to tackle health without tackling corporate power.

"Our real problem is not so much a healthcare crisis as it is a political and economic one," he wrote in The Guardian. "We need to end the unprecedented level of corporate greed we are experiencing. We need to create a government and economy that works for all and not just the wealthy and powerful few."

In his email to supporters, Sanders spoke even more directly about the need to "take on powerful special interests who make billions in profits by making us sick and shortening our lifespans."

He portrayed wealthy individuals and corporations as the force ultimately standing in the way of a healthier nation.

"The truth is that their ideology of greed requires them to want more, and more, and more. And if that greed makes us sicker or shortens our lives, that's the price they require us to pay," he wrote. "But we say NO. We are fighting back. We can and will create a government and economy that works for all, and not just the few. We can and will create a society which enhances human health and well-being, and not the wealth and power of the billionaire class."