Obamacare: Bernie Sanders says 'thousands will literally die' if Donald Trump scraps Affordable Care Act

Vermont senator says he would slash cost of medicines if elected president

Bernie Sanders has claimed thousands of people could die if Donald Trump is successful in scrapping Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

Last week, the Trump administration said in a court filing it supported scrapping Obamacare in its entirety, having taken to the courts to try and dismantle the act having failed to do so via Congress.

Mr Sanders, 77, who is leading the polls of Democratic presidential candidates who have formally declared they are running, said the move by the government would have a disastrous affect of the cost of health insurance for people.

“If Trump gets his way, the cost of health insurance…will be so high that many people literally will not be able to afford it. Thousands of people will literally die. That’s Trump’s health insurance plan,” said the Vermont senator.

Speaking to CBS News, he added: “My plan is just a little bit different. I think we should join the result of the industrialised world, guarantee health care to all people as a right.”

Mr Sanders, who is seeing the party’s nomination for the second time, was an early proponent of “Medicare for All” – a proposal to extend the national health programme that currently provides insurance to those aged 65 and older and some people who are disabled, to everyone

It has emerged as one of the key planks of many of those seeking the Democratic nomination, and is supported by progressive Democrats such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Mr Sanders said on Sunday he would introduce his latest proposal before Congress “within the next couple of weeks”. “When we do that, what we understand is that it is just not acceptable that 30m Americans have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and high co-payments,” he said.

He also said if elected he would reduce the cost of medicines – something Mr Trump vowed to do but has so far failed to make any progress on.

“If I am elected president, I’m going to cut prescription drug costs in this country by 50 percent so that we are not paying any more than other major countries are paying,” he said. “Maybe we can do better than that.”