Sanders plans legislation to expand Medicare

By Robert King, Robert King

Published December 20, 2015

Bernie Sanders plans to introduce legislation soon to turn Medicare into a single payer system for all Americans, but has yet to explain how it will be paid for.

The Vermont senator and presidential candidate spoke before a collection of nurses and various unions on Capitol Hill Thursday at an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the passage of Medicare and Medicaid.

The self-proclaimed socialist said the U.S. should end the embarrassment of being the "only major country on earth that does not guarantee healthcare to all people as a right."

A single-payer healthcare system is a common part of Sanders' stump speech, but now the senator hopes to put some legislation behind it. He told the Washington Examiner after the event that the legislation to turn Medicare into single-payer will be introduced in "the very near future," but did not say exactly when.