Bernie Sanders: Government-Run Single Payer Health Care Would Require Income and Payroll Tax Increases

During a town hall on Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) told the audience his healthcare plan, which would create a single payer, government-run system, would require tax increases for Americans.

Sanders was asked about how he would pay for his Medicare for All plan, which the Mercatus Center found would cost the federal government $32.6 trillion during the first ten years of its implementation.

"What we have chosen not to do, because it would just engender enormous debate, is to tell you how I'm going to raise every nickel in a $3.5 trillion budget," Sanders said, deferring on how he would raise the required amount of federal revenue to fund the expansive healthcare plan.

The self-described democratic-socialist senator from Vermont did give some details to the audience on what taxes he intends to raise to fund his Medicare for All proposal while claiming the proposal will actually cost less for American taxpayers because it will lower healthcare costs.

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He additionally added he would fund his government-run healthcare program by "an increase in income taxes in a progressive way for ordinary people." In his explanation, Sanders, who has been an outspoken advocate for single-payer healthcare systems for decades, said there would be a significant deductible for individuals who are on the lower end of the income scale "who will pay nothing for it."

Numerous Democrat presidential candidates have embraced Sanders's Medicare for All policy proposal including Sens. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.),  Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), who all cosponsored the bill when he reintroduced it in Congress in April.