Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) falsely claimed at the Democrat debate on Wednesday that 87 million Americans do not have health insurance.
According to a U.S. Census Bureau report, 8.5 percent of the U.S. population or 27.5 million people went without health insurance for a full year in 2018, up from 7.9 percent or 25.6 million in 2017.
Sanders’ talking point is more than three times bigger than the actual figure derived from federal data, making this claim clearly inaccurate.
Slate reported on the changing health insurance landscape:
The biggest change in the insurance rate came from Medicaid, which lost nearly 2 million enrollees. Participation in employer-based plans and individual marketplace plans was also down. These declines in Medicaid and private plans are in part offset by more Americans qualifying for Medicare, which picked up more than 1.5 million new participants.
Sanders is campaigning on a “Medicare For All” solution or a government takeover of the health system and the elimination of private health insurance.
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