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Sanders says Trump remarks about universal health coverage are ‘blatant lies’

US Senator Bernie Sanders attends a press conference on July 24, 2018 in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)

US Senator Bernie Sanders has blasted President Donald Trump’s health care policies as they threaten insurance for millions of Americans, saying Trump’s statements about universal health coverage are filled with “blatant lies.”

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Sanders said Trump is seeking to eliminate Medicare, the popular government program providing health care to seniors and some with disabilities.

He said millions of Americans lack health coverage because Republicans oppose a "Medicare for all" proposed by him and some Democratic Party lawmakers in Congress.

Sanders, who ran for the Democratic nomination for US president in 2016, was responding to Trump’s op-ed in USA Today published Wednesday.

In the rare presidential op-ed, Trump claimed the proposal dubbed "Medicare for all" would "eviscerate" Medicare.

“In practice, the Democratic Party’s so-called Medicare for All would really be Medicare for None,” Trump writes. “Under the Democrats' plan, today’s Medicare would be forced to die.”

“His op-ed should not surprise the American people in that it is full of lies,” Sanders said of Trump’s piece.  

Sanders wrote his own op-ed in USA Today on Thursday, arguing that Trump's efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, will leave 13 million more Americans uninsured over the next decade.

“Given the president’s propensity to lie about almost everything, it is not surprising that Trump is grossly distorting what the Medicare for All legislation does,” Sanders wrote in defense of his signature policy.

Sanders and other Democrats who support Medicare for all say that health care is a human right and should be available to all Americans. The best way to provide this, they say, is broadening Medicare, which is successful, cost-effective and popular.

"If every major country on earth can guarantee health care to all and achieve better health outcomes, while spending substantially less per capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States of America cannot do the same," Sanders wrote in a CNN op-ed in August.


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