Bernie Sanders wants insurance companies out of U.S. healthcare

Senator Bernie Sanders is well-known for his stance that the U.S. should adopt a single-payer healthcare system. So where do health insurance companies fit into that system?

They don’t.

“What I believe in is comprehensive universal healthcare for all people,” Sanders said at Monday night’s Iowa Brown and Black Forum. “When you do that, because you take private insurance companies out of the system whose only function in life is to try and make as much profit as they can … you end up providing healthcare for all.”

While Sanders has called for a single-payer system on multiple occasions, he has yet to provide a specific plan for how that would be implemented. He has describes his goal as “Medicare for all.”

Hillary Clinton criticized Sanders’ healthcare plans in recent days, saying at an Iowa event it was a “risky” plan that would turn healthcare programs over to states with a mixed record of implementing them. A Sanders spokesperson told The Washington Post that Clinton’s characterization of his healthcare plans was inaccurate.