Sanders: ‘Thousands of People Will Die’ on GOP Health Care

In an appearance Sunday on  NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) discussed the Republican health care bill and said that its passage would cause “thousands of people will die.”

Sanders said, “What the Republican proposal does is throw 23 million Americans off of health insurance. What part of Harvard University and the scientists determined [is] when you throw 23 million people off of health insurance, people with cancer, people with diabetes, thousands of people will die. I wish I didn’t have to say it. This is not me. This is study after study making this point. It is common sense. If you have cancer and your insurance is taken away from you, there is a likelihood you will die.”

“And certainly a likelihood you will become much sicker than you are today,” he continued. “That’s the facts, unpleasant, but it’s true. Second of all, while they throw 23 million people off of health insurance, while they defund Planned Parenthood, they see premiums that will be 50, 75 percent higher, they are going to provide some $500 billion in tax breaks to the top 2 percent, to the insurance companies, and to the drug companies. Is this what America supposed to be about, taking away health insurance from kids with disabilities, from people with cancer in order to give tax breaks to billionaires? That is what this entire debate is about. And one of the things that bothers me very much, 60 percent of the American people, according to a recent poll doesn’t even know what’s in this healthcare.”

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