Voter to Sanders: Medicare ‘Has a Lot of Problems,’ So Why Expand It to Everyone?

VOTER: "Senator Sanders, you have branded your program, your single-payer health program as Medicare for all. And Medicare has a reputation of having some problems. Let me cite one example. A man in our clinic went into the 'doughnut hole' in September and could not afford the $1,200 a month it would cost him for insulin. So he had to decrease his dose to make his insulin stretch. So what do you -- why do you think that people would support your Medicare-for-all program?" 
SANDERS: "Well, I think people will support my Medicare-for-all program because the united States today is the only major country on Earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people as a right. Now I'm on the committee that wrote the Affordable Care Act, and I think the Affordable Care Act has done a lot of good things. But, yet, we have 29 million people without any health insurance. Your point is there are seniors today, and I meet them every day, who cannot afford the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs because in America, everybody should know this. We pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Last year, while 1 out of 5 Americans cannot afford the prescriptions their doctors write, last year the three major drug companies made $45 billion in profit because they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions. So I believe we should join the rest of the world. I believe as a principle, everybody should be entitled to health care as a right, comprehensive health care. And by the way, if we move toward a Medicare for all, not only do we cover the needs of all people, including that gentleman, we will save middle-class people thousands of dollars a year on their health-care bills because now we pay, by far, per capita, much, much more than any other country on Earth. It is time in my view, for us to have the courage to take on the insurance companies, take on the drug companies and provide health care to all people at an affordable cost."