At the debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, heart attack survivor Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared to praise free-market healthcare on the same night he advocated abolishing it.
Last October, Sanders suffered a heart attack and received treatment at the Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center in Nevada. During the debate, he thanked Las Vegas for the “excellent” care he received while being there. “Thank you, Las Vegas, for the excellent medical care I got in the hospital for two days,” he said.
As pointed out by former George H.W. Bush staffer Brad Blakeman on Fox Nation, Sanders was in fact praising private healthcare at that moment despite being a staunch advocate against it.
“What I really liked was he thanked the health care system of Nevada, which saved his life, which is a private health care system,” said Blakeman. “He had the best of the best. Why? Because it’s a free-market system. You go to DMV… that’s what I’m calling Medicare-for-all. If you like going to the DMV, you’re going to love Medicare-for-all.”
During the debate, Sanders’ took a beating on his Medicare-For-All plan, especially due to the fact that one of Nevada’s most powerful unions, the Culinary Union, recently denounced it prior to the upcoming caucus. From The Hill:
The Culinary Union in Nevada, a powerful force in the state, has made waves by criticizing Sanders’s plan for taking away the health benefits they negotiated and replacing them with a new government plan.
Sanders sought to offer reassurance that the government plan would be even more generous.
“I will never sign a bill that will reduce the health care benefits they have,” he said of the union.
However, Buttigieg called it “condescension and arrogance” to say the government knows better than unions as to which health insurance plan is best.
Like Klobuchar, Buttigieg is pushing for an optional government health insurance plan that would allow people to retain their private insurance.
The issue of Bernie’s health was also the subject of conversation at the debate on Wednesday night, a serious topic in light of the fact that the socialist senator has refused to release all of his medical records.
“We released the full report of heart attack, full 29 years in Capitol medical history, and furthermore, we released reports from two leading Vermont cardiologists who describe my situation and, by the way, who said Bernie Sanders is more than able to deal with stress and vigor of being the president of the United States,” Sanders told his critics on Wednesday night.
Prior to the debate, Sanders’ spokesperson Briahna Joy Gray told CNN that Sanders is fully fit to be President of the United States.
“I think the American people deserve to know exactly as much as every other candidate in this race, currently and historically,” Gray said. “It’s really telling given that none of same concern is being demonstrated for Michael Bloomberg, who is the same age as Bernie Sanders, who has suffered heart attacks in the past.”
If Bernie Sanders were elected, he would be the oldest president in history.