Bernie Sanders Tees Off: Trumpcare Is Not A Health Care Bill, It’s A Death Sentence

Bernie Sanders was fired up on Thursday after Republicans in the House of Representatives approved legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, telling MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that the GOP needs to stop calling Trumpcare a health care bill.

“This is not a health care bill,” Sanders said. “This is a massive tax break to the top 2 percent.”

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In less than a minute, Sanders gave Republicans a massive reality check about the disastrous legislation they passed and urged the American people not to be fooled into thinking the GOP measure actually qualified as a health care bill:

This is not a health care bill. This is a massive tax break to the top 2 percent, $300 billion and hundreds of billions of dollars more in tax breaks for drug companies and insurance companies. That’s what it was. It is not a health care bill when you throw 24 million people off of health insurance, thousands of whom will die. When you defund Planned Parenthood – these guys talk about choice all of the time, but they’re telling two and a half million women they don’t have the choice to continue going to Planned Parenthood. They talked about defending the working class of this country – that’s what Trump talked about during his campaign. They’re going to raise premiums very significantly for older workers. They’re going to cut Medicaid by some $800 billion. 

Not only is this legislation bad for the very people that Trump spent the entire campaign promising to help, as Sanders said, but each time Republicans refer to it as “health care legislation,” they should immediately be called out.

Kicking more than 20 million Americans off of health insurance is not a health care plan. Putting cancer patients in financial turmoil in order to stay alive is not a health care plan. Eliminating critical health benefits and denying important services to millions of women is not a health care plan.

The Republicans may be chugging beers and exchanging high-fives after the passage of the legislation, but there is nothing in the measure that improves the health of the country or provides better care to more Americans.

It’s time to stop labeling this a health care policy and instead call it what it is: a death sentence for millions of people.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.