Bernie: ‘Thousands’ Will Die Because of GOP Health Care Bill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) doesn’t just think that millions of Americans will lose their insurance if the American Health Care Act makes it through the Senate. He thinks thousands of them will die.

Sanders made the hyperbolic claim Thursday in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN hours after the House of Representatives passed the Obamacare repeal.

“If the bill passed today in the House became law, thousands of Americans would die because they would no longer have access to health care.”

“If, if — which is not going to happen, Anderson — but if the bill passed today in the House became law, thousands of Americans would die because they would no longer have access to health care,” he said.

Sanders accused President Donald Trump of lying to his supporters and cited the dubious projection by the Congressional Budget Office that 24 million fewer people would be insured by the end of the decade than would be the case under current law.

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“This bill is a disaster,” he said. “It is an embarrassment … It’s an insult to the American people. And in the Senate we will start from zero and do something that will work for ordinary Americans.”

Sanders might have been drawing on a report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers at the end of former President Barack Obama’s term in December. That study, which extrapolated from data related to a similar heath program adopted by Massachusetts under former Gov. Mitt Romney, estimated that the Affordable Care Act is preventing 24,000 deaths a year.

Even if that were an accurate number, it would be in comparison to the law that existed before the Affordable Care Act. But the American Health Care Act, while making major changes to Obamacare, would keep many of its provisions.

Sanders, however, was hardly the only progressive to claim the Republican health bill would kill people. The Washington Free Beacon on Thursday rounded up reaction from across Twitter.

“House GOP, I hope you slept well last night,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted. “Because after this vote, you will have the death of thousands of your conscience forever.”

Matt Ortega, who worked for Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, offered a less specific assessment: “House Republicans voted to take away health care from millions and condemn many to death without insurance.”

But accusing Republicans of trying to kill thousands of people is moderate compared to some progressive charges.

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Dar’shun Kendrick, a Democratic Georgia state representative, condemned the “impending death to millions” as a result of the bill. The liberal Daily Kos also tweeted, “House Republicans vote to sentence millions of Americans to death.”

Simon Thompson, a film and entertainment journalist in Los Angles, tweeted: “Trump voters, millions of those veterans, those elderly, the children you love will now lose their health care and likely die. Well done.”

It is an odd prediction considering that America guarantees health care for veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs. This would not change under the American Health Care Act.