Short of Medicare for All, Sanders Offers Democrats 6 Other Ways to Tackle Healthcare Crisis

As Americans face soaring health insurance premiums and a vote to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies looms, Sen. Bernie Sanders argued in a Tuesday letter to Democratic lawmakers that "it is imperative that we all support that legislation, but we must do much more."

Congressional Democrats' fight for ACA subsidies led to the longest government shutdown in US history—which ended last week, after eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus caved without securing any guarantees. Instead, as Sanders (I-Vt.) noted, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) agreed to hold a vote on extending the tax credits no later than the second week of December.

"At a time when the Republicans have been forced to finally talk about the healthcare crisis facing our country, it is essential that the Democratic Caucus unify behind a set of commonsense policies that will make healthcare more affordable and accessible," Sanders wrote. "The American people are paying attention. Now is the time to act."

Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The panel's chair, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), is now pushing President Donald Trump's proposal to encourage Americans to shift to high-deductible plans and have the government put money directly into their health savings accounts.

"What Republicans are proposing is a bad deal for hardworking Americans, but a good deal for the wealthy," Jessica Schubel, who was a healthcare adviser to former President Joe Biden, explained Tuesday in a Fox News op-ed. "This new proposal could push millions into buying high-cost plans that make you pay thousands of dollars before they start paying for your care. Healthcare costs could skyrocket while undermining the entire Obamacare system—putting care at risk for millions of Americans."

Sanders' letter similarly warns that "while President Trump and some other Republicans in Congress are rightfully going after what they call 'the money sucking, BIG, BAD Insurance Companies,' the policies they have been discussing would make a bad situation even worse" by leading to "more medical bankruptcies, more unaffordable care, and more Americans going without the healthcare they desperately need."

The country's current debate over ACA subsidies has sparked fresh calls for a shift to government-funded universal healthcare, for which Sanders has long led the fight in Congress. He acknowledged that "while I believe that the long-term solution to the healthcare crisis is Medicare for All, and I appreciate the 16 cosponsors we have on that legislation in the Senate, and the more than 100 cosponsors we have in the House, this bill does not yet have majority support in the Democratic Caucus."

"The good news, however, is that there are a number of much-needed reforms to the healthcare system that we could offer now that would substantially improve the lives of the American people and are also incredibly popular," he continued.

Specifically, Sanders called for:

• Extending the ACA tax credits;
• Repealing Trump and congressional Republicans' $1 trillion in cuts to the ACA and Medicaid;
• Expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing;
• Cutting the cost of prescription drugs by at least 50% with legislation requiring pharmaceutical companies to charge no more for medications in the United States than they do in Europe or Canada;
• Expanding primary healthcare with investments in the National Health Service Corps as well as community and teaching health centers; and
• Banning stock buybacks and dividends, and restricting CEO compensation.

"At a time when the vast majority of Americans understand that our current healthcare system is broken, dysfunctional, and cruel, we must offer serious proposals which begin to address the systemic deficiencies within American healthcare," he stressed. "We should not be defending a system which is not only, by far, the most expensive in the world, but one which numerous international studies describe as one of the worst."

For example, last year the US-based Commonwealth Fund examined 10 peer countries—Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and found that "the US continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its healthcare sector."

Without federal intervention, conditions in the US sector are on track to get worse. Thanks to expiring subsidies, soaring premiums, and Trump and GOP lawmakers' recent cuts in their so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, an estimated 15 million Americans could lose health insurance altogether over the next decade.