Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz traded barbs over whether a single payer government healthcare system will lead to a rationing of healthcare.
Cruz said during a CNN debate Tuesday that a move to a single payer, government-run system will lead to longer wait times and rationing of care to the population. He pointed to wait times of more than 90 days for a hip replacement in the United Kingdom in 2013, one of the countries that has a single payer system.
“Whenever you put government in charge of healthcare what it means is that they ration who gets care and when you don’t,” the Texas senator and former presidential candidate said.
His opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., countered that there is already rationing of care in the U.S., although it is done by income.
“We have enormous rationing in this country when you have 28 million people who have no health insurance,” Sanders said. “When you have people who can’t afford to go to the doctor or buy prescription drugs, that’s called rationing.”
The two senators couldn’t be more diametrically opposed on healthcare. Cruz once worked to shut down the government in 2013 to oppose Obamacare, and Sanders wants to transform Medicare into a single payer system.
