Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders got a huge cheer of support for his “Medicare for All” plan when host Bret Baier polled the audience at the Democratic candidate’s Fox News town hall Monday.
Baier decided to ask the audience, which he said was made up of conservatives, liberals, and independents, if they would be willing to give up their private insurance for a government-run plan as Sanders has proposed. A majority of the audience appeared to raise their hands and some audibly cheered.
Sanders rejected Baier’s concerns about losing private health insurance during the town hall.
“Millions of people every single year lose their health insurance,” Sanders said. “You know why? They get fired, or they quit and they go to another employer.”
“Every year, millions of workers wake up in the morning and their employer has changed the insurance that they have. Maybe they like their doctors. ... So this is not new. Every year,” he added. “Now, what we’re talking about is stability. That when you have a Medicare for All, it is there now and it will be there in the future.”
Trump unhappy that Sanders did well on Fox:
President Trump grumbled about Sanders’ successful foray onto Fox News in a Tuesday morning tweet.
“So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the ‘audience’ was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?” Trump wrote, referring to Fox News as “we” and name dropping former DNC Chair Donna Brazile, who is now a pundit on the network.
Voters support the idea of Sanders’ plan:
In March, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 56% of Americans said they would support “national health plan in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan,” compared to 39% who said they opposed that sort of plan.
According to a separate Kaiser survey, support for the plan dropped when respondents were told it could require higher taxes or the elimination of private health insurers, CNBC reports.
Fellow 2020 contenders, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are co-sponsors of Sanders' "Medicare for All" bill in the Senate.
