Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont made clear Thursday that he will continue pursuing a sizable expansion of Medicare as part of the American Families Plan after President Joe Biden excluded the overwhelmingly popular idea from his $1.8 trillion proposal, which contains massive subsidies for the private insurance industry.
Sanders told the Washington Post that he “absolutely” intends to continue pushing to lower Medicare’s eligibility age and broaden its coverage to include dental, vision, and hearing aids once Congress takes up Biden’s opening offer, which also omits a widely supported proposal to lower sky-high prescription drug costs.
“It’s time for Medicare to finally cover hearing, dental, and vision care.”
—Sen. Bernie Sanders
During his primetime address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, Biden gave lip service to both ideas, proclaiming, “Let’s give Medicare the power to save hundreds of billions of dollars by negotiating lower drug prescription prices.”
“And the money we save, which is billions of dollars, can go to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and expand Medicare coverage benefits without costing taxpayers an additional penny,” the president said. “It’s within our power to do it; let’s do it now.”
The White House has yet to explain the disconnect between the president’s rhetorical commitment to lowering drug costs and expanding Medicare and his apparent willingness to delay action on both by leaving them out of his American Families Plan—a decision that angered patient advocacy groups.
As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Sanders is positioned to have significant influence over the legislative package, particularly if Republican opposition forces Democrats to push the bill through the budget reconciliation process.
“We must take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, lower drug prices, and use the savings to expand Medicare by lowering the eligibility age and providing dental, hearing, and vision care to tens of millions of older Americans,” Sanders tweeted earlier this week.
Lowering the Medicare eligibility age and expanding the program’s benefits are extremely popular with the U.S. public and inside the Democratic caucus. Last week, as Common Dreams reported, more than 80 House Democrats sent a letter urging Biden to support lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60, a move that would extend coverage to an additional 23 million people.
Spearheaded by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the letter was signed by centrist Reps. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine.), an indication of broad support for the proposal within the Democratic Party.
In a statement Thursday, Jayapal said Congress “must include in the Families Plan bringing down the price of pharmaceutical drugs for all Americans who are paying over twice as much as those in other countries.”
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