Bernie Sanders Lays Out Proposal For Universal Health Care, But Will It Pass?
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders laid out his plan to achieve universal health care in the United States telling viewers watching the Sunday night Democratic debate that he would propose a tax increase for many middle-class Americans and all of the countries top earners.
"Universal health care is an idea that has been supported in the United States by Democratic presidents going back to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman," Sanders said in a statement. "It is time for our country to join every other major industrialized nation on earth and guarantee health care to all citizens as a right, not a privilege."
His proposal, Sanders says, would cost roughly $1.38 trillion per year, but would save $6 trillion over the next decade when compared to the current health laws.
To achieve this, Sanders proposes a 6.2 percent payroll tax paid by employers and a 2.2 percent increase on employees. Opponents have used this proposed increase to attack Sanders for wanting to raise taxes on the middle-class but ignore how much they would be saving by not paying out of pocket for much higher health care premiums and outrageous deductibles set by the health insurance providers.